Oxford Tash
By Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 18, 2020.
Oxford Tash’s life began at age 25, at least as far as the paper trail tells us. His parents are a mystery because his birth wasn’t registered. Most likely, he was born in 1750 in Newmarket, New Hampshire, the enslaved child of enslaved parents. For some time before the war, perhaps his entire life, he was enslaved to Colonel Thomas Tash of Newmarket. We don’t know much about his childhood – whether he was able to read and write, for instance – but we do know that every day of his life was not his own. There was no pampering. His clothes, which he did not own, were the bare minimum. His expectations for adult life were muted by the understanding that decisions would not be his own. Where he lived, who he married, what children he might have – would all be decided (and most likely owned) by someone else.
It is often believed that slaves in the north were somehow treated better than slaves in the south. We have one account of life in Colonel Tash’s home, and it is relayed here second-hand. Written by the colonel’s great granddaughter, Blanche Adams Young, it recounts a family story about “Black Luce,” a young enslaved girl and possibly Oxford’s sister. “The girl was often left to care for the little children of Colonel and Mrs. Tash when they journeyed from home. She was both ingenious and mischievous. One day she was dressing dolls for the girls and having nothing to her liking, she spied a red velvet waist coat. Taking her scissors, she cut big pieces from it and fashioned it into articles of dresses for the dolls. It suited fine, but when her master discovered what she had done, he punished her after his own fashion. He cut pieces of velvet and soaked them in gravy, and when all his family were dining, ‘Black Luce’ was called into the dining room, told to stand before the fire and eat the red velvet for her dinner. This she tried to do, rolling her eyes and chewing hard. The children watched her with amusement. After punishing her in this manner, her master felt satisfied that she would never cut up costly garments again and she was allowed her place again in the household.” Lucy remained enslaved until after the Revolution. Young tells us that later Lucy sent word to,“tell my mistress I’ve found my peace.” Read that as you will, either she was able to forgive her former enslaver or she’d stopped having nightmares.
When war came, Oxford must have appealed to his master’s military pride. Let me fight. Let me fight for freedom, yours, but especially mine. It must have occurred to the Colonel that slavery in New Hampshire was becoming an unpopular peculiar institution. Oxford signed up in New Hampshire in 1775 or 1776 – we don’t know exactly because the records are missing. He was a seasoned soldier by 1777, when he re-enlisted in Massachusetts, serving until the end of the war. He saw service at Ticonderoga, White Plains, Monmouth. He suffered smallpox and was, at some point, struck by a musket ball in the thigh. The injury never healed and troubled him for the remainder of his life. For all the hardship, discipline and regimentation of the army, he was, for the first time, his own man. Treated the same as the white soldiers. For the first time in his life, paid for his own labor. He was discharged as a free man on February 25, 1781, having served throughout the entire war.
He found himself in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and there found Esther Howe Freeman. The two were married in November of 1781 at the Presbyterian church. Tash brought his bride back to New Hampshire and settled in Exeter, where a considerable number of other recently freed Black veterans had come to stay. They lived in a house on Water Street described, in 1879 by a nostalgic letter-writer to the Exeter News-Letter, as “a house now standing, and in good repair, a few doors north of Mr. Josiah Batchelder.” Batchelder lived on the corner of Water and Main Street, just at the sharp turn. Tash’s house would have been located just across from the Phillips Exeter Academy childcare center. On Exeter’s 1802 map, this is called “Fish Street.” The little house is sketched in, but Oxford Tash’s name does not appear. He worked as a laborer for Nathaniel Gilman, Jr., who lived on Front Street.
With Esther, he raised eight children: Mary, Lucy, Susan, Robert, Catherine, Charles, William and Member Matilda, known as “Tilda.” Our anonymous letter writer recalled, “About 1802-3 Tilda and I went to the same school,” indicating that the Tash family took full advantage of the town’s public schools. The children largely intermarried with the local Black population. Bob became the first Black man ordained by the General Conference of the Free Will Baptist Church in 1827. Charles stayed in town, working at a variety of occupations including real estate.
Oxford Tash put off filing for a veteran’s pension, concluding that he could support himself. But by 1807, his injured leg must have become troublesome enough that he needed support. He was granted $2.50 for an invalid pension. He died in 1810 at the age of 60. His obituary, from the Constitutionalist read, “In this town, on the 14th OXFORD TASH, a man of colour, aged about 60. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and received a wound in action, by which he was considerably disabled, but he was too magnanimous to apply for a pension, till towards the close of his life. He was always respected for his industry and the general purity of his morals. He has left a widow and eight children, whom he brought up in his own correct principals and habits, and very decently educated.”
