Amos Fortune, The Man and His Legacy - eduScapes
Amos Fortune, The Man and His Legacy - eduScapes
Amos Fortune, The Man and His Legacy - eduScapes
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payments were set aside as a trust fund, in case <strong>Fortune</strong> ever became disabled <strong>and</strong><br />
unable to support himself. <strong>The</strong> fund thus saved Richardson's heirs, if <strong>Fortune</strong><br />
were still a slav, or the town of Woburn, if he were free, from having to support<br />
him.<br />
In November 1769, a manumission paper was drawn up stating that <strong>Amos</strong><br />
<strong>Fortune</strong> was free retroactive to May 9, 1769, the date of Carter's document. <strong>The</strong><br />
new paper meant in effect that <strong>Fortune</strong> could work for himself but would be free<br />
only after the aforementioned payments had been completed. He made the last<br />
,--____________ ---, payments in November 1770, when he was 60<br />
years old. <strong>Amos</strong> <strong>Fortune</strong> was at last a free man.<br />
, In Adam's Fall<br />
We finned all.<br />
Nothing is known about the life of <strong>Amos</strong><br />
<strong>Fortune</strong> between 1770 <strong>and</strong> 1774. He may<br />
have continued to work at Ichabod<br />
Richardson's tannery, which was being run<br />
This Book attend.<br />
by Richardson's nephew Leonard. He must<br />
have earned some money, for on July 20,<br />
[hl!==J<br />
Thy Life to mend<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cat doth play 1774, he spent £16.13s. on a half acre of<br />
And after flay. l<strong>and</strong> on the Wilmington Road in Woburn, on<br />
which he constructed a small house.<br />
=!! Not only did <strong>Amos</strong> <strong>Fortune</strong> have a house,<br />
he also had several acquaintances in the<br />
Woburn area. One was Pompey Blackman,<br />
another African slave who lived in Lexington,<br />
Massachusetts. Calling him his "trusty<br />
friend," Blackman authorized <strong>Fortune</strong> to act<br />
as his representative in business matters in<br />
1777. Blackman was illiterate (he was unable<br />
to sign his name on the document giving<br />
<strong>Amos</strong> <strong>Fortune</strong> the power of attorney), so his<br />
----.j trust indicates the high regard in which <strong>Amos</strong><br />
An early New Engl<strong>and</strong> Primer. <strong>Amos</strong> <strong>Fortune</strong><br />
F or t une was h e ld b y h' IS peers.<br />
probably learned to read with the help of such a<br />
primer <strong>and</strong> the Bible.<br />
<strong>Fortune</strong>'s family life has been a matter of<br />
controversy. Some versions of his life have<br />
him purchasing the freedom of three African women: an unnamed woman in 1775<br />
who died; Lydia Somerset in 1778, who also soon died; <strong>and</strong> Violate Baldwin in<br />
1779. Yates names the anonymous 1775 woman Lily. However, the Woburn records<br />
do not show <strong>Amos</strong> <strong>Fortune</strong> marrying anyone before 1778. All marriages <strong>and</strong> intentions<br />
to marry had to be registered by law, so the absence of any references would<br />
appear to rule out an earlier marriage. I<br />
<strong>Fortune</strong>s arrive Laban Ainsworth Massachusetts out- U.S. Constitution AF builds house Pompey<br />
in Jaffrey ordained minister laws slavery written & bam dies<br />
6<br />
1784 1785 1786 1786 I 87 1788
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