When Vicky Avery began her research on black slavery in Stratham, she started with the most renowned slave from the area, Caesar Wood. Believed to have been an influence at town meetings and one of the more frequently listed slaves in town records, Wood also enlisted in the Constitutional Army and served three years, fighting the British during the Revolutionary War. After his enlistment was up, he returned to Stratham and reportedly died shortly thereafter.

So when Avery heard from local resident Don Hatch that his childhood home in Greenland had several gravestones nearby, one of them inscribed with the name “Caesar” and a date of death of 1785, she was intrigued. A well-known Tory owned Hatch’s childhood home during the Revolutionary era, and it was unlikely that Wood had been buried on the farmstead of a British loyalist.

Avery dug deeper into old town records and the oral history of several local families, and discovered that there were at least two slaves in the area named Caesar: Caesar Wood and Caesar Brackett.

This spring a headstone will be placed in Greenland, on property that’s now part of the Tidewater Farm housing development, thanks to funds donated by John Brackett. The marker will recognize the gravesite of Caesar Brackett and distinguish him from Caesar Wood of Stratham. Avery, along with archaeologist Kathy Wheeler, will be conducting a discussion on her findings on Monday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. at the Wiggin Memorial Library in Stratham. She spoke recently with The Wire about how she became interested in local history and what she’s discovered about Caesar Brackett. 

How long have you been researching slavery and black history in Stratham?
I became a member of the (Stratham) Heritage Commission two and a half years ago, and one of the long-term projects of the commission is to update the book “The History of Stratham” (first published in 1966 by Charles Nelson) for the town’s 300th anniversary in 2016. So the idea was that we would start looking at the existing history book to see the areas that needed updating. I picked the section on slavery, and discovered almost immediately that some of the facts there just didn’t hold true. So I started doing research on the one slave (Caesar Wood) who lived in the community and is listed in the community records the most.

What piqued your interest in researching black slavery?
It’s a hobby. I’m a stay-at-home mom with three little girls. I’ve lived in town for 15 years and I enjoy (writing) historical pieces. I use to write for a Seacoast paper, and I did a lot of historical things for that. This particular issue piqued my interest because there isn’t a lot of history written about slavery in the area, and I saw this as an opportunity to set the record straight.

Why do you think unearthing this kind of information is important to the town of Stratham and residents of the area?
I would hope it would be important to the residents, especially this particular story, since Caesar Wood is memorialized in a veteran’s memorial in our town park. It’s important to recognize that this man (Wood) did great things for our community, but he is not the man buried (in Greenland).
We don’t know where Caesar Wood ended up.

So who was Caesar (Brackett)?
Caesar Brackett was a completely different story. He was owned by Nathaniel Brackett, who left his property and slave to his son Thomas. Thomas (Brackett) drowned in Great Bay the same year that Caesar died.

He (Caesar) is mentioned in the will of Nathaniel and is also listed as one of the patients that was treated by Dr. Weeks. His (original) gravestone was engraved with the name Caesar and we know this because a woman from Exeter came out and noted all the gravestones before they had been knocked over. It was unusual for him to have a marker that was engraved.

During the time when the developers came in and looked at the group of homes and auctioned the items of the houses off (in the early 1980s), one of the things that someone bought was a piece of the gravestone. Many thought it was considered a part of Stratham, and, for whatever reason, the (Stratham) Historical Society discovered this stone at an antique dealer and bought it. They were under the assumption that it was the gravestone of Wood. That piece of gravestone still resides in the historical society today.

What kind of history does Stratham have with slavery? For what reasons were slaves used in the area?
Slavery here would have been different than in the south. Nobody owned many slaves—there may have been one, two or three (slaves) in a family that farmed a plot of land. And there are cases were the slaves lived in a house. But only during a census, taken every 10 years, would slaves have been noted—and only as male or female. So we can’t really get an insight into how they lived their lives.
In Portsmouth a community of freed blacks developed, but in Stratham even when blacks were freed they didn’t choose to live here…. The slaves here typically lived in poverty and died in poverty and weren’t that involved with the community.

What about the Underground Railroad, the abolitionist network that illegally helped slaves achieve freedom?
Yes, there certainly are rumors that there was a house here or there that was involved with the Underground Railroad, but again there is not documentation. In Stratham there is at least one instance, through oral history, which says that (the Moses Clark house) was used for it. At that house there is a gravesite of a woman who is rumored to be a freed black who lived with the family.

What was the most disturbing or surprising detail that you unearthed from your research on slavery?
The biggest surprise to everyone involved was that there were two Caesars. ... There were (slavery) communities in Stratham and Greenland, and there is some oral history there that isn’t documented and needs to be. (This project) showed me that there is still work to be done.

In the spring, Avery will begin research on another gravesite, pointed out to her by local landowner John Brackett, which he claims is the grave of Ona Judge Staines, former slave to President George Washington. Staines escaped during Washington’s tenure as president, and it’s noted that she lived in Portsmouth until our founding father alerted local law enforcers to her escape. Staines then went to live in Greenland with a local family and died there in 1848. 

Stratham’s Slave History
Learn about the lives of black slaves in Greenland and Stratham in the 1700-1800’s.
Monday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m.
Wiggin Memorial Library, Stratham 603-772-4346

If you’re interested in more information on the history of slavery in the area, check out “Black Portsmouth,” written by Mark J. Sammons and Valerie Cunningham.