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: Exeter’s 1802 Phineas Merrill map. Oxford Tash’s home, located on Water Street (this part called “Fish Street”). Tash, previously enslaved to Col. Thomas Tash of Newmarket, earned his freedom by serving in the army during the American Revolution.
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 18, 2020.
Oxford Tash’s life began at age 25, at least as far as the paper trail tells us. His parents are a mystery because his birth wasn’t registered. Most likely, he was born in 1750 in Newmarket, New Hampshire, the enslaved child of enslaved parents. For some time before the war, perhaps his entire life, he was enslaved to Colonel Thomas Tash of Newmarket. We don’t know much about his childhood – whether he was able to read and write, for instance – but we do know that every day of his life was not his own. There was no pampering. His clothes, which he did not own, were the bare minimum. His expectations for adult life were muted by the understanding that decisions would not be his own. Where he lived, who he married, what children he might have – would all be decided (and most likely owned) by someone else.
It is often believed that slaves in the north were somehow treated better than slaves in the south. We have one account of life in Colonel Tash’s home, and it is relayed here second-hand. Written by the colonel’s great granddaughter, Blanche Adams Young, it recounts a family story about “Black Luce,” a young enslaved girl and possibly Oxford’s sister. “The girl was often left to care for the little children of Colonel and Mrs. Tash when they journeyed from home. She was both ingenious and mischievous. One day she was dressing dolls for the girls and having nothing to her liking, she spied a red velvet waist coat. Taking her scissors, she cut big pieces from it and fashioned it into articles of dresses for the dolls. It suited fine, but when her master discovered what she had done, he punished her after his own fashion. He cut pieces of velvet and soaked them in gravy, and when all his family were dining, ‘Black Luce’ was called into the dining room, told to stand before the fire and eat the red velvet for her dinner. This she tried to do, rolling her eyes and chewing hard. The children watched her with amusement. After punishing her in this manner, her master felt satisfied that she would never cut up costly garments again and she was allowed her place again in the household.” Lucy remained enslaved until after the Revolution. Young tells us that later Lucy sent word to,“tell my mistress I’ve found my peace.” Read that as you will, either she was able to forgive her former enslaver or she’d stopped having nightmares.
When war came, Oxford must have appealed to his master’s military pride. Let me fight. Let me fight for freedom, yours, but especially mine. It must have occurred to the Colonel that slavery in New Hampshire was becoming an unpopular peculiar institution. Oxford signed up in New Hampshire in 1775 or 1776 – we don’t know exactly because the records are missing. He was a seasoned soldier by 1777, when he re-enlisted in Massachusetts, serving until the end of the war. He saw service at Ticonderoga, White Plains, Monmouth. He suffered smallpox and was, at some point, struck by a musket ball in the thigh. The injury never healed and troubled him for the remainder of his life. For all the hardship, discipline and regimentation of the army, he was, for the first time, his own man. Treated the same as the white soldiers. For the first time in his life, paid for his own labor. He was discharged as a free man on February 25, 1781, having served throughout the entire war.
With Esther, he raised eight children: Mary, Lucy, Susan, Robert, Catherine, Charles, William and Member Matilda, known as “Tilda.” Our anonymous letter writer recalled, “About 1802-3 Tilda and I went to the same school,” indicating that the Tash family took full advantage of the town’s public schools. The children largely intermarried with the local Black population. Bob became the first Black man ordained by the General Conference of the Free Will Baptist Church in 1827. Charles stayed in town, working at a variety of occupations including real estate.
Oxford Tash put off filing for a veteran’s pension, concluding that he could support himself. But by 1807, his injured leg must have become troublesome enough that he needed support. He was granted $2.50 for an invalid pension. He died in 1810 at the age of 60. His obituary, from the Constitutionalist read, “In this town, on the 14th OXFORD TASH, a man of colour, aged about 60. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and received a wound in action, by which he was considerably disabled, but he was too magnanimous to apply for a pension, till towards the close of his life. He was always respected for his industry and the general purity of his morals. He has left a widow and eight children, whom he brought up in his own correct principals and habits, and very decently educated.”
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: Exeter’s 1802 Phineas Merrill map. Oxford Tash’s home, located on Water Street (this part called “Fish Street”). Tash, previously enslaved to Col. Thomas Tash of Newmarket, earned his freedom by serving in the army during the American Revolution.
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