History of Hebron Tours

The Barber Family was a multi-generational African American family who settled in Hebron in the early 19^th century.

Lude Barber, the progenitor of the family, was originally from Rhode Island. He married Mary Congdon and resided in Franklin in 1808. By 1810 Lude and Mary Barber had moved to Hebron where their children, Horace, Austin and Lyman were born. Between 1820 and 1824, the family moved to Lebanon where Emiline, Elizabeth, and Samuel Nelson were born. Lude and Mary returned to Hebron in 1825, where two more children, Harriet and Oscar, were born. Lude died on March 20, 1854.

The children of Lude and Mary Congdon Barber represent the range of African American experiences in early 19^th century Connecticut ranging from working as farm laborers and basket maker to poverty and trouble with the law. 

Lyman Barber married Caroline Peters (daughter of Henry Peters) in Hebron on February 16, 1845. Lyman was a farm laborer and worked in Hebron, Lebanon, and Columbia. He died on April 20, 1893. His wife died on Feb. 11, 1897. Their son, also named Lyman, married Mary Ann Peters in Coventry on Feb. 9, 1882. He was also a farm laborer and lived in Hebron, Coventry, and Andover.

Emily or Emiline Barber had a son Austin Seymour delivered by Dr. Orrin White of Hebron on Dec. 18, 1837. He grew up in the household of his grandfather Lude Barber and attended the first district school. Emiline married Thomas Freeman of Franklin on Feb. 23, 1846.

In 1860, Elizabeth Barber resided in Hebron’s alms house with her two-year-old daughter Mary. On June 14, 1862 she married Samuel Lewis. He was a basket maker and died in Hebron on May 17, 1864. Elizabeth Lewis moved to Hartford in 1880 and remained a widow.

Samuel Nelson Barber married Susan Adelaide Green on March 30, 1864 in Norwich. They lived in Coventry and Columbia where they had four children. During the Civil War, Samuel served in the 31^st Regiment and was wounded in the arm at the Battle of Petersburg on July 30, 1864. He died in Coventry in 1872.

Their sons Horace and Austin, along with Hezekiah Cheseborough and Lewis Freeman, all from Hebron, were arrested in 1829 for assaulting John G. Meloney of Colchester. Horace and Austin were minors at the time. Horace and Lewis Freeman were declared not guilty. Hezekiah was fined $3 and Austin was sentenced to a month’s incarceration in the county jail. Horace eventually moved to New London and married Nancy Morris on March 16, 1845.

Benjamin Caesar or Caesar Benjamin married Grace Davis on June 24, 1781 in Colchester.  By 1810 they had moved to Hebron where there were six in the household. Their son Benjamin Benjamin was born c 1778 and was recorded as living in Hebron in 1820 with seven in his household and in 1830 with four in the household. When his first wife died, Benjamin Benjamin married Harriet Fagins Watson in Hebron on Dec. 10, 1837. They moved to Glastonbury in 1840, Windham in 1850, and Columbia by 1860 where Benjamin Benjamin died at age 86 in 1862 and his wife Harriet in 1870 at age 90.

Benjamin Benjamin and Harriet Fagins Watson Benjamin had a son named Henry born in 1838. Henry lived in Hebron and in 1864 enlisted in Company D, 31^st Regiment in 1864. He was captured at Petersburg, Virginia on July 30, 1864 and died unmarried at Danville, Virginia on Dec. 2, 1864.

Marvin Benjamin was born about 1784 and married Lucy Henry in Hebron on Dec. 2, 1821. She was referred to as “of Pomfret, late of East Hartford.” They moved to Hartford where Lucy died in 1837 at age 38 and where Marvin died in 1844.

Eli Benjamin was born about 1789. Almond Benjamin was born c 1795.

Sally Benjamin was born about 1796 and was listed as a member of the Black Sunday School class of the First Society Congregational Church in 1825. She was baptized as an adult on Jan. 3, 1830 in Norwich and died there at age 60 in 1856. Her death record lists her as being born in Africa.

The Boham Family had deep roots in southeastern Connecticut, which can be traced back to Thomas Boham who was the slave of Jonathan Hill of New London. When Thomas’ owner died in 1725, he was inherited by his owner’s widow Mary Hill and was emancipated about 1733 upon her death.

