MARBLEHEAD — A group of Marblehead residents is nearing its goal of properly recognizing an enslaved woman, known only as Agnes, who is buried at the Old Burial Hill Cemetery alongside the family that owned her.
Sometime during the 1970s, Agnes’ original headstone marking her final resting place, was stolen. The headstone was replaced with a small, flat slab with the inscription, “AGNES NEGRO 1714.”
“The spot where Agnes is buried is of immense honor and beauty and the fact that she is buried with her family speaks to her importance but sadly stands in stark contrast to where many of the bodies of enslaved people were buried,” said the Rev. James Bixby, pastor at the Clifton Lutheran Church who, along with the Marblehead Racial Justice Team (MRJT), is spearheading the effort to replace the marker.
“We need to embrace the legacy of this ‘header, this person who was foundational to our town. We need to restore the stone to what it ought to be as the current stone doesn’t tell her story.”
The group has organized a GoFundMe.com campaign to raise the $7,000 required for a new stone. As of Friday, the group had raised $4,675 toward its goal.
Last summer, Marblehead High senior and student representative to the Marblehead Task Force Against Discrimination, Mabel Sliney, filmed an interview with Bixby, local activist Judy Gates and local historian Louis Meyi, who shared Agnes’ story.
According to Bixby, African-born Agnes was owned by Samuel Russell, Sr., and was handed down from father to son. She most likely worked as a female servant, serving the ladies of the household, but it is unknown what that work was.
Bixby said in addition to her original headstone, there are two documents that confirm Agnes’ existence.
Her name (as Agnis) appears in an inventory of real and personal property recorded at the Essex County Probate Court by estate administrators in 1712 (Russell died in 1711).
Listed between “woodenware” and an “old shallop” (boat) is “one negrowoman” (valued at 20 pounds). While her name does not appear in the inventory, her name did appear in the baptismal records of the St. Michael’s Anglican Church, revealing that she was baptized on March 11, 1716. Bixby speculated that the family may have switched churches until it finally found one that would baptize a person of color.
Meyi said that during the 1600s and 1700s, many Marblehead residents owned enslaved people.
“Many prominent people held enslaved people going all the way to when the Massachusetts court system said slavery was not compatible with the new Constitution adopted in 1780,” Meyi said, adding that most slaves were typically buried in unmarked locations without recognition.
According to Meyi, there were two burying locations in Marblehead, one off Rockaway and Washington streets near the Jeremiah Lee Mansion, and the other near Elm and Pond streets near the historic structure known as the Gunn House.
“Elm Street used to be Back Street back then,” said Marblehead Museum Executive Director Lauren McCormack. “There eventually was an almshouse there and the site was only known as a Negro burial place.”
“These burial spots were very different from that of Agnes,” said Meyi. “These are places that the MRJT cares about and we want to try to increase peoples’ grasp that there were a number of enslaved people sufficient to have (been buried) at Negro burial places. We need to care about them and have respect for the human beings who are interred there.”
It is not known what happened to Agnes after Russell’s death. Historians speculate that she may have stayed on with Russell’s widow, Elizabeth, and then likely Samuel Russell, Jr. or one of his two sisters, who may have “inherited” Agnes.
Agnes died July 12, 1718 at the age of 43. Her original headstone read: “Agnis Negro, Woman Servant to Samuel Russel, 43 years DECd, July Ye 12th 1718.”
Gates said her connection with Agnes dates back to the late 1960s when she moved to a home near the cemetery..
“My kids spent a lot of time playing hide and seek on this hill,” Gates said. “It’s still a popular place where people visit. The MRJT would like to see the people of color who lived here in Marblehead given more prominence and respect and to establish their presence here and in other places in town. We need to make sure the stone is historically accurate and provides some context that this was a woman who lived and worked and died here and is part of the legacy of this town.”
