Caesar Prince

Bio

Caesar was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, on January 14, 1757, to Abijah and Lucy Terry Prince, both of whom had once been enslaved. Sometime after the birth of their last child, the family moved to Abijah's land in Guilford, Vermont.

In 1767 Caesar was indentured, possibly to Ralph Way, an African American man in Hadley, Massachusetts. In 1777 and 1779, Caesar served as a private in the military for a little over a month each time, fighting in New York.

He married Sally Larnard of Hadley on January 24, 1786. She gave birth that same year, but the infant died in June. Later, the couple moved to Manchester, Vermont, and when Sally left in 1794, Caesar placed the following notice in the local paper:  

Whereas, my wife Sally has eloped from my bed and board, and I am suspicious may run me in debt, this notifies whom it may concern, that if they trust her it must be at their peril, as I shall not pay any debt of her contracting after the date hereof. (Mr. and Mrs. Prince, Gretchen H. Gerzina, pgs. 167 & 168)  

The Prince family owned land in Sunderland, Vermont, where his mother and several siblings lived. In 1797, Caesar and his brother Festus sued their Sunderland neighbor, Eli Brownson over a dispute about who owned this land. The suit and countersuits dragged on for years, with Caesar's mother Lucy helping to argue their case. It was resolved in 1804, with Brownson being allowed to keep the land and the Prince family being awarded $200. In 1806, after it was finally proven that the Princes owned the property, the town of Sunderland purchased 18 acres of Brownson's land that had originally belonged to the Princes and gave it back to them. Caesar had been living in Vergennes, Vermont, and returned to Sunderland to be near his mother and sister Duruxa, who lived nearby. In 1823, he was jailed for unknown reasons.  

Caesar spent the rest of his life in Sunderland, receiving aid from the town from time to time. He appears on the 1830 census as one “free colored male” aged 55-99, with his sister Drucilla (one “free colored female” aged 36-54). Caesar Prince died in 1836.