Zebulon Prutt

Receipt for the Purchase of Zebulon Prutt, 1745

Zebulon Prutt was born on August 15, 1731. He was the second youngest of Arthur and Joan Prutt’s seven children, all of whom were enslaved by one of Hadley’s first ministers, Reverent Isaac Chauncey. When Chauncey died in May 1745, the Prutt family was divided among his children. In July 1745, Jerusha Chauncey sold fourteen-year-old Zebulon to Moses Porter for “one hundred and fifty pounds old tenor,” further separating him from his family.

When Moses Porter first enslaved Zebulon, the family lived on the top floor of Moses’ parents’ house in the center of Hadley. In December 1752, after the construction of “Forty Acres,”  Zebulon became the first enslaved worker to live there. It is likely that Zebulon’s labor contributed to the construction of the farmstead.

When Moses Porter was killed in the French and Indian War in September 1756, Zebulon became the property of his widow, Elizabeth Pitkin Porter. Zebulon fled the family for approximately a year and a half (1766-1768), but it is unclear what he did during this time.

Sometime after Zebulon fled, Elizabeth Porter sold him to Oliver Warner for 50 dollars, and once captured in 1768, he became an enslaved laborer for Warner. For a brief period, Zebulon served in the Revolutionary War. He only gained his freedom around 1782-3 when slavery was made illegal in Massachusetts. Zebulon lived his later years as a free man in Amherst where he died in 1802, and was buried in West cemetery.