Colonial Georgian-style 1746 house built by Judge Seth Wetmore. Intersection of Connecticut Route 66 and Camp Road. Members of the Wetmore Family enslaved three people named Tony, Membo, and Dick as documented in the Middletown Land Records. Photographers Jerrye & Roy Klotz, M.D. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
We are excited to announce that we have collaborated with the Godfrey Memorial Library of Middletown, Connecticut to add 50 records with the Godfrey Memorial Library: Middletown, CT Manumissions, 1774-1823 database as part of American Ancestors’ 10 Million Names initiative. These records were compiled during 2020 and 2021 by Albert Fiacre, Terry Latimer and Diane Reid. Please visit their website to learn more about their work.
All the records in this study were taken from the Middletown land records. The earliest manumission found was in 1774 while the latest one was in 1823. Only one purchase/sale of an enslaved person was found. It was quite possible that other means were used in slave manumissions such as court records. This effort focuses exclusively on land records.
As can be seen in the documents, the typical process in the emancipation of an enslaved person was first to have the Selectmen of Middletown certify that an enslaved person could be set free and then for the enslaver to record the emancipation on the land records. Many of the documents make reference to the “Abolition Act” and the desire to cooperate with the sentiments of that Act.