Caesar Prutt

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Hadley, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

June 1727

Date of Death:

1807(?)

The following is from the 2004 National Park Service study Patriots of Color researched and prepared by George Quintal:

Caesar Prutt was born on June 1727 in Hadley (MA), the son of Arthur and Jane (________) Prutt, and lived with Josiah Chauncey, Esq.^I

His first tour of service was in 1758 ‘for the invasion of Canada,’ in the French and Indian Wars, under Capt. Elisha Pomeroy, in Col. Israel Williams regiment.^II

He was still a slave in 1770 when he was ‘valued at £25.’^III Historian James Avery Smith, who discovered a legal case in which Caesar was the defendant, drew some fascinating conclusions:

In December of 1770, Caesar, who had been hunting, shot a deer with his musket. He was discovered dressing the carcass by Solomon Boltwood, a leading citizen of Amherst. Solomon reported the incident to the sheriff, and Caesar was brought before the Court of Sessions at Northampton on a charge of poaching. Solomon later received a small informer’s fee for his report of the incident.

At his trial in July 1771, Caesar Prutt admitted his guilt and was fined £6. This event provides several insights into the rights of slaves in Amherst. First, it shows that slaves could carry arms within the Amherst community. Second, it is obvious that there were times when a slave was “on his own,” moving about in the fields and woods without any supervision from his owner. The record of this event is also interesting as it shows that slaves were subject to the action and protection of the courts. When Prutt was found poaching, it was he, not his owner, who came before the court. In the poaching case, Prutt was given a severe sentence, as £6 was a significant fine for anyone, and he was expected to pay it with his own funds. Therefore, some slave must have earned money that they were allowed to keep as their own.^IV

After the Lexington Alarm he enlisted from Amherst (MA) on 8 May 1775 into the eight months’ service, in the company of Capt. Reuben Dickinson in Col. Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge’s regiment. His name appears on a 27 July 1775 receipt for advance pay, on the 1 August 1775 muster roll, on a 28 September 1775 company return ‘dated Prospect Hill’ and on a 26 October 1775 ‘order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money dated Prospect Hill.’^V

On 1 December 1775, he enlisted in Capt. James Perry’s company in Col. Paul Dudley Sargent’s regiment. A 6 April 1776 roll lists him as ‘reported in hospital.’^VI

In 1777, he enlisted from Amherst into the Continental Army under Col. Sargent for three years.^VII

In his old age he became a town pauper in Amherst. Town records from 1801 to 1807 state the case:

1801: ‘Caesar Prat a Town Pauper be Set up at vendue, to the Lowest bidder for Victualling and Beding and was Struck of[f] to Ins Asa Smith for one year for one Doller Per week.’^VIII

1802: ‘Voted to allow Samuel Hastings, Fortey four Dollars For Victualing and Clothing Caesar Prut, for one year, and Said Samuel is to Leave Cesar Prut as well clothed at the End of the year as he now finds him.’^IX

1803: ‘Voted that Lt. John Ingram take Cesar Prut a Towns Pauper for one year. Said John is to Victual & lodge Said Cesar, and Leave him as well Clothed at the End of the year as he now finds him, for the Consideration of Twenty nine Dollars & Twenty five Cents.’^X

1804: ‘Voted that Cesar Prutt, a negro and Town’s Pauper, be set-up at vendue, to the lowest bidder, to be kept, the year insuing with suitable vituals and clothing and to be returned at the end of the year, as well clothed as he now is. He was accordingly set-up, as aforesaid, and struck-off to Aaron Merrick, he being the lowest bidder, at the Sum of forty one Dollars & fifty Cent, on the conditions above expressed.’^XI

1805: [That year Caesar was joined by two other paupers]: ‘Voted … that Caesar Prutt [be set-up] to Daniel Moody, to be kept through the year, on the above conditions, for the sum of forty eight Dollars and twenty five cents.’^XII

1806: ‘Caesar Prutt to Joel Kellogg for fifty one Dollars …'^XIII

1807: ‘... Caesar Prutt, an aged negro … put up at vendue and … bid off for a year at $65.’^XIV

No further known records mention Caesar Prutt and is likely that he died in 1807.

Footnotes:

1. Boltwood, Lucius M. Genealogies of Hadley [MA] Families … (1905), 115-116.
2. Carpenter & Morehouse. The History of the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts 1731-1896 (1896), Part I:63.
3. Smith, James Avery. The History of the Black Population of Amherst, Massachusetts 1728-1870 (1999), 3.
4. Ibid, 5.
5. Secretary of Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908), 12:670; listed as ‘Pratt.’ Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid 12:661; listed as ‘Prat.’
8. Carpenter & Morehouse. The History of the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts 1731-1896 (1896), Part II: 187.
9. Ibid, 189.
10. Ibid, 191.
11. Ibid, 192.
12. Ibid, 194.
13. Ibid, 196.
14. Ibid, Part I:59.

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