Norwich, CT Freemen Take Oath As Colony Begins Drawing Closer To Independence for Sale

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Norwich, CT Freemen Take Oath As Colony Begins Drawing Closer To Independence For Sale

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Norwich, CT Freemen Take Oath As Colony Begins Drawing Closer To Independence:
$495.00

In Colonial America, a freeman was a man who was not a slave and had earned a position in his community and church. To become a freeman, one had to take a freemen’s oath, join the church and pay his debts. The term originated in 12-century Europe and was a common American Colonial expression in Puritan times, including New England.

Offering a one-page, 7 ¾ x 9 ¾, Colonial Oath Of Allegiance, September 14, 1862, taken in Norwich, CT, just two years before the Stamp Act, which forced Norwich to become more self-sufficient. When this oath was administered, New England was beginning to advance the desire for independence.

This oath was for Johan Perkins, Amos Borne, Flavis Waterman, Daniel Ladd, Samuel Lovet Jr, William Cart, Benjamin Leffingwell, which required allegiance to the British Crown. “Being admitted freemen of the Colony of Connecticut, Norwich, Sept. 14th, 1762, the persons above named being approved of the selectmen as persons qualified had the freemen’s oath administered to them...”

Signatures are slightly difficult to decipher, but those signing the oath include James Hide, Jabez Perkins, Ebenezer Peek. The last name of the person administering the oath was Huntington. First name difficult to decipher.

Norwich supported the cause for independence by supplying soldiers, ships and munitions and it was also a center for activity for the Sons of Liberty, a loosely organized clandestine and sometimes violent and political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies, founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British. One historian called the activities of the Sons of Liberty “mob terror.”

Document has expected toning, folds, a couple of small holes in the fold. Irregular right margin. Docketing on verso states that the oath was sworn on September 14th, 1762.

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