Happy New Year! I’m actually compiling work for the whole week, since I didn’t get around to any daily postings. This will be long. Which is also an excuse for explaining something about why I’m doing this.

Yes, it’s partly because it helps keep me working on the database. But it’s also because it gives me a chance to post the names of all these nonwhite heads of household.

The vast majority of these people are not going to make it into the book except as numbers. But they had names, and families, which both hint at their lives, which may not have been of much historical import but meant the world to them. I want to say their names, just this once. I hope you’ll say them with me.

Weston. 42 census pages, many with no nonwhites at all; census marshal was Philo Hurd.  51 total nonwhites in 19 households, 9 of which were headed by nonwhites – a much higher ratio than usual. The independent heads of household (and size of household) were:

Lymus    Revlin    5
Primus    Wakeman    5
Henry    Wakeman    5
Sylvanius Burr    7
Sylvanius M. Beddin    7
Cato    Tredwell    2
Phillip    Fitch    4
Quinn    Smith    2
Ned    Bradley    2

Wilton. 32 census pages. 42 nonwhite people in 19 households, 6 of them independent, and one enslaved person, a woman aged over 55.

Morris    Brown    4
John    Walley    3
Gilbert    Smith    2
Phillis    Manning    5
Betsey    Gibson    4
D[oven?] Bush    3

And that’s the end of Fairfield County! Twenty towns, 1388 individuals in 645 households – 214 headed by nonwhites.

Hartford County starts with Avon and 12 pages of census returns.
A whole 9 nonwhite people in 4 families, 2 of them independent:

Asahel Williams    4
Samuel Murray    3

Second Hartford County town: Berlin (pronounced BURlin by Connecticut natives).  44 pages of census returns. 23 nonwhite people in 15 households, only 3 of those independent:

Joseph Bird    4
Jared Brown    2
Cezar Stocker    2

I have yet to notice any white person named “Caesar” (or alternate spellings like Cezar). There might be some, but I sure haven’t noticed them.

After Berlin comes Bristol, with only 24 census pages. And a whole two nonwhite people, both men, living in two white households.

Burlington. 18 census pages. Only 2 nonwhite people again, this time a man and woman in an independent household headed by Francis Freeman.

Canton, again with 18 census pages. 22 people in 9 households, 3 of them independent:

Tabiatha Print    6
Prince Williams    3
John Williams    2

East Hartford, the next town, has 30 pages of census records. A whole 9 nonwhite people in 9 white households. Considering how many enslaved people were being held in East Hartford per the 1790 census, this is quite surprising.

East Windsor. 46 pages of census records.
49 nonwhite people in 27 households, 1 of them an enslaved woman over 55, 7 of them headed by nonwhites.

Cyrus    Freeman    4
Peter    Freeman    2
Henry    Jackson    2
William    Roberts    3
Abigail    Cezar    2
Henricy    Segnicy    5
James    Miller    7

Enfield. Only 26 pages of census records, but 56 nonwhite people in 18 households, 8 of them nonwhite.

Daniel W. Millar 4
David F. Wilson    4
Jefferson Smith    8
Samuel    Freeman    7
James    Henry    4
John    Cumings    2
James    Gibb    6 (including our first reported centenarian, a woman)
Leba    Willson    8

Two of the people were, it seems clear to me, living in one of the Shaker houses.

Farmington. 26 census pages, and an amazing 85 nonwhite people in 26 households, of which 16 (a clear majority!) were independent.

Sylvester Tubbs    6
Alpheus    Quesey    5
Sylvester Demming 7
John    Brown    6
Bidwell    Sears    3
William    Warren    5
Joseph    Prin    2
Jason    Freeman    3
David    Williams 6
Lyman    Homer    7
Jason    Hopkins    2
William    Kelley    7
Titus    Lomaday    4
James    Graham    2
Ariel    Gladden    5
Jeremiah Hill    4

Glastonbury, which is next, has 40 census pages. 56 nonwhite people in 26 households, some of them familiar from an earlier research project. 12 independent households:

Sauney    Anderson 2
Anton    Coles    1
Sylva    Freeman    2
Pomp    Stuart    4
James    White    6
Jabeter    Russell    4
Robert    Russell    4
Roswell    Russel    6
Fortune    Russell    3
Neptune    Oliver    2
Lucy    Scott    2
Horace    Russell    5

The town of Granby has 36 census pages. 55 nonwhite individuals in 26 households, only 9 of them independent:

Thomas    Boston    3
Peter    Jackson    2
Jacob    Hazzard    1
Dennison Mott    5
George    Freeman    4
Rebecca    Sambs    2
Leonard    Perry    3
John    Dewander 2
Harvey    Elka    7

Next up is Hartford, with 86 pages to go through … on another day. Good night!