Enslaved People During the Revolution
#5 in East Hampton and the Revolution — A Series
Introduction: She Was Reading British Census Records When She Found Jack
My mother, Sherrill Foster, served as East Hampton Town Historian from 2003 to 2007, but her love affair with our town's historical records began long before that official title. This essay, which appeared in the book Revealing the Past (2014) is vintage Sherrill Foster—delighting in original sources, then smiling as connections emerge that reveal the whole picture.
What I like about this piece is seeing her work like a historical detective. She didn't just read documents; she cross-referenced them. British census records, refugee transport logs, loyalty oaths—she wove them together until individual lives came into focus.
In the previous essays about the 1776 refugees, we saw how my mother tracked the evacuation: Aaron Isaacs crossing the Sound with "56 sides of leather" and a riding chair, families packing their looms and livestock, captains demanding "thrible wages" for the dangerous crossings. But embedded in those same refugee documents, she found something else: a man named Jack—one of Colonel David Mulford's eight enslaved workers—named alongside the family's cattle.
Here, she also finds Jree, Prine and Eber —names in the British census of those living with Rev Buell.
She noted that young David Mulford Jr. stayed in the Main Street house during the occupation (now the Mulford Farm house museum), his weaving looms set up in that second-floor room with the curious 1-over-15-over-10-pane window.
I can see my mother noticing that—a seamstress herself, she would have stood in that room imagining the daylight falling across the loom, knowing intricate handwork required light.
This essay deepens what we learned in the refugee accounts by asking: Who had choices and who didn't?
When the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York urged residents to "remove as many of their women, children and slaves and as much of the livestock" to Connecticut, that phrasing reveals everything. The three groups were all listed together as dependents to be moved—but only enslaved people were also property, enumerated like the cattle and grain.
I kept my mother’s quote of colonial records, and, as noted earlier in the series, updated her language to reflect contemporary usage. Her quotes reveal who had choices and who did not, as property. She was making visible the lives that have often been overlooked.
By documenting that 5% of East Hampton's 1776 population were enslaved people, by identifying which families held them (merchants, weavers, tailors, the minister), and by following their path from household slavery through gradual emancipation to the Montaukett community at Indian Field, she refused to let these stories disappear.
The essay builds to a devastating conclusion about what happened a century later, when the descendants of those freed people—who had joined the Montaukett community at Indian Field—faced another form of displacement.
In 1879, Arthur Benson and others purchased over 10,000 acres including Indian Field from the Town of East Hampton. The Montaukett homes were cleared—some families relocated to what became known as Freetown in East Hampton, others watched their houses burned to the ground along with their possessions, deeds, and records.
This act sickened many in East Hampton. The "old timers" like my grandparents considered Benson a monster, a characterization I remember as a child. It's a judgment many of us share today. We inherit both the achievements and the injustices, and we understand our place better when we see it as a whole.
But here is my mother, clear-eyed, rigorous with sources, compassionate with her subjects, determined to tell the whole story of our town—not just those with a choice to seek refuge or stay in under British occupation, but those who had no choice at all.
The essay that follows is hers.
Enslaved People During the Revolution
By Sherrill Foster, East Hampton Town Historian 2003-2007
First appeared in Revealing the Past, edited by Tom Twomey (East End Press, 2014). Updated by Mary Foster Morgan, 2026
Every once in a while people bring up the fact that there were enslaved persons in East Hampton. They imply that there were thousands. It is probable that a few may have come up from Barbados on the merchants' ships, and in the early records of the Town of East Hampton, there is much talk about the "Indian servants."
Northeastern coastal towns were not based on the same "plantation" economy as were those in the southern colonies. It was the merchants who became wealthy in colonial East Hampton. Farming and weaving were major occupations, as wool was sheared from the thousands of sheep herded on Montauk. Were there enslaved people and what were they doing in East Hampton? There are some clues in our Revolutionary-era records.
The Revolutionary Context
With the threat of British raiding parties, on July 5, 1775 the several hundred families of East Hampton, Long Island represented to the New York Provincial Congress that they had not less than 2000 cattle and 4000 sheep on Montauk exposed to the enemy. They requested that troops should be stationed there for protection. No protection was ever to materialize.
Two months earlier, on April 29, 1775, every male inhabitant of East Hampton capable of bearing arms (234) signed the "General Association" of New York, a statement of protest against British misrule that bound the signers to assist, in what way they might, the cause of American Independence.
