The name of Amos Fortune has left its imprint on Jaffrey. Every summer, the Amos Fortune Forum brings lecturers with ties to Jaffrey back home to speak at the historic Meetinghouse, and his name is on a Jaffrey Center road.
His gravestone, with an epitaph written by Jaffrey’s first minister and friend of Fortune Laban Ainsworth, tells the bare bones of his story: “…born free in Africa, a slave in America, he purchased liberty, professed Christianity, lived reputably and died hopefully.”
During a talk on Fortune’s life at the Jaffrey Civic Center Friday, teacher and historian Peter Lambert laid out what has been discovered about one of Jaffrey’s earliest citizens.
While local historians have dug into original source records to determine what Fortune’s life in Jaffrey was like, there is very little information about his life prior to obtaining his freedom.
Here is what is not known about Amos Fortune: where in Africa he was from, what year he arrived in America or how old he was at the time, who first purchased him, how he gained his English name and how he was first educated.
It is believed Fortune was brought to America on a slave ship through Boston Harbor – though nothing is known for sure – and spent those years with a tradesman. Often slaves who were used in trade services were taught to read so they could assist in the management of the business; it was not illegal to educate them, as it was in Southern states.
That early portion of Fortune’s life is murky at best, Lambert said. But it is known that in 1752, he was owned by Ichabod Richardson, a tanner and currier. In 1752, a version of Richardson’s will promised to free Fortune six years after Ichabod’s death, but an updated version of his will in 1768, shortly before his death, did not mention freeing Fortune, or anything about him at all.
After Richardson’s death, his family agreed to free Fortune if he paid six pounds per year for a number of years to prove he could support himself, saved in a fund for him. He was freed the next year, in 1770.
Fortune was living in Massachusetts at the time, and records show he purchased land and was running a tannery there. He is known to have married Lydia Somerset in 1778, after purchasing and freeing her from slavery, but that marriage only lasted two months, as Lydia died in October of 1778. There have been references to Lydia being Fortune’s second wife, but nothing was known about a potential first wife, until Lambert was able to recently uncover a intent to marry announcement between Fortune and “Peggy” a Black woman in Lynn. Nothing is known about whether Fortune and Peggy were ever wed, however.
In 1779, Fortune freed and married his second confirmed wife, Violate Baldwin, marrying her the day after purchasing her freedom.
Fortune moved to Jaffrey in 1780, when the town only had about 500 people, and was barely recognizable as the town it is today – likely encouraged by Samuel Phillips, a bookbinder who owned land in Jaffrey and was encouraging people to move in and grow the town at that time. Fortune initially worked on a piece of land that was set aside for the minister before Ainsworth came to town, and eventually bought a piece of property where a house still stands today.
Fortune, despite being an elderly man at that point in his life, re-established his tannery. He and Violate didn’t appear to have any biological children, but did take in at least two wards or adopted daughters, Celyndia or Celinda, and the daughter of another Black family in town, the Burdoos, who fell on hard times after the death of patriarch Moses Burdoo, who was a blacksmith in town.
He had two apprentices – one Black and one white – and was a member of the First Church in Jaffrey, as well as a member of a private membership library, along with Ainsworth.
Not much is known about Fortune’s daily life, but when he died, he left a legacy to Jaffrey that still stands today. Fortune left $100 to the Church of Jaffrey in his will, which was used to buy a communion service and $233 to the Jaffrey schools, which have been invested and have been used to fund the lecture series in his name ever since.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.