James Mars

James Mars (1790–1880) was manumitted from slavery and became a noted author, abolitionist, Deacon, and civil rights activist. He helped start the Talcott Street Church in Hartford, CT and the Second Congregational Church in Pittsfield, MA.

Biography

James Mars was born into slavery in Canaan, Connecticut. He was enslaved with his family, who refused to follow their enslaver, a Congregational minister named Reverend Amos Thompson, to Virginia, where he would have been denied the manumission guaranteed him at age twenty-five under Connecticut law. They escaped into neighboring Norfolk where, with the help of the white citizens of Norfolk, they successfully evaded their enslaver's many attempts to kidnap and smuggle him across state lines. In his later life, he enjoyed a prominent place in New England's African American community. During the 1830s, Mars worked in a dry goods store in Hartford, Connecticut, where he helped start the historic Talcott Street Church where he also served as a deacon, alongside minister James W.C. Pennington.. He played an important part in the African American enfranchisement and temperance movements. Mars was a principal in the 1837 landmark case Jackson v. Bulloch, in which the Connecticut Supreme Court granted a fugitive enslaved woman, Nancy Jackson, her freedom after two years of residency in the state with her Georgia captor, James Bulloch. Around 1845, Mars moved his wife and eight children to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he stayed for twenty years before returning to Norfolk and publishing The Life of James Mars: A Slave Bought and Sold in Connecticut (1864). It went through at six editions. The 1868 edition provides a more detailed summary of his later life. Even in his old age, Mars prided himself on being self-sufficient. At "seventy-four years of age" he boasted that in "the hay season that is just passed I took my scythe and went into the hayfield and took my turn with the hands, day after day, with the same pay" (p. 35). Mars moved to Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, where he died in 1880" and is buried in the Center Cemetery in Norfolk, CT.

Agency

Mars spent his entire life advocating for his freedom and rights. It started when he escaped at a young age. He eventually returned to servitude in return for his parents' manumission.

"I was told where the man lived, and I must go, for he had bought me I thought of my parents; should I, oh! should I never see them again? As I was taught to obey my superiors, I set out; it was a little over a mile. The way was long. I went alone. Tears ran down my cheeks. I then felt for the first time that I was alone in the world, no home, no friends, and none to care for me. Tears ran, but it did no good; I must go, and on I went. And now sixty-five years have passed away since that time; those feelings are fresh in my memory.”-

"I told him I had done what he told me. That was more than I had ever said before. He was angry and got his horsewhip, and said he would learn me. He raised his hand and stood ready to strike. I said, “You had better not!” I then went out at the door. I felt grieved to see him in such a rage when I had done just as he told me, and I could not account for it." -

When he was older, he made the decision that he would rather go to jail than work for Mr. Munger. After negotiations, he ended up buying his freedom for $90.

Activism

James Mars became a cultivator of change and acceptance and helped fundraise for the passengers of the Amistad when working at the Talcott Street Congregational Church which is now named Faith Congregational Church located in Hartford, CT. Along with this James became a "prescient commentator on issues of equality, racial privilege, faith, and citizenship" ​- James Mars. His defiance in supporting independent black churches, facilitating the escape and legal defense of an enslaved southerner living in Connecticut, advancing petitions to the legislature, and writing an autobiography defined Mars as an engaged critic on the issues of his day.

Writing

James Mars was one of the few enslaved people to be educated and an author of a book and poems. His most famous work was his autobiography. Throughout the book, he talks about his life and time as an enslaved man in Connecticut. He thoroughly explains what happened to him such as trading his freedom for his parents, where he stayed when he escaped slavery, what churches he attended,​ or was a deacon.

James Mars' most famous poem is called "God Never Made a Slave". The poem reads:

"Columbia's son, though slave ye be,

God, your creator, made you free,

He life to all and being gave,

But never, never, made a slave!

His works are wonderful to see,

All, all, proclaim the Deity:

He made the earth, and formed the wave,

But never, never, made a slave!

He made the skies with spangles bright,

The moon to shine by night,

The sun, and spread the vast concave,

But never, never, made a slave!

The verdant earth, on which we tread

Was by his hand all carpeted;

Enough for all he freely gave,

But never, never, made a slave!

All men are equal in his sight

The bond, the free, the black the white:

He made them all, them freedom gave

He made the man, man made the slave!"

Religious beliefs

Mars was a very pious man. When Mars was enslaved he held many get-togethers​ where he and the other enslaved men and women would sing and pray to God. James' quotes in his biography that singing and praying to God made the days go by faster. Once Mars became a free man he became a deacon at the Talcott Street Church in Hartford, Connecticut and the Second Congregational Church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and the Church of Christ Congregational in Norfolk, CT.

Earmarks

Later in James Mars' life,​ he started to own some livestock. Once James passed away it was said that someone found an earmark from one of his animals. An earmark is a tag that you put on your livestock's​ ears so no one can take it. The earmark is an ownership tag and on this earmark that was found was James Mars and then a number. This was a very big find because this told us that James owned animals which means he lived on a farm.

References

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