East Hampton was already mobilized. The Roster dated March 23, 1776 lists 116 men in two companies from the easternmost towns of East Hampton and Southampton. The muster master for both Capt. Ezekiel Mulford's (12th) Company and Capt. Zephaniah Rogers' (1st) Company was Capt. Mathew Mulford's son Col. David Mulford, 34, living in the now Historical Society's Mulford Farm house. Originally, this regiment was to be a part of the Continental Army but in February 1776, it was decided that they were to become "Minute Men."
Of these 116 "Minute Men," half under age 25, most gave their occupations as yeoman or farmer (42), and thirty-nine said they were weavers. The next most numerous occupation was cordwainer or leatherworker, twenty. One of the cordwainers was 14-year-old Nathan Cook, the fifer for Capt. Rogers' company. Next came blacksmithing, with seven smiths.
Farming, weaving and leatherworking reflect the wealth derived from the Montauk grazing lands. Hundreds of sheep, cattle and horses were grazed and fattened. The animals provided the basis for trade: wool, beef, hides for leather goods, and live horses. The horses, together with the goods, were shipped to the colony of Barbados to be used in the sugar mills there, walking around in a circle, activating the machinery for sugar. This was an economy built on livestock.
None of the soldiers listed their occupation as "merchant." That revealing absence speaks volumes—these profitable trading businesses belonged to their fathers, the source of local wealth that sent beef, hides, wool, and live horses to the Barbados sugar plantations.
The remaining occupations included seven blacksmiths (essential for shoeing horses and repairing farm equipment), five carpenters, four tailors, two hatters, two coopers (barrel makers), and two mariners. Notably absent: no one gave their occupation as fisherman or whaler, though shore whaling had been important earlier in the century.
The Trade in Horses and Sugar
These animals—particularly the horses—were shipped to Barbados for a specific purpose: to power the sugar mills. Horses activated the machinery that crushed sugar cane and produced the sugar and molasses that fueled the Atlantic trade. This connection between Montauk's grazing lands and Caribbean sugar production made East Hampton prosperous and tied the community into the broader colonial economy.
When the Revolution disrupted this trade, it struck at the heart of the region's wealth. The livestock that had generated income for generations became a strategic resource both armies fought to control.
Military Pay and the Men Who Served
By 1776 the militia system that had trained on village greens for a century was being transformed into the Continental Army. The monthly pay reflected the military hierarchy in "lawful money"—the Continental Congress's currency, initially calculated in English pounds:
In 1775-1776, officers and enlisted men earned:
Colonel: £15
Lieutenant Colonel: £12
Major: £10
Captain: £8
Lieutenant: £5-8
Ensign: £4
Private: £2
Rations were provided at camp. By 1777, the currency shifted to dollars, with a Colonel earning $75 monthly, a Lieutenant Colonel $60, down to a Private's $6⅔.
The 1776 Census
The Province of New York took a census in June of 1776 finding that of 8,500 families, approximately 1,200 were slaveholders—about one family in seven (14%). The same census enumerated that there were 1,250 persons living in East Hampton including 45 male and 22 female enslaved — a total of 67 — or 5% of the population. On closer look, those in East Hampton listing the most enslaved people were merchants, followed by weavers and tailors.
Evacuation of "Women, Children and Slaves"
After General Washington withdrew from the western end of Long Island on August 29, 1776, the inhabitants of Suffolk County were told by the New York Provincial Congress "to move as many of their women, children and slaves and as much of the livestock and grain to the Main as they can and that this convention will pay the expenses of removing the same." The Minute Men had seen service in the famous Battle of Long Island, but afterward, they were dispersed and told to go to their homes on Long Island.
Ship captains were sent from Connecticut to facilitate this removal. One hundred twenty-nine captains were from Long Island, many of whom became refugees themselves, with 81 captains from Connecticut. The people and goods were transported in schooners and sloops, usually from the newly constructed Town Dock in Sag Harbor to Middletown, Killingworth, Saybrook, Haddam, East Haddam, Stonington, New London and Guilford in Connecticut.
At first, everyone thought the war would be of short duration. The refugees had left their homes on short notice, and with little provision for the future in money, clothing or food. Many "leased" their stock and pastures to a neighbor. Both those who fled and those who remained during the seven years of the British Occupation had harrowing and difficult times.
Who Left Their Houses?
The 15 houses vacant, as indicated on the British census of 1777, were the homes of the town's leadership class who had fled to Connecticut.
Among those who evacuated were the wealthy families, who also held the most enslaved people: Aaron Isaacs, the merchant, immediately moved his family and merchandise to East Haddam in six boatloads. His livestock included a yoke of oxen, 14 cattle and horses, and 3 hogs. He had wagon loads of hay, corn, 15 bushels of oats as well as a "riding chair," a luxury traveling item.
Burnet Miller, Town Supervisor from 1746-1777, removed to Stonington with his family of ten and four enslaved persons across the Sound.
