During the same years Pamela was enslaved in the Meriam household, questions of liberty were the hot topic of conversation in Massachusetts parlors, taverns, and churches. As pastor of Newton’s only church at a time when the ruling class’s politics and religion were intertwined, the Rev. Meriam was intimately familiar with the town leaders, their opposition to British treatment of the colony, and support for the cause of independence. These discussions of freedom from England were inseparable from discussions of human bondage. Engaging with such ideas would have been impossible for any pastor to avoid, and Pamela could hear it all, both in the parsonage and at church.
At some point during the American Revolution, the Rev. Jonas Meriam set Pamela free. One historian writes that Pamela’s gratitude prompted her to stay in the parsonage as a free woman, continuing to serve the Rev. Meriam until his death a few years later. That may be partly true, but there were reasons other than gratitude to stay. Colonial society did not make it easy for people who had been enslaved to live in freedom. They often left slavery with nothing but their freedom. Establishing an independent life without money, property of their own, or many job possibilities was challenging. Some formerly enslaved people chose to remain with their enslavers, or entered service in other households, out of self-preservation. They may have felt as bound to white enslavers in freedom as they had been under slavery.
Freedom, not Independence
One notable example of someone who stayed with his enslaver in freedom was the man known as Tillo, short for Othello, who was enslaved in Newton by General William Hull. By remaining with Gen. Hull, Tillo ensured that he had shelter, food, and a community. He continued to attend church at the First Church of Newton and participated in the life of the town, but history records him as an “encumbrance” to Gen. Hull’s estate, and he is reportedly interred — without a marker of his own — in Gen. Hull’s family tomb in the East Parish Burying Ground.
Left: The Fuller-Hull tomb in Newton, where Gen. Hull and, reportedly, Tillo are interred.
When it became clear that the Rev. Meriam was suffering from tuberculosis, Pamela diligently nursed him. By the time he made out his will in 1779, he knew he was in failing health. It was not uncommon for Massachusetts slaveholders to guarantee their enslaved people’s freedom in their wills, but the Rev. Meriam made no mention of Pamela in his. Still, we know that by the time of his death on 3 August 1780, he, Pamela herself, and everyone else must have recognized Pamela as a free woman.
Because before the month was out, Pamela got married.