While still enslaved, Thomas Boham married Sarah Sale on Dec 1, 1719. He bought land in New London after being freed and had nine children. His son, also named Thomas, served during the French and Indian War. He moved to Colchester in 1790 and eventually settled in Chatham. His son Daniel was the indentured servant or apprentice of Habbakuk Foote of Colchester between 1786 and 1790. He married Molly Cheseborough about 1791. Until 1796, they lived in Colchester raising their family, but about 1796 they moved to Hebron. They had three children. Reuben died at age 52 in New Haven in 1832. Jesse was indentured to Oran Eber, a prosperous African American farmer living in Hebron Center in 1811 and from whom he ran away in the same year. Their last child was Thomas who died in 1809.

Oran Eber or Eber Oran lived in Hebron as early as 1791. In the 1798 Hebron tax list, he was recorded as having a house with three fireplaces and 52 acres of land near Hebron Center. In the 1810 Hebron census return, he was listed as having four in his household, but by 1820 there were only three. A Chloe Eber did spinning and weaving for Erastus Tucker of Hebron in 1823. In October 1811 Jesse Boham, an African American boy indentured to Oran Eber, ran away and an ad was placed in the Connecticut Gazette.

Robin Freeman (also know as Robin Waters) lived in Colchester as early as 1783. By 1800, he resided in Hebron with his wife Zilpha with five in the household. He died on July 11, 1801 in Hebron. From 1820-1821 Zilpha lived in Lebanon and that town paid for her expenses at that time. Robin and Zilpha had two children. Enoch was born on April 9, 1785 and was unmarried. He died in Marlborough in 1864. Jane or Jenny was born about 1794 and married Absalom Thomas. Zilpha died in Hebron on September 28, 1826. 

The narrative of Pomp Mundo is all too familiar in the narratives of enslaved African Americans in New England. New Englanders preferred to acquire young African Americans who they raised in their own households. After a lifetime of work, elderly African Americans were given their freedom. Laws required former owners to provide support for manumitted African Americans, causing some African Americans to spend their entire lives in servitude.

Pomp Mundo (or Mendo or Edgerton) was purchased by Hezekiah Edgerton of Norwich when he was 15 years old. He remained enslaved to Edgerton until he was 34 years old. Working jobs outside of his servitude, Pomp Mundo saved up 68 pounds to purchase his freedom, but Edgerton refused to post security for Pomp Mundo if he could not support himself. Edgerton sold Pomp Mundo to Ozias Hawkins of Coventry in 1768. Hawkins was to receive Pomp Mundo’s savings and manumit him, but he refused to take responsibility for Pomp Mundo’s support if he could not support himself. Pomp Mundo was sold to the Rev. Samuel Peters of Hebron for 12 shillings. Rev Peters attempted to manumit him, but the Selectmen of Hebron, including Rev. Peters’ older brother John Peters, refused to recognize his manumission. Enslaved to Rev. Peters, Pomp Mundo married a woman named Rachel around 1774. The first of their eight children was born in August of 1775.

When the Sons of Liberty drove Rev. Peters from Hebron in 1774 and subsequently rented out Rev. Peters holding, the new state government turned Peters’ slaves off the property, but did not emancipate them. It is not known how or where Pomp Mundo’s family lived during the Revolutionary War. In 1783, Pomp Mundo rented some of Rev. Peters’ property but could not pay the rent on it. When the Connecticut General Assembly emancipated Cesar Peters’ family, they also emancipated Pomp Mundo and presumably his family. The family moved to nearby Lebanon in 1790, but the Selectmen of Lebanon sent the family back to Hebron in 1792 when they could not support themselves. Rachel Mundo died in 1795. By 1796, Pomp Mundo was reported as working for Jedidiah P. Buckingham in Thetford, Vermont…and often spoke of Rev. Samuel Peters “with tears in his eyes”.  Pomp Mundo died in poverty sometime in the early 1820s.