Thomas Wickham left the new Town Dock at Sag Harbor on September 7, 1776 in seven vessels for Stonington with his family of eight and three enslaved persons.
Jack: One Name Among the Records
The next day, September 8th, Col. David Mulford left for Stonington, taking at least one of his eight enslaved workers, a man named Jack. His son, David Mulford Jr. (age twenty-two, a weaver who held the rank of Major), remained in the house on Main Street (now the Mulford Farm house museum).
Aware of his high rank of Colonel, the senior Mulford decided it was less dangerous to become a refugee and sail to Connecticut. He hired several boats and took his family, some furnishings and his cattle to Stonington. He took some of his eight enslaved workers (according to records four men and four women) with him.
David (Jr.), his 22 year old son, remained in East Hampton living in this house. He continued weaving, his looms set up in the second floor, southeast room with the distinctive 1-over-15 over 10-pane window which provided ample light for weaving.
Undoubtedly, some of the Mulford's eight other enslaved people remained with David Jr. Did they do the weaving, or the farming and herding, or were they housekeepers? Unlike southern plantation life where those enslaved had separate quarters, in the north, people enslaved lived in the family's house—usually sleeping in the attic.
On September 9th, Col. Abraham Gardiner removed to Saybrook where Capt. Harris had a wharf and store. Gardiner is listed with seven in his family. That would include his wife, Mary, his two teenage sons, Nathaniel (who at 17 soon became a surgeon's mate in the Hospital Service) and Abraham, 13, and his daughter, Rachel (already 25 and betrothed to Col. David Mulford's son, David, the weaver, who remained in his family home). The seven in Gardiner's family included two enslaved people. He brought his mare as well as provisions. Three other sloops were needed for all his goods. This left Gardiner's large and elegant house on Main Street vacant: it became the British military headquarters for the seven years of the occupation. Governor William Tryon, Sir William Erskine and Sir Henry Clinton are mentioned as occupying the house, along with Naval officers.
Life Under Occupation
A report in March 1777 details the destruction of the British occupying army.
John Brown owned Fishers Island, raising produce for the West Indies trade. The British Fleet of 20 ships at anchor in Gardiner's Bay, went to Fisher's Island and took 106 sheep, 8 oxen, 11 cows, 22 yearlings, 26 swine, 24 turkeys, 48 fowls, 123 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of potatoes, 5-1/2 tons of pressed hay and 3 cords of wood. They also took a barrel of pork out of the cellar, blankets, sheets and shot some sheep. While they paid something for what they took, two years later they set fire to the house and barns.
The famous Meigs Raid (May 24, 1777) from Connecticut to Sag Harbor, destroying British transport and armed vessels and taking prisoners, does not document any involvement by East Hampton refugees, but most likely they played a role.
How many British were occupying the area? A February 1779 document lists fourteen companies (700 men) were quartered in Southampton, 100 men in Sag Harbor, but there seems to be no documentation on how many were quartered in East Hampton.
The 1778 British Loyalty Oath Census
The British Army took a "loyalty oath" census on Long Island in August 1778. The original list is still in the British archives, with a copy in Albany. They very nicely listed each man's occupation. In East Hampton, in 1778, there were three blacksmiths, three carpenters, four coopers, one wheelwright, one hatter, one tanner, and one smith. Was this a goldsmith or silversmith? No indication.
Fifteen men were tailors, 20 joiners (a form of carpentry), and 51 were cordwainers (leatherworkers), or shoemakers. Sixty-six men said they were weavers, the major profession after farming. There were 115 farmers out of the total of 274. Of that total, only 28 listed they held enslaved persons.
While the Gardiner's listed five enslaved, legislators Burnett Miller listed four and Thomas Wickham, three; Col. David Mulford and his weaver son listed eight (possibly including Jack.) Weavers Jeremiah Miller Sr., age 50, listed four, his son Jeremiah (Jr.) age 29, three, John Mulford, age 26, and Samuel Mulford (Jr.), age 21, both listed three. The minister Rev. Samuel Buell listed three—Jree, Prine and Eber. Tailor Noah Barnes listed three enslaved, while tailor John Hedges, two. However, most of the 28 families who listed any enslaved person, listed only one. A farmer, if he listed an enslaved worker, usually listed only one as did farmers Jonathan Schellinger, Henry Dayton, Jeremiah Dayton, Daniel Dayton, and Capt. John Dayton. Benjamin Stratton, a shoemaker, listed one female enslaved. Elisha Conkling, a weaver, one, as did Joseph Osborne, a tanner, one, and joiner William Huntting one.
