Accession No. RARE.2024.0017: Purchased, 2021 November
[identification of item], Litchfield County (Connecticut) Court Summons of Ebenezer Norton and Jonathan Washburn Regarding Alleged Involvement in Supporting the Escape of Enslaved George Tankard, SPEC.RARE.MMS.0388, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Sabrina Gorse, 2024 April; Finding aid written by: Sabrina Gorse, 2024 April
Slavery existed in Connecticut from the seventeenth century into the nineteenth century. In 1774, when the state was still a colony, it passed "An Act for Prohibiting the Importation of Indian, Negro or Molatto Slaves," banning the purchase and importation of enslaved people into Connecticut. The Connecticut legislature later passed the Gradual Abolition Act of 1784 which stated that anyone born into slavery after 1 March 1784 would become free by the age of 25. Connecticut did not completely abolish slavery until 1848.
Ebenezer Norton lived in Goshen, Connecticut in 1781. Jonathan Washburn lived in Goshen in 1781. George Tankard was an enslaved man who was owned by Philemon Sanford in Goshen and escaped on approximately 10 March 1776.
The Litchfield County (Connecticut) Court Summons of Ebenezer Norton and Jonathan Washburn Regarding Alleged Involvement in Supporting the Escape of Enslaved George Tankard contains a summons issued by the Litchfield County (Connecticut) court to the “Litchfield County Sheriff, his Deputy or Constable of Goshen” to summon Ebenezer Norton and Jonathan Washburn to the county court for alleged involvement in and support of the escape of George Tankard, an enslaved man owned by Philemon Sanford. The summons is handwritten and signed by Andrew Adams on 12 September 1781 on the recto, with notes about the defendants and plaintiff’s responses handwritten by Constable Ephraim Starr and others involved in the case on the verso dating from 13 September 1781 to 1782.