Sharper Freeman: From African Captivity to Freedom Through the American Revolution

In This Article

His Story

Sharper Freeman was born in Africa, carried across the Atlantic against his will, and enslaved in colonial Massachusetts. As a young man, he lost contact with his family and homeland. Years later, he entered the American army during the Revolutionary War, serving a nation that was fighting for independence while many people within its borders remained enslaved.

Freeman’s military service helped secure his own freedom. He eventually settled in Reading, Massachusetts, where he worked as a farmer and laborer and received a pension for his service in the Continental Army.

His life was remembered by nineteenth-century local historian Lilley Eaton, whose account preserves a rare detail from Freeman’s childhood: he remembered his mother’s cries when he was taken away from her.

That recollection makes Freeman’s story especially significant. The Revolutionary War was one chapter in a life already marked by forced migration, enslavement, and separation from family. His subsequent freedom, military service, and family life in Massachusetts illustrate both the possibilities and the contradictions of the American Revolution.

Taken from Africa

The earliest part of Sharper Freeman’s life is known principally through a history of Reading published in 1874 by Lilley Eaton.

Eaton wrote that Freeman had been brought from Africa when approximately sixteen years old. He also recorded a local belief that Freeman had been the son of an African king.

The claim concerning royal ancestry has not been independently verified. Neither the name of Freeman’s father nor the African community from which he came has been established.

One detail in Eaton’s account is particularly striking. Freeman reportedly remembered his mother crying when he was taken away. Although Eaton did not identify the source or date of this recollection, it preserves the memory of a family separation that remained associated with Freeman long after his arrival in America.

The historical record does not identify the vessel that transported him across the Atlantic, the port through which he entered British North America, or the circumstances of his original enslavement.

What can be established is that Freeman’s life began outside the American colonies and that he was subsequently held in slavery in Massachusetts.

Enslaved in Massachusetts

Before the Revolutionary War, Sharper Freeman was enslaved by a man identified in Eaton’s history as Mr. Breed of Lynn, Massachusetts.

Slavery existed throughout colonial New England, although the enslaved population was smaller than in the plantation colonies of the South. Enslaved people in Massachusetts worked in households, farms, maritime trades, and other occupations.

Freeman’s particular responsibilities while enslaved by the Breed household have not been established. His later employment as a farmer and laborer does not prove what work he performed before his emancipation.

By the time of the Revolution, arguments about liberty and natural rights had become central to political debate in Massachusetts. Those arguments also exposed a profound contradiction: colonists protested their political subordination to Britain while people of African descent remained enslaved among them.

For Freeman, the coming war provided a path toward a different future. Eaton’s history states that he gained his freedom through military enlistment.

Fighting for Freedom

Local historical research identifies Sharper Freeman as enlisting from Stoneham, Massachusetts, in 1780. His service reportedly took him to western Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Freeman entered military service during a difficult period for the American cause. The Continental Army had endured years of campaigning, and the conflict continued even after France entered the war as an American ally.

Black soldiers served in Massachusetts units and throughout the Continental Army. Some entered service as free men, while others were enslaved when they enlisted or were promised freedom in connection with military service.

Freeman belonged to the latter group according to Eaton’s historical account. The army offered a route out of slavery, although the precise legal arrangement through which he secured emancipation has not been recovered.

The available evidence does not identify individual battles in which Freeman personally fought during his first enlistment. His service should therefore be described through the documented locations and units rather than by assigning him participation in specific engagements.

A Second Enlistment

In April 1782, Freeman enlisted again. The CATO Reading Remembrance Tour identifies this period of service with the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, including duty at locations along the Hudson River.

His surviving federal pension roll identifies him as a private in a Massachusetts regiment commanded by Colonel Brooks and credits him with seventeen months of service.

These records describe related aspects of Freeman’s military career but do not provide a complete, independently reconciled chronology of every enlistment and regimental assignment.

The pension roll is particularly important because it confirms that the federal government formally recognized his service. The roll gives his residence as Reading, Massachusetts, and identifies him as a veteran of the Massachusetts Line.

By the time the war ended in 1783, Freeman had served in the army of a new nation whose independence had been secured. His own transition from slavery to freedom was another consequence of his wartime service.

The Name Freeman

One of the most meaningful features of Sharper Freeman’s story is the surname by which he became known.

According to Eaton, Sharper received the name Freeman when he gained his freedom through military service.

For a formerly enslaved man, the name publicly distinguished his new legal status. It also became the surname under which his military service was recorded and through which his family appeared in later Massachusetts vital records.

The precise date when he began using Freeman, and whether he personally selected the surname, are not established by the records examined.

What is clear is that Sharper Freeman lived as a free man after the Revolution, settled in Reading, and was remembered there as a veteran who had gained liberty through service in the American army.

Recognition After the War

Decades after the Revolution, Freeman sought federal recognition for his military service through the pension system.

His pension file, S.34891, survives in the National Archives. A pension roll records Sharper Freeman of Reading as a private who served seventeen months in a Massachusetts regiment commanded by Colonel Brooks.

His pension was allowed at eight dollars per month, beginning April 4, 1818. The certificate was issued on February 4, 1819, and forwarded to Judge John Davis in Boston.