After the War: The Return
After seven long years of British Occupation, at the news of the Truce, the Long Island residents started to return. The first back came with lumber to rebuild their houses, horses to work the fields, and then their families and furniture. Some decided not to return. Burnett Miller was a member of the Constitutional Convention and attended the New York Assembly held in Kingston in 1777, and he continued his government service, relocating in the Hudson Valley.
Capt. Thomas Wickham also working with the new state government moved to the Hudson Valley, too.
Col. Abraham Gardiner returned to his large house on Main Street, which was inherited by his medical son, Nathaniel. His daughter Rachel married David Mulford, son of Col. Mulford, and they raised their four children at the Mulford home.
Aaron Isaacs returned to East Hampton, bringing with him his new son-in-law, William Paine, an educator and teacher who would soon be conducting schools. Other vacated houses remained empty. When Lyman Beecher became the fourth minister in East Hampton, he purchased one of those vacant houses. Others fell into disrepair.
What Happened to the Enslaved People?
Manumissions (freeing of those enslaved) took place during and after the Revolution. For example, Rev. Samuel Buell (1716-1798) stipulated in his will to give his servants, Jree and Prine, their freedom at age 25. Had Eber died?
The Provincial Congress and later, the New York State Legislature, considered for years the manumission of enslaved persons. But with people in high places owning so many, it was difficult to get such a bill passed. It was not until 1799 that the state legislature passed a bill for gradual uncompensated emancipation.
In 1817, another state law provided that by 1827, all those enslaved in New York would be considered free, thus by 1827, slavery was officially abolished. In New York State, no longer could a child be born into slavery. However, he could be "bound" until a certain age.
Stephen "Talkhouse" Pharaoh (c. 1821-1879), a Montaukett, became a "bound boy" or indentured servant for Col. William Davis Parsons of Fire Place. The Molly of Molly's Hill at the juncture of Fire Place Road and old Fire Place Road was Stephen's mother.
Col. Parsons owned a large one-hundred-acre farm. Parsons acquired another "bound boy" in Patrick Lynch, one of the passengers of the shipwreck Catherine of 1851 that departed from Dublin for New York. Generally, under the terms of an indenture, or legal agreement, the boys were to be provided training, room and board, and perhaps paid a stipulated sum at the end of the term.
Indian Field and the Final Betrayal
When enslaved persons in East Hampton became free under the state laws, they undoubtedly went to live with or near their friends and relatives. After all, they had no money nor any possessions.
Thus, many opted to join the Montaukett, on Indian Field, living on 12,000 acres of land in trust for them, where the community remained for another seventy-five years. There, descendants of the people whose names appear in Revolutionary-era records—Jack, Jree, Prine, Eber, and others—built homes and lives alongside Montaukett families.
In the early 1880's, after New Yorker Arthur Benson purchased the land and wanted to develop Indian Field, Montauk for his friends, he thought it would be better not to have any of the Indian's small wooden houses within the viewshed. Even though Indian Field, nearly 12,000 acres, was held in trust for the Montauketts, Benson worked to get clear title. Through a tax sale, Benson was able to purchase some land in East Hampton. He presented each Indian family with a deed to a small plot in an area that came to be known as Freetown. The families were told they could live there in the winter. They thought that meant that in the summer, they could return to Montauk. Not so. When they went back to Indian Field, their houses and contents, including deeds and records, were all burned to the ground.
Many residents of East Hampton objected to this travesty and tragedy.
The Pharaoh Indian Museum at Second House holds the artifacts from the dig of burned dwellings done by Ed Johannemann at Indian Field for Suffolk County some years ago. [This museum opened to the public in 2017 as the Montauk Indian Museum and is operated by the Montauk Historical Society. Indian Fields today encompasses approximately 1,200 acres protected as part of Montauk Point State Park.]
Sources and Notes:
This article first appeared in Revealing the Past (East End Press, 2014). Sherrill Foster wrote this essay in 1998. She was involved in the early plans of the now Montauk Indian Museum with Robert Pharaoh, chief of the Montauketts at the time. There was an early concept of the museum, to be called the Pharaoh Museum.
Edward Johannemann, an archaeologist from Stony Brook University, excavated the Indian Fields site (also called Pharaoh Village) in Montauk for Suffolk County, uncovering Montaukett dwellings that included burned structures. Artifacts from these excavations indicate habitation from 1725 to about 1885 (as documented in Johannemann's 1993 reports). Specific artifacts mentioned include carved mammal bone handles (scrimshaw) and other items showing economic adaptation, labor, and cultural survival amid European influence between 1750-1885. The site preserves evidence of Montaukett identity construction through consumption and daily practices.
Arthur W. Benson (1798-1889) was the founder of the Brooklyn Gas Company.