Pomp and Rachel Mundo’s children were

• Hannah – b. 27 Oct 1775 (Hebron)
• Violet – b. 16 Mar. 1777 (Hebron)
• Eli – b. 24 Jan. 1779 (Hebron) infant death
• Ely – b. Jan 24, 1779 (Hebron)
• Rachel – b. 10 Nov. 1781 (Hebron)
• George – b. ca 1782; d. 4 Feb. 1790 Lebanon; servant of Capt. N.             Huntington (William Williams, Death Records)
• Eunice – b. Oct. 1783 (Hebron)
• Lucy – b. 10 Aug. 1785 (Hebron)

Cesar Peters was purchased when he was 8-10 years old by widow Mary Peters of Hebron. As he lived in her household, he so impressed his owner that on multiple occasions she stated Cesar Peters would eventually be manumitted. This situation changed when, without asking his owner’s permission, Cesar Peters wed a young woman named Lois. It is not known if Lois was already enslaved to other members of the Peters clan or to neighbors. However, rather than ignore the marriage, Mary Peters sold Cesar Peters to her son Rev. Samuel Peters. Rev. Peters may have been a reluctant slave owner. He had recently purchased Pomp Mundo with the intention of manumitting him but was thwarted in this attempt by the Selectmen of Hebron. The sale of Cesar Peters to Rev. Peters does not mention Lois. It may be that Lois had been acquired through one of Rev. Peters’ three wives, since there is no subsequent mention of Rev. Peters purchasing her after acquiring Cesar Peters. The first of Cesar Peters’ children arrived in Sept. 1771.

In 1774, Rev. Peters was forced to flee Connecticut by mobs of the Sons of Liberty from Bolton and Windham. Connecticut government passed from being a colony to becoming a state in the new United States under the leadership of Governor Jonathan Trumbull, a remarkable feat of political acumen and manipulation. Both Governor Trumbull and John Hancock offered a cash reward for apprehending Rev. Peters as an enemy of freedom. Rev. Peters’ arrival in London caused a political stir in the months before July 4, 1776.

By 1779, Rev. Peters’ real estate was confiscated and rented out by the newly established State of Connecticut. Yet, despite the cause of liberty being advocated by the former American colonies, the State of Connecticut refused to free the slaves of Rev. Peters. Other Connecticut Loyalist had their slaves freed, but not in the case of Rev. Peters. Instead, the State of Connecticut chose to turn Cesar Peters’ and Pomp Mundo’s families off the farms on which they worked with no provisions for their welfare. Out of charity, the widow Abigail Peters allowed Cesar Peters’ family to live in an abandoned blacksmith shop on her property (now Burnt Hill Park in 1783. After the end of the American Revolution, Cesar Peters continued to tend to improve his owner’s property in Hebron.

However, Rev. Peters’ nephew Dr. Nathaniel Mann traveled to Great Britain in 1786 to finish his medical studies and to borrow on Rev. Peters’ London credit to set himself up as a merchant in the newly formed United States. Rampant inflation soon caused his mercantile venture to fail, but having his uncle’s power of attorney, Dr. Nathaniel Mann and his father John Mann chose to break the law and sell Cesar Peters’ family to retire their debts, even though at least two of the children had been born free.

The ink was hardly dry on the newly written American Constitution when 10 days later on September 27, 1787, with the American Bill of Rights yet to be added, a band of armed men, including two of Hebron’s leading citizens John Mann and his son Dr. Nathaniel Mann, entered the home of Cesar Peters determined to apprehend and sell his entire family to retire their personal debts of Dr. Mann to his uncle Rev. Samuel Peters. 

Cesar Peters’ family was rescued by his Burnt Hill neighbors who created an illegal bill of sale for mended clothing that Cesar Peters had left behind and preventing the family from being separated on the auction block. The Selectmen of Hebron returned to Hebron with Cesar Peters’ family but took no legal action to free them. Instead, Cesar Peters’ family was indentured to Elijah Graves for two years.

Cesar Peters made an impression upon the people he met. He was intelligent, trustworthy, diligent and resourceful. After September 1787, he was able to put these talents to work for himself rather than for his owner.  Through the intervention of his Burnt Hill neighbors, he had been able to keep his family together – one of the biggest threats of considering African Americans as property rather than as people. 

Cesar Peters was resilient and with his newfound freedom, he was not content to let matters lie. While under the protective custody of Elijah Graves, he recruited the help of Hebron’s educated elite to bring legal charges against his abductors. Receiving his freedom in 1789, he moved to Colchester and brought legal suit against those most responsible for trying to separate and sell his family. Both Dr. Nathaniel Mann and his father John Mann expressed in writing their fears to Rev. Peters that Cesar Peters would ruin them when he won his case against them for 1000 pounds. They clearly realized how illegally they had acted.

