Samuel Barnard was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1721. In the 1750s, he settled in a section of Deerfield called Muddy Brook, in what is now South Deerfield. It is also known as Bloody Brook, referring to an attack in 1675 by Indigenous forces during King Philip's War that predated colonial settlement in that part of Deerfield. He served in the French & Indian War (1754-1763) and had two children later in life. On June 10, 1784, John Williams charged Samuel for a purchase of "Gauze" by "Phillis Negro Dr" at Williams' Deerfield store. The date of the transaction raises the issue of whether Phillis was enslaved. Although Massachusetts judges ruled in separate court cases in 1781-1783 that slavery was unconstitutional under the new state constitution ratified in 1780, slavery was not formerly abolished in the state. In consequence, some Massachusetts enslavers continued to hold already-enslaved people in bondage in the years immediately following the end of the American Revolution.
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