Agrippa was born free to Bathsheba and Amos Hull on Mar. 7, 1759, in Northampton, Massachusetts, the third of four children. His father died in 1761, the same year that his sister Margaret was born.
Bathsheba was forced to sell the family's home and her second husband had been "warned out" of Northampton and was in prison in nearby Springfield. In New England towns, people who couldn't support themselves were warned out- ordered to leave, so that the town would not have to support them. Fourteen-year-old Amos, Jr. went to nearby Hadley, 13-year-old Asaph was placed by the town's Overseers of the Poor in an apprenticeship in Connecticut, Agrippa, age nine, was sent to be fostered by the Binney family- friends of the Hulls in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and Margaret, age 7, stayed in Northampton, but it is unknown whether she was allowed to live with her mother. Bathsheba and Margaret moved to Springfield in 1768, but were warned out and moved to Stockbridge to be near Agrippa. Lee did not follow.
Agrippa was 18 in 1777, when he enlisted in the Continental Army. He is described in Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Vol. 8, pg. 477) as 5 feet, 7 inches tall with a black complexion and “wool” hair. At the age of 24, he left the army with a discharge form signed by General George Washington. In 1818, Agrippa filled out enrolment papers for a pension and although he was supposed to include the form with his application, he refused to do so because, as his employer stated, he was so proud of it that he “had rather forego the pension than lose the discharge.” (MassMoments: "Agrippa Hull, May 1, 1777") His pension was granted anyway, and an 1835 pension report shows that he was a private in the Massachusetts Line. His annual allowance was $96, and he received $178.13. His pension began on April 27, 1818, and he was placed on the roll in October of that same year. He was 59 years old when he applied.
Agrippa was known for his intelligence, his endearing personality, and his sense of humor. While serving as an orderly to General Taddeusz Kosciuszko, with whom he had a close friendship, he invited his African American friends to a party where he appeared in the general’s uniform. Later, after Agrippa’s army career, a Stockbridge historian wrote that “His presence at weddings seemed almost a necessity…… he “wedged himself and his ‘good cheer’ into every crowded corner, his impromptu rhymes and his courteous jokes . . . always welcome.” ("Agrippa Hull: Revolutionary Patriot")
Following the army, Agrippa returned to Stockbridge to care for his mother, now blind, and to work for the lawyer, Theodore Sedgwick. It was there he met his first wife, Jane Darby, whom Sedgwick had helped to free. They were wed in 1785, the same year that Agrippa purchased his first piece of land and started his farm. He eventually became the largest landowner of color in the Stockbridge area. The Hulls had three children, Aseph, Charlotte, and James. Jane eventually died and in 1813, Agrippa married Margaret Timbroke (Peggy). They took in an escaped enslaved woman and her young daughter and eventually adopted the daughter, six-year-old Mary Tilden.
Agrippa died in Stockbridge on May 21, 1848.
Military Service