Freeman, Jack (Adams)

Jack (Adams) Freeman

Keene, NH

Sometime in the early 19th century, perhaps in the 1810s, an enslaved person of color named Jack moved to Keene, NH, to reside in the home of his enslaver Dr. Daniel Adams.  An enslaved man of color, over the age of 45, appears in the 1820 US census as living in the Adams household on Main Street.  Adams, himself, had moved to Keene in the late 1780s but no evidence of Jack has been recovered until the 1820 census.  While in the Adams household, he may have been referred to as “Jack Adams”.

In 1873, someone wrote a series of reminiscences of Keene’s Main Street in the early 1800s in the local newspaper.  Two of those articles offer clues to Jack Adam’s life.  The May 1, 1873 article reads, “The first house on the east side of Main Street going up [after Baker Street] was Dr. Daniel Adam’s, now owned by S. O. Gates…Many who read these lines may remember his black man, Jack, who was ever faithful to the family.  Poor Jack, when an old man, died on a farm at the West part of the Town.”  

A February 27, 1873 article indicates that a person of color resided in the former school house (Keene’s first reported school) beside the Wyman Tavern on the east side of Main Street. “Next was a school house of wood, in which lived a black man named Freeman.”  This was most likely Jack Adams who changed his surname to Jack Freeman.

Jack (Adams) Freeman died in Keene, New Hampshire, on July 20, 1843. The NH Sentinel newspaper reported, “In this town on Sunday morning last, Jack Freeman, a colored man, supposed to be 100 years of age.” His death record reiterates that “Jack (Adams) Freeman” was most likely 100 years old and his death had been recorded by the First Church in Keene.

SOURCE MATERIALS

New Hampshire Sentinel newspaper, Keene, NH- Aug 2, 1843, p.3, c.4; Feb. 27, 1873, p.2, col.5.; May 1, 1873 p.2.

New Hampshire Vital Records, Deaths, 1843- Ancestry.com

U.S. Federal Census, 1820- Ancestry.com