In Boston, Eliphalet Fitch decided to sell the boy for his profit. He renamed the little girl Pamelia — later Pamela — and gave her to his recently widowed mother, Jerusha Boylston Fitch.
A Woman of Wealth and Stature
Jerusha Boylston Fitch was a daughter of the wealthy Boylston family of Boston. Her husband, Benjamin Fitch, owned five houses and other valuable property, including an enslaved woman and her child who were kept at the Fitch mansion in Cambridge. But as a wife, she could not legally own separate property.
When her husband died in 1767, his estate was divided among their five children, and the widow lost her household and the enslaved domestic help that went along with it. The gift of Pamela was something Eliphalet Fitch could do for his mother to restore some of the lifestyle that had been taken from her and ensure she had someone else to do the household tasks she wasn't used to doing for herself.
Left: Boylston Family Coat of Arms, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Image used by permission.
At 6 or 7 years old, Pamela would have been tasked with food preparation, cleaning, laundry, ironing, and emptying chamber pots. Alone with her new mistress, she had to learn both a new language and her new duties from a woman who was used to being waited on. And there were no other enslaved women in the house to help Pamela learn her role. Her mistakes were dealt with harshly.
Toward the end of 1769, another Boston merchant, Samuel Abbot, rented an enslaved girl from Jerusha Boylston Fitch for five and a half months. The girl was probably Pamela. Abbot was a bachelor. He may have employed a housekeeper or cook, but no receipts exist for such an individual’s pay. With no family, maintaining his household would have been a simple enough thing for the man to do himself, but something prompted him to use enslaved labor for temporary help.
A Girl for Rent
The receipt for services does not identify Pamela by name, but the historical record indicates that Jerusha Boylston Fitch probably had only one enslaved girl in her household at the time. With her finances diminished by her husband’s death, the widow likely found the rental income more valuable than Pamela’s services. She would also have been glad to oblige Samuel Abbot, a member of her social circle.
Right: This receipt is among Samuel Abbot's papers held at Harvard Business School. In this context, "wages" does not mean money that was paid to the young girl, but rather the rental fee paid to her enslaver.
For Pamela, moving to Samuel Abbot’s house meant once again being uprooted into a complete unknown. She must have worried about how Abbot would treat her. Her work for him, though, would have been similar to her work in the Fitch household: cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, mending clothes, and keeping the house in order. Perhaps Abbot rented her to care for someone who was ill, giving medicine and running other errands. When the rental term was up, Pamela returned to Jerusha Boylston Fitch.