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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bill of Sale for Caesar Phelps
Description
An account of the resource
Single page manuscript documenting the sale of Caesar Phelps to Charles Phelps, Jr.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
March 1770
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N/A (Box 4, Folder 15)
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum
Description
An account of the resource
<img src="https://rhh.reclaim.hosting/themes/rhh-berlin/images/contributor-images/PPH-museum.jpg" width="400" alt="PPH-museum.jpg" />
<p>The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is a unique historical resource in Hadley, Massachusetts. Its significance goes beyond the well-preserved eighteenth century architecture of the house itself: the house was continuously occupied by a single family from its construction in 1752 until the death of Dr. James Lincoln Huntington, the museum’s founder. The house contains the family’s belongings accumulated and preserved over 300 years. The family also left a rich collection of personal letters, diaries and account books, photographs and other material. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers are now housed at Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. The house was the heart of the large farmstead known as "Forty Acres" that included over 600 acres stretching from the banks of the Connecticut River to the top of Mount Warner, in North Hadley. Today, the house is surrounded by over 350 acres of protected farmland land, forest, and river frontage retaining its original rural setting. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is located on the National Tri-State Connecticut River Scenic Farm Byway.</p>
<p>Location:</p>
<p>The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum<br />130 River Drive<br />Hadley, MA 01035<br /><br />Phone: (413) 584-4699<br />Website: <a href="https://www.pphmuseum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Visit the Museum's website</a><br />Email: <a href="mailto:pphmuseumassistant@gmail.com">pphmuseumassistant@gmail.com</a></p>
Revolution Happened Here
Custom item type including project metadata fields.
Story
Interpretive text about the resource
Within the collection of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum in Hadley, Massachusetts, is a letter from a soldier stationed at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, in 1776. The letter, written by a man named Caesar Phelps, is quite brief. Nevertheless, it recounts the Revolution from a very important and often underrepresented point of view.<br /><br />After its famous capture by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold in 1775, the Americans put a great deal of effort into upgrading Ticonderoga’s defenses throughout the following year; Caesar was likely engaged in this work during his time there. The fort represented a strategic prize, and the Americans were determined not to lose it. Despite their efforts, the British managed to capture Ticonderoga without firing a shot in July of 1777, and held it until fighting subsided in the area following the surrender of General John Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga later that fall. Caesar Phelps’ voice is remarkable among the troops at Ticonderoga for the fact that he was enslaved. The only known record of Caesar’s time at the fort is brief— consisting of this single letter.<br />
<p>Prior to arriving at Fort Ticonderoga, Caesar lived and worked at a vast estate known as Forty Acres in Hadley, Massachusetts. His enslaver, Charles Phelps, Jr, was a man of high status in the community, and had him sent to fight in his place. It was common for white men, when called up to serve in the army, to send their enslaved servants as a substitute. Though they would receive the same wages as their white counterparts, they were required to give half or more to their owner. Caesar wrote to Charles in September of 1776, complaining that he had not received his wages. While lack of pay was frequently an issue for American soldiers during the Revolution, Caesar’s poignant letter reveals the complicated and precarious nature of his life as an enslaved person. He strives for some control over his living situation and meager personal possessions even as he acknowledges his status and that Charles has the power to sell him at any time.</p>
The “stock and buckel” Caesar requests in his letter would have been his neck stock and buckle, a clasp that held a tightly wrapped piece of fabric around the neck. They would have been some or all of the possessions he would have been able to own. Enslaved persons were able to purchase small items like this, usually with the exchange of labor.<br /><br />Though the letter is signed “Sezor,” it is unknown whether or not he penned it himself, or dictated it to a fellow literate soldier. Regardless, it is his voice. Unfortunately, known historical records of Caesar end with this letter. Whether he died at Ticonderoga, returned to Forty Acres to find that he had been sold, or gained his freedom, we do not know. Today, Forty Acres has been preserved as the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum in Hadley. Caesar’s letter is a small, but important part of its vast collection— one that serves as a rare voice for those who were so often voiceless during this time period. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.pphmuseum.org/slavery-and-servitude-at-forty-acres-blog/2018/6/27/caesar-phelps" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum website</a> to find more about Caesar and his life at Forty Acres.
