Jacob Francis

1754 – 1836

I started life in servitude and ended it in freedom.

I was born in Amwell Township, Hunterdon County in 1754. My mother was a black woman and I was an indentured servant for a local farmer. My servitude was resold several times until I was about 13 years old, and my last master Joseph Saxton took me to New York, St. John in the Caribbean, and finally Salem, Massachusetts. When my servitude expired and I became free in January 1775, I enlisted in the 16^th Continental Regiment, using the last name Gulick which came from one of my previous owners.

When the British left Boston, the Continental Army went to New York City, and I fought in battles on Long Island and White Plains, before the Retreat Across New Jersey took us to Pennsylvania. On Christmas Night, 1776, I was part of Washington’s Crossing during the Ten Crucial Days battles at Trenton and Princeton.

Several days later at the beginning of 1777, I went home to Amwell to find my mother was ill. She told me my real last name was Francis so I became Jacob Francis when I joined the Third Hunterdon militia, and was in service every other month for the rest of the war. One time, I was captured during a skirmish with some Hessians, but I was able to escape and rejoin my company.

After the war, I purchased a black woman named Mary, and we were married in September 1789 at the home of her former master. I lived a long life and died on July 26, 1836.

 

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