Mariah Negro vs. Cornelius Briggs
Mariah Negro vs. Cornelius Briggs (Pt. 1)
Mariah Negro is an unsung founding mother of Massachusetts. Purchased in Boston as a child in 1673 by Scituate shipbuilder Walter Briggs, Mariah sued for the freedom of her daughter Molly who had been wrongfully imprisoned and enslaved by Cornelius Briggs.
Mariah Negro vs. Cornelius Briggs (pt. 2)
Mariah Negro vs. Cornelius Briggs (pt. 2) [This piece originally appeared in the April 13, 2023 edition of my Open Notebook newsletter.] In writing this edition of Open Notebook, I owe a debt to Edward L. Bell.1 Mr. Bell is the author of the book Persistence of Memories of Slavery and Emancipation in Historical Andover (Shawsheen Press, 2021) and…
Mariah Negro vs. Cornelius Briggs (pt. 3)
Grace’s indenture was the subject of a lawsuit the following year. In 1742 Joseph Clap Jr. sued fellow Scituate man Samuel Stockbridge alleging that Stockbridge “enticed away and took into his own service one Grace Sisco a negro woman who was at that time and is now a covenant servant of the plaintiff.” Surprisingly, the jury found…
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