At the last moment, Cesar Peters withdrew his case. History does not record if a settlement was made with the Manns out of court. Cesar Peters moved to Tolland where the last of his children were born and where his wife Lois died in childbirth in 1793. Although Cesar and his sons worked diligently to earn money, Cesar needed a domestic partner and while living in Tolland he married a widow named Sim. The family then moved to Coventry.

In 1806, Cesar Peters with $186 in hand purchased the two-story home of his former abductor John Mann. This daring act of retribution met with no complaint from his Hebron neighbors. In fact, Cesar Peters live peacefully side by side with the brother of John Mann until the end of his life.

In 1806, Hebron center was just developing as lawyers, doctors and members of the clergy built house around the Green, which was transformed from public waste land to a more gentrified appearance. Cesar Peters and his family found work by farming and providing domestic assistance for the families living around the Green. In this economic niche, Cesar Peters and other African American families from other towns who joined him in Hebron prospered. By July 4, 1814 when Cesar Peters died, his house was furnished with same goods as his Yankee neighbors – a set of chairs, eight wine glasses, tea equipment, and a set of china.  Upon his death, Cesar Peters’ estate was inventoried and his debts paid. Unlike many of his fellow Yankee neighbors, Cesar Peters’ estate was far from insolvent. He left behind enough financial resources to care for his widow and then his neighbor.

Cesar and Lois Peters had 10 children, two were born before Samuel Peters left Hebron in 1774. Cesar’s second wife Sim and he had five children. Sim died on Jan. 24, 1815. Cesar and Lois Peters’ children were:

James, born 1771 – 16 years old in 1787 when the family is sold

Theodorus, born August 1773 – 14 years old in 1787 when the family is sold

Ira, born February 1776 – 12 years old in 1787 when the family is sold

Sally, born February 1778 – 11 years old in 1787 when the family is sold

Susana, born June 1780 – 7 years old in 1787 when the family is sold

Ziba, born August 1783 – 4 years old in 1787 when the family is sold

Lois, born June 1785 – 2 years old in 1787 when the family is sold

Caesar, born July 1787 – infant in 1787 when the family is sold

Henry, born 1788 – after the attempted abduction

Louisa, born Dec 1793 in Tolland – after the attempted abduction

Cesar Peters Junior was the son of Cesar and Lois Peters. He married Lucinda and resided in Hebron. In 1814, he purchased a small farm close to Hebron Center with an unfinished building upon it which he turned into a house. He found employment as a skilled farm laborer working for gentlemen farmers living in and around the Hebron Green. At least three of his children attended school in the First District. He is recorded as having five children:

George

Wilson

Leverett, born in 1822. Leverett married Maria Miranda in Westchester on June 7, 1843. The couple lived for a while in Hartford and moved to the Gilead section of Hebron around 1852. Leverett enlisted in the Union Army in 1864. While he was away, his wife Maria died (February 5, 1864). In 1866, Leverett married Jane Brown of Hebron. He received a military pension until his death in Bolton on March 24, 1888. Leverett Peters had eight children.

Sidney, born around 1826 – 1861

Melissa, born around 1828

George Sylvester Peters was a grandson of Cesar and Lois Peters. George served in Company A of the 29^th Regiment from 1863 to 1865. While George was off fighting, his wife received erroneous news that he was dead and left Hebron. Upon returning, George searched for his wife without success. On October 26, 1870, he married Jane Brown of Hebron. He died in Bolton on January 15, 1905. George Sylvester and his second wife Lucinda had 10 children.

Henry Peters was a son of Cesar and Lois Peters born after the attempted abduction in 1788 and manumission of the family in 1789. On February 14, 1813, Henry married Lydia Adams of Chatham, CT. Henry Peters was the direct heir of his father’s farm located across from the Wall Street Cemetery. He sold this property and on June 21, 1833 purchased a house, barn and two acres of land from Sylvester Gilbert of Hebron. During his lifetime, Henry Peters added several acres to this holding which was inherited by his son Horace upon Henry Peters death on August 21, 1862. Henry and Lydia Peters had seven children.

Henry Peters Junior was born around 1818 to Henry and Lydia Peters. He married Emily Russell in Colchester in 1843. In 1846, the couple moved to Hebron where they had six children. Henry Peters died in Hebron in 1893. His wife predeceased him, dying in 1870.

