In 1670 a free Black woman bought a house and land in Boston, at a time when few women or people of color could own land in the colonies. This unusual purchase makes Zipporah Potter Atkins the first Black woman property owner on record in Boston.

Zipporah Potter was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the mid-1600s to Richard and Grace, who were enslaved by Captain Robert Keayne. Children born to enslaved people in Boston, at that time, were considered free. This practice would change in 1670 when Massachusetts followed in Virginia’s footsteps, declaring that the legal status of children born to enslaved women would follow their mother’s legal status. This meant enslavement in Massachusetts became an inherited status.

Taking the surname of Atkins upon marriage, Zipporah is reported to have had six surnames in total at a time when surnames were rare for people of African descent. Her marriage was officiated by the prominent Puritan minister Cotton Mather.

How did Zipporah have the money to buy property in 1670? In his will, Captain Keayne left 40 shillings to the 2 men he enslaved, one of which was Zipporah’s father Richard Done. Keayne also stipulated in the will that if Done died, Zipporah would inherit the money. Done died on November 11, 1653; Keayne died in 1656. Atkins may have done domestic work to supplement her inheritance and to purchase the property. She may have also bought her mother’s freedom and brought her to live in the house.

A 1676 map depicted the property in Boston’s North End next to where a mill pond emptied into a creek that flowed into Boston Harbor. Records show that Potter, who bought the property for 46 pounds, sold a parcel of it for 100 pounds in 1693, and the rest of it in 1699 for 25 pounds.

Atkins owned her property between the years 1670 and 1699. She learned to sign her initials, during a time when many people could not read or write. When she signed the deed to sell her home in 1699, she became the first Black woman to initial a deed in Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

After her death in 1705, Atkins was laid to rest in Copp's Hill Burying Ground at an unknown location.

Vivian Johnson, a retired professor of education at Boston University, brought Zipporah’s story to light through her investigative work. Thanks to her, a historical plaque marks the spot where Zipporah Potter Atkins house stood in Boston on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

Sources:

Johnson, Vivian R. “ Extraordinary Woman”. Historic New England Magazine, volume 19, issue 2. Fall 2017, page 1

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipporah_Potter_Atkins

National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/slavery-and-law-in-early-ma.htm

https://youtu.be/Csv0Nzaq54s

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