The Database for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in Wells, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel

Cato


Status (enslaved, free or both): free

Known dates: 1790-1800

"Cooper" John Mitchell lived on what is now High St. in Kennebunk. "A short distance below Mitchell's, on the south side of the road and perhaps an eighth of a mile therefrom, commences a slight elevation of land which continues for a distance of one-fourth of a mile or more. This has been known for many years as 'N... Ridge.' It derives its name from the fact that between the years 1790 and 1800, about a dozen blacks, who had been held as slaves by citizens of Wells, were emancipated, erected huts and became permanent residents of this ridge, which had probably been granted to them by the town of Wells. Here were Tom and Phiilis(1), Sharper(2), and Hannah Simon, Primas and the younger Phillis, Salem and Peg, Cato, Dinah and others." - Remich, p. 108

Bibliography:

History of Kennebunk from its Earliest Settlement to 1890 - by Daniel Remich (1911)

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