Samuel Fraunces: Black Man or White Man? November 4, 1783 George Washington gives his farewell address to his troops at Fraunces Tavern in NYC owned by Samuel “Black Sam” Fraunces a wealthy West Indian of African and French descent who aided Revolutionary forces with food and money.. Family records compiled by a descendant indicate that he was white [copies at New York Historical Society, Fraunces Tavern Museum and Historical Society of Pennsylvania]. Late-19th- and 20th-century traditions claim he was black. If Fraunces was of African descent, it means that Washingtons presidential household was composed of both free and enslaved blacks alongside white wage workers and indentured servants. It would be particularly significant if Washington put a free black man in charge of the whole household staff, something that should be interpreted at the Presidents House site. The Independence Hall Association urged the National Park Service to resolve this dispute in March 2003. Samuel Fraunces (1722/23 — 1795) was a tavernkeeper in New York City and Philadelphia. Most famously, he operated what is now called Fraunces Tavern, at the southern tip of Manhattan. During the Revolutionary War, Fraunces was a patriot and a spy for the American side. General Washington and his officers celebrated the end of the war with a farewell banquet at Fraunces Tavern, on December 4, 1783. In 1785, Congress recognized Frauncess role in foiling a 1776 assassination plot against Washington. Washington was inaugurated as first President of the United States on April 30, 1789. Fraunces served as steward of the presidential household in both New York City (1789-90) and Philadelphia (1791-94). Fraunces retired from the presidential household in 1794, and took over operation of a Philadelphia tavern. He died the following year: DIED - On Saturday Evening last, MR. SAMUEL FRAUNCES, aged 73 years. By his death, Society has sustained the loss of an honest man, and the Poor a valuable friend. Gazette of the United States, October 13, 1795. Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, co-founder of the NAACP and first editor of its magazine The Crisis, tried to resolve the issue of Frauncess racial identity. He found no conclusive evidence of Fraunces having been of African descent. Mrs. John Fraunces McCurley, a genealogist and the widow of a Fraunces descendant, reached the same conclusion. Biographer Kym S. Rice found no 18th-century references to Fraunces having been black. She noted his history as a slaveholder, and listed his memberships in groups (such as the Masons) that were restricted only to whites. Still, Philadelphia historian Charles Blockson lists writers who have described Fraunces as Negro, coloured, Haitian Negro, mulatto, fastidious old Negro, and swarthy. Cheryl Janifer Laroche, a historian who worked on the 2007 Presidents House excavation in Philadelphia, notes conflicting census data depicting his family as both mulatto and white. In 1838, a supposed witness to Washingtons 1783 New York farewell to his officers named Samuel Cooper called Fraunces a negro man. Jennifer Patton, Director of Education at the Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York City, writes that The use of black as a prefix to a nickname was not uncommon in the 18th century and did not necessarily indicate African heritage of an individual. For instance, Admiral Richard Lord Howe (1762- 1799), one of Britain’s best known and respected seamen and a white man was commonly called Black Dick, a nickname his brother Sir William Howe gave to him as descriptive of the Admiral’s swarthy complexion. Patton concludes that, The issue of Samuel Fraunces’ racial identity is still a passionate topic of discussion to this very day. As debate rallies on for conclusive evidence, the actual truth is that we may never know for sure. Samuel Frauncess nickname was Black Sam True.. This nickname is well-documented. Fraunces Tavern was called Black Sams: British warship HMS Asia bombarded lower Manhattan with cannon fire on August 23, 1775. Philip Freneau published a poem about the incident, Hugh Gaines Life, that contained the couplet, At first we supposed it was only a sham. Till she drove a round ball thro the roof of black Sam. A great Dinner today at Black Sams (William Smith, Historical Memoirs of William Smith 1778-1783 [New York 1971] p.271.) Inclosed is a letter to Mr. Frauncis [sic] (als. black Sam). (George Washington to Clement Biddle, Sept. 7, 1785.) Samuel Fraunces was born in 1722/1723 True. The source for this is his October 13, 1795 obituary in the Gazette of the United States. Samuel Fraunces was born in the West Indies Possibly True. There is no documentation of where he was born. There is a tradition that he came from Barbados. Source: Kym S. Rice, A Documentary History of Fraunces Tavern: The 18th Century (New York: Fraunces Tavern Museum, 1985), p. 25. The claim that he came from Haiti is unsupported by evidence. The claim that he was a Mulatto Samuel (no last name) born in Jamaica about 1734, would have made him 11 or 12 years younger than his obituary states. Samuel Fraunces is identified in the 1790 U.S. Census as white True. He is listed as a free, white male and the head of a household in Dock Ward, Manhattan, New York. The household includes 4 free, white women, likely his wife and 3 of their daughters. Source: Heads of Families, United States Census of 1790, New York (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census, reprinted 1979), p. 117. Samuel Fraunces is identified in the 1790 U.S. Census as a slaveholder True. One slave (no gender recorded) is listed in his household. Heads of Families, United States Census of 1790, New York (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census, reprinted 1979), p. 117. Samuel Fraunces had a history of slaveholding In The Royal Gazette (August 8, 1778) Fraunces advertises the auction of a 14-year-old male slave. Samuel Fraunces belonged to organizations that didnt allow blacks True. Fraunces was a Freemason, which excluded blacks. He was a member of Trinity Church, where blacks could attend, but not become members. He was listed on the New York voter rolls (voting was restricted to white men of property).
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:27:19 +0000
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