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Beginning in the 18th century, there was a custom of Black Kings and Governors in New England. Some colonies or towns would hold elections for African American men to select an esteemed leader for the local Black community. While their power was circumscribed by the system of slavery, the Black governors served as judge, mediator, and liaison for their community.

Election Day was a festival day, providing a break from labor and an opportunity for the enslaved to subtly mock their enslavers and show pride in their heritage. The nomenclature varied depending on whether the British Crown appointed the governor (New Hampshire and Massachusetts) or whether the colony held a charter (Rhode Island and Connecticut). In Crown colonies, black men elected black kings. In charter colonies, black men elected black governors. African-Americans elected kings in Portsmouth, N.H., Salem, MA and Lynn, MA. Black governors were elected in Newport and Narragansett, RI. In Connecticut, black governors were elected in Derby, Durham, Farmington, New Haven, Norwich, Seymour, Wethersfield, and Woodbridge.

Nero Brewster
Nero Brewster was a long-standing Black king of Massachusetts. He was born in Africa and taken to America to be enslaved as a child. He was sold to Col. William Brewster of Portsmouth, Massachusetts. Brewster and 19 other slaves petitioned the New Hampshire legislature to abolish slavery in 1779. The petitioners wanted them to “hold true to the ideals upon which the Revolution was based.” The request was ignored. In 2013, New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan posthumously granted Brewster and 14 of the petitioners their freedom (the other 6 had been freed during their lifetime). Hassan said, “It is a source of deep shame that our predecessors did not honor this request. But today, more than 230 years too late for their petition, we can say that freedom is truly an inherent right.” Brewster died in 1789, still enslaved. He was described as “A monarch, who, while living, was held in reverential esteem by his subjects; consequently, his death greatly lamented.”

Prince Whipple, an illiterate prince of Africa and sold into slavery as a child, may have run against Nero in an election. He served as General Whipple’s bodyguard during the Revolutionary War and at the Battle of Saratoga. He accompanied him to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Legend has it that he was at the crossing of the Delaware with George Washington.

Pompey was an honored African prince. He too had been captured and sold, but was freed when he grew too old to work. He moved to a home near the Saugus River in Massachusetts and each year he hosted a party for the African bondmen from the area. Pompey and the other old men spent hours telling stories of happier days in their homeland along the Gambia River in West Africa.

In the period from about 1750 to 1850, there were at least 31 black governors in New England.

William Lanson
William Lanson was elected Black Governor in New Haven for the years 1825 to 1830. Lanson was an engineer and builder, responsible for New Haven's Long Wharf and the New Haven portion of the Farmington Canal.

Eben Tobias
Eben Tobias was Black Governor from Derby from 1840-1845. His son, Ebenezer Bassett, was the first African American diplomat, serving as the United States Ambassador to Haiti from 1869 to 1877; before that, he had been principal of the Institute for Colored Youth, later Cheyney University.

https://todayincthistory.com/2022/10/16/october-16-the-united-states-first-african-american-diplomat/

Peleg Nott
Peleg Nott was elected Black Governor in Hartford in 1780. Nott was enslaved by Jeremiah Wadsworth, a merchant, politician, commissary for the Continental Army. Nott drove a provisions cart during the American Revolutionary War and supervised Wadsworth's farm in West Hartford. Wadsworth freed Nott and his wife and granted him property in Hartford.[1][3]

Legacy
Salem Willows is an oceanfront park in Salem, Massachusetts where election day continues to be commemorated. I