For a veteran who had experienced enslavement and then worked as a farmer and laborer, the pension represented official recognition of his service and a recurring source of financial support.

Eaton credited Governor John Brooks and Deacon Wakefield with helping Freeman obtain the pension. This local account provides additional context for the assistance he received in securing benefits.

The pension roll confirms the award, but the surviving three transcribed pages examined for this article do not contain a full firsthand narrative by Freeman. His personal experience must therefore be reconstructed cautiously from military records, local histories, and later commemorations.

From His Account

Military Service

Conflict	American Revolutionary War
Allegiance	United States
Rank	Private
State	Massachusetts
Organization	Massachusetts Line, Continental Army
First Reported Enlistment	1780, from Stoneham, Massachusetts
Later Enlistment	April 1782
Regimental References	Colonel Brooks’s Regiment in federal pension roll; 7th Massachusetts in local historical research
Pension-Credited Service	Seventeen months
Reported Service Locations	Western Massachusetts, New Jersey and Hudson River region
Specific Battles	Not individually verified
Pension	S.34891
Pension Rate	$8 per month beginning April 4, 1818
Certificate Issued	February 4, 1819
National Archives ID	54614464

Later Life & Burial

After the Revolution, Sharper Freeman settled in Reading, Massachusetts, where historical accounts describe him as working as a farmer and laborer.

His later life was spent in a community where he had once been enslaved in the surrounding region but where he was subsequently recognized as a free resident and Revolutionary War veteran.

Freeman’s pension provided an allowance of eight dollars per month beginning in 1818. His receipt of a federal pension is supported by the surviving National Archives roll.

His death date presents a notable conflict in the historical record.

The published Vital Records of Reading, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 records Sharper Freeman’s death on January 4, 1833, at approximately ninety years of age. The entry also preserves a cemetery notation identifying him as a man kidnapped in Africa, enslaved, and later freed through Revolutionary War service.

However, the CATO Reading Remembrance Tour transcribes his gravestone as giving January 1, 1822, and an age of approximately eighty years.

These accounts cannot both be correct. The original cemetery records and the stone itself should be examined to determine whether the discrepancy results from an inscription, a transcription error, or a later memorial.

Freeman is commemorated at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Reading. The local historical tour identifies a marker bearing his name and recounting his enslavement and military service.

His grave and its inscription preserve a remarkable public remembrance: an African-born man who had been enslaved in Massachusetts was honored as a soldier of the American Revolution and a recipient of the freedom for which he served.

Family & Descendants

Family in Africa

Sharper Freeman’s earliest known family relationships were in Africa, where he lived before being taken into slavery at approximately sixteen years of age.

Lilley Eaton’s nineteenth-century history of Reading preserves the recollection that Freeman remembered his mother crying when he was taken away. The account suggests that the separation remained part of the story Freeman told about his childhood.

Eaton also recorded a local belief that Freeman was the son of an African king. No contemporary evidence has been identified to establish his father’s identity or confirm this claim.

The names of Freeman’s parents, siblings, and other relatives in Africa remain unknown. His exact birthplace and the African community to which his family belonged have not been established.

Amy Holden and the Freeman Household

Published Reading birth records identify two sons of Sharper Freeman and Amy Holden of Stoneham, Massachusetts.

The records provide strong documentary evidence that Amy Holden was the mother of Sharper’s children. However, the birth entries alone do not establish whether the couple was legally married, and no independently verified marriage record has been identified for this article.

It is therefore more accurate to identify Amy Holden as the documented mother of Sharper Freeman’s sons than to assign her a marriage date or describe her as his wife without further evidence.

The reference to Stoneham in the birth records also places the family within the same region from which Sharper was reported to have entered military service.

Children of Sharper Freeman

The published vital records of Reading identify two sons of Sharper Freeman and Amy Holden:

• Joel Freeman — Born January 28, 1800. The Reading birth record identifies him as the son of Sharper Freeman and Amy Holden of Stoneham.
• James Freeman — Born June 22, 1801. The Reading birth record likewise identifies him as their son. A Reading death entry for James Freman, a spelling variation of Freeman, records his death on March 21, 1831, at approximately thirty years of age. The correspondence in name, age, and locality supports the identification, although the death entry does not name his parents.

These records establish the names and birth dates of two children. They do not prove that Joel and James were Sharper’s only children.

Additional family records may identify other children, but no such relationship is included here without supporting evidence.

Possible Later Generations

Reading vital records also contain later entries for individuals named Freeman, including a Joel Freeman associated with a woman named Lucy and children recorded during the nineteenth century.

Those entries provide promising leads for research into Sharper Freeman’s descendants. However, the identity of the later Joel Freeman has not been securely connected to Sharper’s son Joel through a complete documentary chain.

For that reason, no children of the later Joel Freeman are presented here as verified grandchildren of Sharper Freeman, and no subsequent generations are identified as established descendants.

Further research in Massachusetts marriage records, federal census schedules, probate files, church records, and later birth and death certificates may establish whether Sharper’s son Joel married, raised children, and left descendants.

Sharper Freeman’s family history is significant even where the surviving record is incomplete. His children were born in Massachusetts after he had secured his freedom, and their recorded names preserve a direct family connection to a man who had been forcibly separated from his own parents in Africa.

Original Sources & Historical Note