The Hebron Historical Society

Hebron’s Connections to Slavery, Abolitionism and Freedmen’s Assistance

For a small, rural Connecticut town, Hebron has played a surprisingly significant role in both the movement to abolish slavery in America and the movement to help freed slaves adapt to their changed circumstances after the Civil War.

Hebron’s involvement in the abolition movement centers around an episode in 1787, in which two slaves, Cesar and Lowis Peters and their children were abducted from their Hebron home and then rescued by their white neighbors, who out-maneuvered the slavers with a fake arrest warrant. This event is the earliest documented abolitionist movement in New England.

Cesar Peters and the Slave Trader Sketch by Carol A. Taylor

The Hebron connection to abolition continued through the efforts of Josephine (White) Griffing, a Hebron native who later became a nationally recognized speaker for abolition and women’s rights in the years before the Civil War. After the war, Josephine was a leader in establishing job training programs through the Freedmen’s Bureau to help former slaves adapt to the new industrial economy.

For more information about Hebron’s connections to slavery, abolition and freedmen’s assistance, click on the following links:

• Cesar & Lowis Peters: Articles & Exhibits
• Josephine Griffing: Articles & Exhibits
• Emancipation Proclamation: The Hebron Connection

Cesar & Lowis Peters

In 1787, the Reverend Samuel Peters, a former Hebron resident living in England, arranged to have many of his assets sold, including his slaves, to help make financial ends meet. On September 27^th of that year, Peters’ Hebron slaves, Cesar and Lowis Peters, and their children were taken forcibly from Hebron by a slave trader and brought to Norwich to be loaded on a ship headed for South Carolina.

Cesar & Lowis’s white neighbors felt that the abduction of their friends was unfair and devised an ingenious scheme to get them back from the slavers. They made up a story that Cesar had stolen some goods from a local tailor and got the local justice of the peace to issue an arrest warrant. They presented the arrest warrant to the slaver, and succeeded in bringing Cesar and Lowis back to Hebron.

This event, one of the most dramatic freedom stories in our state’s history, earned the town of Hebron a designation by The Amistad Committee in 2007 as part of the Connecticut Freedom Trail.

Cesar & Lowis Peters: Articles & Exhibits:

• 1787: the Abduction and Rescue of Cesar & Lowis Peters
• History of Rev. Samuel Peters, his Slaves & Near Abduction

This well researched history of Rev. Peters, his slaves and their attempted abduction was written by F.C. Bissell, Hebron Historian.  Mr. Bissell also wrote the history of Hebron’s first 100 years in the report of the Hebron Bicentennial Celebration of 1908.

• Elijah Graves Complaint
• Transcription of Elijah Graves Complaint
• Elihu Marvin Arrest Warrant
• Transcription of Elihu Marvin Arrest Warrant

Depositions given to Connecticut General Assembly in January 1789 in support of Cesar and Lowis's emancipation

In 1789, Cesar & Lowis applied for emancipation from the Connecticut General Assembly, sitting in New Haven at that time. According to the 1789 deposition of David Sutton, their “guardian”, Cesar had been unable to do much work since his rescue, “being badly hurt as I understood by irons being put on his wrists.” The following documents are related to that application.

• Deposition of Elijah Graves – Original Document
• Transcription of Elijah Graves Deposition
• Deposition of Joseph Case – Original Document
• Transcription of Joseph Case Deposition
• Deposition of Patience Graves – Original Document
• Transcription of Patience Graves Deposition
• Hebron Board of Selectmen Resolution of Peters Emancipation Effort – Original Document
• Transcription of Hebron Board of Selectmen Resolution
• Testimony of Silvester Gilbert – Original Document
• Transcription of Silvester Gilbert Testimony
• Testimony of David Sutton – Original Documents
• Transcription of David Sutton Testimony

The Connecticut State Library has just added the lawsuit that Cesar Peters filed against John and Nathaniel Mann in 1789 and 1790.  You can view the originals at http://cslib.cdmhost.com/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fp128501coll7, but they are issued page at a time.  We've put the two lawsuits in Adobe Acrobat files for easier viewing, and are currently working on transcriptions.

