A Tale of Two Veterans: Free and Enslaved

Men of African descent who served in the Massachusetts militia, or enlisted in the Continental Army in 1775, came from a variety of circumstances. Two stark examples are Barzillai Lew (free) and Eden London (enslaved).

Barzillai Lew is one of the better-known and longer-documented names among Revolutionary War veterans. His exact date of birth is recorded: 5 November 1743, and his parents, Primus and Margaret Lew. His father moved the family to Dracut when Barzillai was two years old. Barzillai Lew served during the French and Indian War for 38 weeks in 1760, in Capt. Thomas Farrington's company. He was on the Chelmsford tax roll in 1775, which meant he owned taxable property - a farm on what later was called Totman Street. He developed a business as a cooper (maker of barrels). In 1766 he paid Major Abraham Blood 400 pounds for the freedom of Dinah Bowman, whom he married.

Lew served at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Capt. John Ford's company, Col. Ebenezer Bridge's 27th regiment, serving until April 1776. He re-enlisted in Ford's company in July 1776, serving at Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain until Jan 1, 1777. The 1790 census lists him as head of a household of fourteen free people of color. He died 18 January 1822, in Dracut, Massachusetts, and is buried in the Clay Pit Cemetery, annexed in 1874 by the city of Lowell. The names of his thirteen children are all known, and one died as late as 1865.

Not all stories are as bright:

Eden London was the subject of a series of court cases which provide details of his prior condition of servitude. He changed hands eleven times. In the year 1757, Edom (as he was sometimes recorded) "was the proper estate of one Samuel Bond," who sold him to William Williams of Weston, who died around 1760. Edom was "set off as the estate of said Williams to the wife of Oliver Partridge of Hatfield" (his daughter). He remained there as a servant until 1767, when "he was sold by Partridge" (probably the husband -- who would have been legally in control of the wife's estate).

Edom spent a few weeks with John M'Cluster of Longmeadow, who sold him to Joshua Holcomb of Simbsury, Connecticut, where he lived about four years. Holcomb sold him to William Bond of Lincoln, but after a short time Bond sold him to Thomas Cowdin of Fitchburg, where he remained for three or four years, then was sold to Jonathon Stimson of Winchenden. A day after this transaction, he "absconded" and enlisted for eight months service in the Continental Army at Cambridge. He was sold by Stimson to Thomas Sawyer of Winchenden, then to Daniel Goodridge of Winchenden. In July 1776 Edom enlisted for three years army service; Goodridge recieved the whole of his elistment bounty and part of his wages.

Eden London's first enlistment included fighting at Bunker Hill, in Capt. James Burt's company, Col. Asa Whitcomb's regiment. His second enlistment included service at the Battle of Saratoga and Monmouth, and the winter at Valley Forge, as well as service at West Point. This was in Captain William Warner's company, Colonel Thomas Marshall's 10th Massachusetts regiment. Eden London died in Winchenden in March 1810. His gravestone in the Old Center Cemetery reads: Slave of Daniel Goodrich, Enl. in Rev. War Aug 1776, Disch. Yet a Slave 1779, Died Mar. 1810. Slavery crumbled in Massachusetts in the early 1780s, so he would have lived more than twenty years as a free man, but apparently in considerable poverty.