Rose

Rose (about 1775- about 1840)- Peterborough and Preble, NY

Little is known about the life of Rose, a woman who was enslaved by the Deacon Samuel Moore (1727-1793) in Peterborough in the late 18th century. And what little evidence uncovered to date asks more questions than it answers.

Rose was the second enslaved person brought into the Moore household. Samuel Moore purchased a boy in the 1760s named Baker Moore. He purchased his freedom in 1776. When Samuel Moore purchased Rose has not been found but she was probably no more than 15 or 16 years old. It is not clear if Rose and Baker ever lived in the household at the same time.

Rose’s name has been preserved and handed down in the town’s history because Samuel Moore named her in his will of August 31, 1790. In this last will and testament, Moore stated, "I do give and bequeath unto my said Wife, during her life, my negro Slave Rose, & it is my Will that my Son Ebenezer shall maintain her as long as she lives."

This passage is confusing. Was Samuel Moore instructing his son to maintain his widow Margaret for the remainder of her life or Rose? It was typical for a widow to remain living in her home with the son who inherited his father’s homestead. Ebenezer took over the homestead after his father’s death in 1793. His mother Margaret and Rose lived in Ebenezer’s household until his mother’s death in 1811. Or was Samuel instructing his son to maintain Rose so that she would not become a town pauper? Some formerly enslaved people, particularly single women, found themselves unable to make a living and had no choice than to seek relief from the town.

Samuel Moore’s provision for “my negro Slave, Rose” in his 1790 Last Will & Testament

Samuel’s will illustrates the uncertain nature of freedom in late 18th century New Hampshire. The state’s Constitution proclaimed all men are equal, but the legislature did not specifically outlaw slavery in the state. Peterborough’s annual inventory of taxable property included enslaved persons up to 1788. After 1789, that category of property disappeared from the list of livestock and acres of land. In practice, the end of enslavement in New Hampshire was not so clear, and some people remained enslaved well into the 19th century. In 1790, Samuel Moore referred to Rose as “my negro slave” in his will. It is impossible to deduce what Rose’s status was in the Moore household after Samuel Moore’s death in 1793. The records indicate that Rose remained in his son Ebenezer’s household for the rest of her life. Was she treated as a free woman or as property?

In 1813, two years after his mother’s death, Ebenezer moved his family and Rose to Preble, New York, a small farming community near the Finger Lakes region. In the 1820 U.S. Federal Census, a woman of color between the ages of 26 and 44 was living in Ebenezer Moore’s household. This woman was certainly Rose. Ten years later in 1830, the census taker enumerated an unnamed woman of color in the household again, this time aged between 55 and 100 years old. Comparing the reported ages on the two census records, Rose was probably born about 1775.

In 1799, New York had passed a gradual emancipation law that mandated anyone born to an enslaved mother after 1799 was free (although only after a period of years of free service). Anyone born before 1799 was still enslaved. The New York legislature did not completely abolish slavery in the state until the Final Act of Emancipation passed in 1817. This act stipulated that all enslavement would be illegal by July 4, 1827. One must wonder how New York’s gradual emancipation impacted Rose; a woman who had been enslaved in New Hampshire before 1799.

The 1825 and 1835 New York State censuses also included an unnamed woman of color in the Moore household. The 1825 enumeration described the Moore farm as thirty acres with thirteen head of cattle, twenty-three sheep, and twenty hogs. The family produced cloth including eight yards of woolen cloth and ten yards of linen. In 1835, the farm had expanded to sixty acres, with twenty-nine cows, two horses, twenty-four sheep and fourteen hogs. That year, the family produced a total of sixty yards of cloth. Without a doubt, Rose’s labor contributed to the farm and the family’s success.

The 1840 U.S. Federal Census for Cortland County enumerated Ebenezer Moore but his household no longer included a person of color. Rose passed away sometime between 1835 and 1840. Ebenezer Moore died in 1851 and was buried in the Old Presbyterian Cemetery in Preble. Rose’s final resting place has not been located.

SOURCE MATERIALS

Historical Society of the New York Courts. “When Did Slavery End in New York?” June 17, 2017. https://history.nycourts.gov/when-did-slavery-end-in-new-york/. Accessed May 28, 2024.

Samuel Moore Last Will & Testament dated August 31, 1790. Probate Records, Vols.5-6, 1791-1796. New Hampshire, Hillsborough County Probate Court. Ancestry.com.

Smith, Albert. History of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Boston: Press of G.H. Ellis, 1876.

1820 U.S. Federal Census, Preble, New York. Ancestry.com.

1825 New York State Census. Familysearch.org; Film #007894951 Image 112.

1830 U. S. Federal Census, Preble, New York. Ancestry.com.

1835 New York State Census. Familysearch.org; Film #007894951 Image 305.

1840 U. S. Federal Census, Preble, New York. Ancestry.com.