Catherine was born in Prescott, Massachusetts, the daughter of Peter and Sarah Jackson. Most likely, her father had escaped slavery in the south.
Peter is listed as head of household in the 1800 Shutesbury, Massachusetts federal census, with 5 people in the "all other free persons" column. This would have included Catherine and her brother and sister. The 1830 census lists the family in nearby Amherst with eight people in the household. It is possible that this includes Catherine, her sister Polly and her husband with three children. In 1840 the family was still in Amherst and numbered six. Catherine or Polly could have been living with Peter and Sarah, along with three young people under the age of 24. These might have been Polly's children. Peter died in 1849, and the 1850 Amherst census lists Sarah and Catherine living together with two children with a different surname. As Sarah was now blind, it might be that she and Catherine, who had never married, were living in a poorhouse. By 1832, the family had been declared paupers in Shutesbury, and sometime after that in Amherst. From 1850 to 1870, Catherine worked as a domestic servant in Amherst.
Sources Consulted
History of the Black Population of Amherst, Massachusetts, James Avery Smith, 1999, p. 81