• Cesar Peters vs. John and Nathaniel Mann, November 14, 1789
• Cesar Peters vs. John and Nathaniel Mann, Additional Filing and Responses of Plaintiff and Defendants, March 1790

Cesar Peters' Lawsuit Against John and Nathaniel Mann

• Cesar Peters vs. John and Nathaniel Mann, November 14, 1789 – Original Document
• Transcription of Cesar Peters vs. John & Nathaniel Mann, November 14, 1789, incomplete
• Cesar Peters vs. John and Nathaniel Mann, Additional Filing and Responses of Plaintiff and Defendants, March, 1790 – Original Document

Archaeological and Historical Research at the Cesar and Sim Peters House Site

• Archaeological and Historical Research at the Cesar and Sim Peters House Site

Depositions given to Connecticut General Assembly in January 1789 in support of Cesar and Lowis's emancipation

• Elijah Graves Complaint
• Transcription of Elijah Graves Complaint
• Elihu Marvin Arrest Warrant
• Transcription of Elihu Marvin Arrest Warrant
• Deposition of Elijah Graves – Original Document
• Transcription of Elijah Graves deposition
• Deposition of Joseph Case – Original Document
• Transcription of Joseph Case Deposition
• Deposition of Patience Graves – Original Oocument
• Transcription of Patience Graves Deposition
• Hebron Board of Selectmen Resolution of Peters Emancipation Effort -- Original Document
• Transcription of Hebron Board of Selectmen Resolution
• Testimony of Silvester Gilbert -- Original Document
• Transcription of Silvester Gilbert Testimony
• Testimony of David Sutton -- Original Documents
• Transcription of David Sutton Testimony

Josephine (White) Griffing

Born in Hebron in 1814, Josephine (White) Griffing was educated at Burrows Hill School and Bacon Academy. She married Charles Griffing in 1835 and then left Hebron in 1842 for Litchfield, Ohio.

Josephine soon became a sought-after speaker for Abolition as well as Women’s Rights. Her lectures and writing brought her to national prominence.

In Washington, D.C. after the Civil War, she helped found the Freedmen’s Bureau, an organization to help newly-freed slaves acquire the skills they would need to survive in the post-war economy. She received backing from President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton in a bid to become first commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Ironically, however, the job was given to a man.

She worked tirelessly over the remainder of her life and helped find northern homes for more than 7,500 freed people. She also helped establish two industrial schools to help train destitute and unskilled women in a trade. Upon her death in 1872, her body was returned to Hebron’s Burrows Hill Cemetery. She was perhaps the bravest crusader ever to be born in our community.

Articles & Exhibits

• Angel of Mercy in Washington: Josephine Griffing and the Freedmen, 1864-1872
• Article about Josephine Griffing by Susan Pendleton, 1938
• Harper's Weekly Editorials on Freedmen’s Bureau
• Josephine Griffing Story of America Trading Card Front
• Josephine Griffing Story of America Trading Card Back
• Interview with Charles Griffing on John Brown
• Why Work for the Slave?
• Bibliography of Sources on Josephine Griffing

Primary Documents: Abolitionism

• Letter to Abraham Lincoln
• Josephine Griffing's Petition to Congress on Freedmen's Bureau, 1864
• Upward Steps of Seventy Years see pp. 114-117 

Primary Document: Suffrage

• 1870 Letter to Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1787: The Abduction and Rescue of Cesar

In 1787, Hebron residents rallied to free a local man and his family from slave traders. For those who think the story of Cesar is folklore, review the original documents regarding his rescue, still on file at the Hebron Town Clerk's office.

• 1787: The Abduction and Rescue of Cesar - by Donna McCalla
• Cesar and Lowis: The Rest of the Story
• The Abduction, Rescue and Emancipation of Cesar and Lowis Peters. A brief synopsis written for Yale University's Gilder Lehrman Center's educational program Citizens All: African Americans in Connecticut 1700-1850.

Testimonies of a Quiet New England Town: the Film

 

Matthew Troy - Director/Writer