Hypothetical Person:
Name: Sarah (surname unknown)
Approximate Birth: c. 1808
Location: Hanover County, Virginia
Associated Enslaver: Thomas Whitfield (documented in 1834 probate inventory)
Sarah was a woman living in Hanover County, Virginia, in the early nineteenth century. She appears in the 1834 probate inventory of Thomas Whitfield, where she was recorded as approximately twenty-six years old and listed alongside three children: Isaac (age 8), Mary (age 5), and an unnamed infant.
The inventory does not record Sarah’s birthplace, parentage, or occupation. However, her placement in the estate record within a grouped listing of women and children suggests that she was likely part of a family unit held in bondage on the Whitfield property. Probate inventories were created after the death of an enslaver to assess property value for distribution. Within that record, Sarah’s humanity was reduced to an entry in a ledger.
Though the document is brief, it confirms her existence at a specific place and time. If her recorded age is accurate, she was likely born around 1808, possibly in Virginia. Whether she was born into enslavement on the Whitfield property or transported there from another location is not stated in the record.
What is documented is this: Sarah lived, endured, and raised children within a system that denied her freedom. Her name appears in the historical record, and therefore her life is acknowledged here.
Isaac (listed in same 1834 probate inventory)
Mary (listed in same 1834 probate inventory)
Unnamed infant (listed in same 1834 probate inventory)
Each of the above individuals would receive a separate biographical entry.
Probate Inventory of Thomas Whitfield, Hanover County, Virginia, 1834, Book 12, p. 47, Hanover County Probate Records.
Real Person:
Name: Crispus Attucks
Birth: c. 1723 (likely Framingham, Massachusetts Bay Colony)
Death: 5 March 1770, Boston, Massachusetts
Status: Man of African and Indigenous (likely Natick or Wampanoag) ancestry; formerly enslaved
Associated Enslaver (Documented): William Brown of Framingham, Massachusetts (1750 runaway advertisement)
Crispus Attucks was a man of African and Indigenous ancestry living in Massachusetts in the eighteenth century. He is widely recognized as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre on 5 March 1770, an event that intensified colonial resistance to British rule.
A 1750 runaway advertisement published in the Boston Gazette described a man named “Crispas,” identified as a mixed-race man approximately twenty-seven years old who had fled enslavement from William Brown of Framingham. While the spelling differs, many historians conclude that this advertisement refers to Crispus Attucks. The notice indicates that he had been enslaved and had sought his own freedom two decades before his death in Boston.
By 1770, Attucks was working as a sailor and rope-maker, trades common among free and self-emancipated Black men in New England’s maritime economy. On the evening of 5 March 1770, he was present as tensions escalated between British soldiers and colonial residents. When soldiers fired into the crowd, Attucks was struck by multiple bullets and died at the scene.
Contemporary accounts differ in detail, but multiple sources identify him among the first to fall. His burial, along with other victims, became a site of public mourning and political symbolism.
Crispus Attucks lived during a period when freedom and bondage coexisted uneasily in colonial Massachusetts. Though remembered primarily for the manner of his death, his life reflects a broader story of enslavement, resistance, labor, and maritime mobility in eighteenth-century New England.
Boston Massacre (5 March 1770)
William Brown of Framingham (1750 runaway advertisement)
“Ran away from his Master William Brown of Framingham…” Boston Gazette, 2 October 1750.
Trial of the British Soldiers, Boston, 1770 (court proceedings and testimony identifying Attucks).
Massachusetts Historical Society collections relating to the Boston Massacre.
Hypothetical
Name: Unnamed woman (age approximately 25)
Record Description: Listed in 1832 estate inventory of Thomas Greene
Location: Charleston District, South Carolina
A woman estimated to be twenty-five years old was listed in the 1832 estate inventory of Thomas Greene…
Though her name was not recorded, she lived, labored, and likely sustained family bonds within this community.
• Unnamed boy (age 3, same inventory)
• Unnamed infant (same inventory)
• Estate Inventory of Thomas Greene, Charleston District, 1832