Date Sort
Please enter a single date using the format YYYY-MM-DD
1776-09-30
Text
A text transcription of the manuscript
Camp Ft Ticonderoga Sept the 30th 1776
Sir I take this opportunity to Enform you that I dont Entend to Live with Capt Cranston if I can helpit and I Would Be glad if you Would Send me a letter that I may git my Wagers for I have not got any of my Wagers and I Want to know how all the Folks Do at home and I desire yor Prayers for me While in the Sarves and if you Determin to Sel me I Want you Shud Send me my Stock and Buckel. So no more at Present But I remain your Ever Faithful Slave
Sezor Phelps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Caesar Phelps to Charles Phelps, Jr
Description
An account of the resource
Single page manuscript written by Caesar Phelps to his enslaver Charles Phelps, Jr
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
September 30, 1776
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Manuscript
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers on deposit at Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. Box 4, Folder 12
Subject
The topic of the resource
Minorities' Experience
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum
African American
enslaved
Fort Ticonderoga
soldier
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https://revolutionhappenedhere.org/files/original/93e43c4c203f0b6520987b3d73e5c1aa.jpg
1f833d8e29ef77f44e7a4d73a0c225df
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum
Description
An account of the resource
<img src="https://rhh.reclaim.hosting/themes/rhh-berlin/images/contributor-images/PPH-museum.jpg" width="400" alt="PPH-museum.jpg" />
<p>The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is a unique historical resource in Hadley, Massachusetts. Its significance goes beyond the well-preserved eighteenth century architecture of the house itself: the house was continuously occupied by a single family from its construction in 1752 until the death of Dr. James Lincoln Huntington, the museum’s founder. The house contains the family’s belongings accumulated and preserved over 300 years. The family also left a rich collection of personal letters, diaries and account books, photographs and other material. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers are now housed at Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. The house was the heart of the large farmstead known as "Forty Acres" that included over 600 acres stretching from the banks of the Connecticut River to the top of Mount Warner, in North Hadley. Today, the house is surrounded by over 350 acres of protected farmland land, forest, and river frontage retaining its original rural setting. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is located on the National Tri-State Connecticut River Scenic Farm Byway.</p>
<p>Location:</p>
<p>The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum<br />130 River Drive<br />Hadley, MA 01035<br /><br />Phone: (413) 584-4699<br />Website: <a href="https://www.pphmuseum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Visit the Museum's website</a><br />Email: <a href="mailto:pphmuseumassistant@gmail.com">pphmuseumassistant@gmail.com</a></p>
Revolution Happened Here
Custom item type including project metadata fields.
Story
Interpretive text about the resource
Among the myriad of interesting figures buried at the Old Hadley Cemetery, there rests an unlikely resident by the name of John Morrison. The story of how Morrison came to Hadley begins in June of 1776, when he arrived outside of Boston Harbor as part of the Seventy-First regiment of Highlanders. Unaware of the evacuation of Boston by the British Troops, the Highlanders' ships were engaged by American vessels upon their approach to port. Their commander, Lt. Col. Campbell, decided to surrender to the Americans. John Morrison was among the 267 Highlanders taken as prisoners of war, captured before he ever set foot in North America!
Throughout Massachusetts, the recruitment of local men into militias had put a strain on the available labor force. The shortage of able-bodied farmhands was a serious problem for growers in the area. As a result, farmers petitioned the local Committees of Safety for permission to use captured enemy soldiers as labor in their fields. John Morrison was one of these captives, and was sent to work in Hadley on the locally influential estate then known as “Forty Acres”. On March 23, 1777 Elizabeth Porter Phelps, who managed the farm alongside her husband Charles, mentioned in her diary that “one of the Highlanders” who was captured by her cousin Colonel Porter, was sent to live and work at the farm.
Upon his arrival, John Morrison was initially put to work in the fields. Back home in Scotland, before joining the army, Morrison was an ornamental gardener. With his experience, Morrison eventually was given the responsibility of creating and maintaining the gardens at Forty Acres. Most families in Hadley at the time had gardens but they were most often just extensions of their vegetable plots. It is likely that the Phelps were the only family in Hadley with their own private gardener. Prior to Morrison’s tenure at Forty Acres, Elizabeth had described gardening as sporadic and casual. Morrison’s garden was carefully planned; it was laid out in a rectangular shape with four subdivided paths, a circular rose-bed at the center, and was lined by fruit-trees along its sides. The meticulously designed North Garden brought a sense of elegance to the rural landscape that surrounded Forty Acres.
Morrison was obviously a very skilled gardener. According to family letters, however, he was also somewhat of a notorious drunkard. His relationship with alcohol led to periods of prolonged absences which frustrated family members. He would allegedly skirt his duties at Forty Acres to nap on top of Mount Warner—the hilltop at the edge of the family's estate. It was on top of Mount Warner where he would recover from his bouts of drinking. The secluded area was a great spot for a nap, but it also gave John a vantage point to admire his work in the garden from a distance. The planned and orderly garden, inspired by European-style gardens, would have stood out from the rural landscape that surrounded it. Today, if one hikes to the summit of Mount Warner, it is possible to find “John’s Rock”, a boulder which Morrison regularly used to rest his head during his naps.
After the Revolutionary War, John Morrison remained at Forty Acres. He would eventually be considered a member of the extended Phelps Family. When he died in 1814, he was buried alongside family members in the Old Hadley Cemetery, where his grave can still be seen today. Signs of Morrison’s handiwork, too, are still visible around Forty Acres. The estate has been preserved as the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, and the North Garden is still laid out according to Morrison’s original plan. Many of the same plant varieties that were grown during his time as gardener can be found in the North Garden today. The garden is open to the public, and serves as a testament to the lasting impact of revolutionary war figures like John Morrison.
Date Sort
Please enter a single date using the format YYYY-MM-DD
1777-03-23
Text
A text transcription of the manuscript
John Morrison / a Scotch Highlander / captured with / Col. Campbell / in Boston Harbour / June 1776 / died in the family / of Chas Phelps / Sept. 13. 1814 / aged about 65
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
John Morrison: Highlander, POW, Gardener, Tippler
Description
An account of the resource
Gravestone
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1814
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Place or Site
gravestone
prisoner of war