Joseph Coe (deacon)

Joseph Coe (September 5, 1713 – June 10, 1784) was an American colonial church deacon, slaveholder, and wealthy farmer who settled Middletown[1][2] (in the area of now Middlefield, Connecticut)[3] and voluntarily freed his slaves during the American Revolution.

Coe was born in Durham, Connecticut, to Joseph and Abigail née Robinson Coe,[4] who were among the first families to settle the area. They were one of the largest landholders with one of the largest families.[5] His father was a deputy[6] to the Connecticut General Assembly and was a commissioned captain in the Connecticut State Militia.[4] His grandson Joseph was a justice of the peace and represented the area as a Democratic state senator in Connecticut's 18th State Senate district in 1837.[1][7] They are descendents of the Puritan colonial Robert Coe.[4]

In 1744,[8] Coe bought an enslaved African named Cuff from Isaac Miller in Farmington;[2] Cuff requested that Freeman be annexed to his name, which made his aspirations for his freedom evident. Coe then bought his wife, Phebe, and their son Peter in 1754.[9] A year later, February 7, 1775 Coe manumitted Cuff and Phebe.[8][10] Coe then agreed to free Peter to enlist in the Continental Army to fight in the American Revolutionary War.[11] Upon his return, in 1778, Peter paid Coe with his earnings.[12][2] Peter Freeman was the first Black Governor of Farmington, Connecticut,[12] in 1780, and a vocal Black suffragist who felt dishonored by Andrew T. Judson's argument that Black freemen were not "citizens," despite that they fought alongside white citizens in the war.[13][14]

Coe took the Oath of Fidelity and Support on April 13, 1778. He subsequently served on local committees supporting the war effort, including committees responsible for supplying and providing for soldiers' families in 1780 and 1781. In February 1782, he served on a committee charged with hiring fifteen men for guard duty.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 Atkins, Thomas (1883). History of Middlefield and Long Hill. Hartford, Connecticut: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company.
  2. 1 2 3 Blight, David W. (2024). Yale and Slavery: A History. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-300-27384-7.
  3. ↑ Hughes, Thomas Patrick; Munsell, Frank (1892). American Ancestry. Vol. 7. Albany, New York: Joel Munsell's Sons. pp. 100–101.
  4. 1 2 3 Bartlett, J. Gardner (1911). Robert Coe, Puritan. Published for private circulation. ISBN 9780598765826. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  5. ↑ Fowler, William Chauncey (1866). History of Durham, Connecticut: From the First Grant of Land in 1662 to 1866. Hartford, Connecticut: Press of Wiley, Waterman & Eaton.
  6. ↑ Dwight, Melatiah Everett (1898). The Kirbys of New England. New York: The Trow Print.
  7. ↑ Green's Connecticut Annual Register and United States Calendar. Hartford, Connecticut: Samuel Green. 1836–1840.
  8. 1 2 "Record of the Purchase of Cuff and Phoebe [Freeman] to Joseph Coe". Connecticut Digital Archive. April 23, 1775. Know all Men, By these Presents: That by Virtue of Two Bills of Sale now in the Hands of the Bearer namely Cuff, or his Wife Phebe; at the Times of their respective Dates; the former on the Twelfth Day of April A.D. 1744, the latter on the Fourteenth Day of May 1754. I say by Virtue of these Bills at the named Times: I Joseph Coe of Middletown became Sole Proprietor of them according to Law, as Negro Slaves.— My natural Right, I Did on the Seventh Day of February A.D. 1775; and do now by these Presents freely, fully, and Unequivocally, Give Quit and Resign my whole Claim over them as Slaves; that ever hereafter, they shall have full Liberty in every Respect as free Born Subjects, and Members of the Civil State without Interruption from my Self, Heirs or Executors for ever—
  9. ↑ Normen, Elizabeth J.; Harris, Katherine J.; Close, Stacey K.; Mitchell, Wm. Frank, eds. (2013). African American Connecticut Explored. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-0-8195-7398-8.
  10. ↑ Foy, Charles R. (May 2008). Ports of Slavery, Ports of Freedom: How Slaves Used Northern Seaports' Maritime Industry to Escape and Create Trans-Atlantic Identities, 1713–1783 (PhD). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. doi:10.7282/T3X067D1.
  11. ↑ Bates, Albert C., ed. (1901). Rolls and Lists of Connecticut Men in the Revolution, 1775–1783. Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. Vol. 8. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut Historical Society.
  12. 1 2 Harris, Katherine J. (2014). "In Remembrance of Their Kings of Guinea: The Black Governors and the Negro Election, 1749 to 1780". In Normen, Elizabeth J. (ed.). African American Connecticut Explored. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-7398-8.
  13. ↑ Van Buskirk, Judith L. (2017). Standing in Their Own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-5635-4.
  14. ↑ "Black Governors". Connecticut Courant. February 22, 1851.
  15. ↑ Lineage Book of the National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America. Vol. 16–20. National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America. 1927. p. 127.
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