DIARY OF A NEW ENGLAND SLAVE-OWNER 7 SPORTS FINAL Edition

• Published in: The Hartford courant
• Main Authors: Grant, Steve, Courant Staff Writer, Steve Grant can be reached by e- mail at grant@courant.com
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hartford, Conn Tribune Publishing Company, LLC 07.10.2001
• Subjects: Hempstead, Joshua; Hogan, Allegra; Jackson, Adam; Ryan, Sally
• ISSN: 1047-4153

[Sally Ryan] leads a weekly reading session from the [Joshua Hempstead] diary at the New London public library, often attracting a dozen people. Hempstead's home, built by his father in 1678 and added to in the 18th century, is a historic site at the intersection of Hempstead, Jay, Truman and Coit streets in New London. It is open to the public. Slavery in New England was different from slavery in the South. One historian has called it "family slavery" because slaves often lived and ate with the families that owned them. That was the case with [Adam Jackson], who, [Allegra Hogan] has found, lived closely with the Hempstead family and appeared to have considerable autonomy -- a much different life than that of a southern slave living in a shack and ordered to the fields every morning. When Hempstead died in 1758, Jackson became free, at age 58. Hogan said he likely stayed on as a servant at the Hempstead house; he died four years later.