Horace Peters was the son of Henry and Lydia Peters. He was born about 1815 in Hebron and worked in the 1850s in Middletown, CT. In 1859, Horace mortgaged his father’s farm for $240, which was backed by the Parish of St. Peters Church.  He repaid the loan in 1865. This was the only time the Parish of St. Peters stood as surety for a mortgage. He wed Almira Russell in Colchester on March 26, 1863. The couple had a son Sylvester G. who was born around 1864.

Ira Peters may have been the grandson of Cesar and Lois Peters. His father may have been James Peters. He married Marietta Peters in Hebron on January 28, 1833. They had five children. Ira married Sarah Hempstead in Hebron on December 30, 1860. Ira Peters died in Glastonbury on August 27, 1868. 

John Peters was the son of Henry and Lydia Peters, born around 1832 in Hebron. In the 1850s he worked in Middletown and may have married there. His wife Ann died in 1855. During the Civil War, he served as a cook in Company D, 31^st Regiment. He was granted a disability discharge at Alexandia, Virginia in 1865 and returned to Middletown.

John O. Peters was the son of Ira and Marietta Peters. He married Mary L. Deming in June of 1863. The family periodically lived in Hebron with their four children. John died in Columbia in February 1879.

Louisa Peters was the daughter of Cesar and Lois Peters. She was born in December of 1793 when the family lived in Tolland. She was born after the attempted abduction of the family and manumission by the Connecticut General Assembly. Her husband may have been William Freeman as she signed a receipt for her legacy from her father Cesar Peters and second wife Sim Peters as Louisa Freeman on February 16, 1815.

Theodorus Peters was a son of Cesar and Lois Peters. He moved from Hebron to Cazenovia, New York where he married a woman named Roxanna. He briefly returned to Hebron in the early 19th century, but then moved back to upstate New York.

In October 1841, John Profit of Colchester married for the second time to Elizabeth Lathrop of Norwich in Plainfield. He was probably a mariner and disappeared from the records. His second wife Elizabeth Lathrop Profit lived in Lebanon and in 1855 then moved to Plainfield where she married James Williams in 1862.  John Profit had at least four children by his first wife.

Charles M. Profit lived on the John Northam (Bernstein) Farm in Hebron.

Timothy Amos was a stable hand and married Jane Stewart who was born in Hebron in 1839.

Martha Profit appears in 1850 census as a 15-year-old living with a white family in Hebron.

As early as 1819 Charles and Grace Richards lived in Hebron. The 1820 census listed four in the household and 1830 census listed five. They had eight children, but only three survived to adulthood. Grace Richards died about age 36 on August 19, 1836. 

Their daughter Lucinda, born around 1815, was unmarried and admitted to the South Glastonbury Church in 1845 and sought dismissal from the Gilead Congregational Church in 1861. From 1860-1870 Lucinda Richards worked as a domestic in Hebron for David Hall, a farmer. In 1883, Lucinda fell and broke her arm requiring financial assistance from the town of Glastonbury. The selectmen wrote to town officials in Hebron saying “she says she let John Noyes of your town have her money and he was to take care of her, but he used her so badly she was obliged to leave him.”  She died in March 1884 in Glastonbury. 

George Henry Richards was born around 1819. He was indentured to George Strong but ran away in 1837 when he was 18. Charles married Sally M. Watson in Columbia in 1857.  They had seven children all born in Columbia. Charles was listed as a farm laborer and died in 1895. His wife Sally died in 1911 age 73.

Asher Russell’s first wife died at age 44 in July 1787 in Wethersfield. He married again before 1800 and in that year was living in Hebron with seven in his household. Marlborough became a separate town in 1805 and in 1810 there were six in Asher Russell’s Marlborough household where he was listed until 1840. Asher Russell died at age 78 in 1841. He was the father of 10 children, who remained in the Marlborough area. 

In 1842 Gilford Sayles of Lebanon married Samantha Francis in Colchester. They lived in Colchester in the 1850s and moved to Hebron around 1860 and lived there until the 1870s. Gilford Sayles died in Bozrah in 1887 at age 80 and his wife died in 1886 at age 67.   The Sayles had seven children born between 1845 -1860.