By:\u00a0 Charles Brilvitch<\/p>\n
A community of \u201cfree people of color\u201d began to coalesce around the lower reaches of Bridgeport Harbor the same year (1821) that Bridgeport itself came into being.\u00a0 Comprised of freed blacks born in Connecticut, runaway enslaved persons from southern states, and remnants of Indian tribes from Connecticut and New York State, this village came to be known as \u201cEthiope\u201d (\u2018land of men with burned faces\u2019 from the classical Greek).\u00a0 Located one-half mile to the south of Bridgeport proper, its evolution paralleled that of the larger \u201cwhite\u201d town:\u00a0 A church was organized in 1835 (with a second in 1843); a school for the community\u2019s children in 1841, and a free lending library in 1849.\u00a0 \u201cEthiopis\u201d\u2014as the inhabitants were known\u2014also established a Masonic lodge and a number of other fraternal organizations.\u00a0 By 1853 the village\u2019s success was such that a leading African American businessman from New York constructed here a four-story hotel replete with wrap-around verandas and a rooftop belvedere to overlook the harbor and Long Island Sound.<\/p>\n
The men of Ethiope were in the main employed as seamen on whalers and West Indies schooners, but others found work as shopkeepers, waiters, and barbers.\u00a0 Women became laundresses, restaurant owners, and cooks on steamboats and in the homes of Bridgeport\u2019s wealthy\u2014including showman P.T. Barnum.\u00a0 Evidence points to Ethiope\u2019s having been a major depot on the Underground Railroad, with Shinnecock Indians from Long Island ferrying those fleeing from slavery across the Sound under cover of darkness to the village\u2019s sequestered landing place in a tidal creek.\u00a0 By 1850 the community came to be known as \u201cLiberia,\u201d evidently reflecting the pride felt by its residents in helping their brethren on the road to freedom.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The South End community was founded and sustained in its formative years by families with the name of Freeman\u2014all probably related\u2014who came from the towns of Stratford, Milford, and Fairfield.\u00a0 In 1828, when Ethiope was a settlement of but four houses, a man named Joel Freeman came to join them from the town of Derby.\u00a0 From the outset, Joel was in a position of leadership:\u00a0 He was listed first among three trustees at the founding of the church in 1835, and it was the \u201cPetition of Joel Freeman\u201d that persuaded the Connecticut General Assembly to allocate funds for a village school in 1841.\u00a0 Joel Freeman was almost always a witness at community marriages and the signing of secured loans, and was frequently named executor of the estates of the deceased.\u00a0 Perhaps much of this was the result of his ability to read and write.<\/p>\n
Joel\u2019s sisters Eliza (1805-1862) and Mary (1815-1883) remained in Derby tending to their aged parents until their deaths in 1841 and 1843.\u00a0 By 1844 both sisters were in New York City, where Mary became a chef in a major hotel.\u00a0 In 1848\u2014the year the railroad from New York to Bridgeport was completed\u2014the sisters bought adjoining lots in Liberia and constructed substantial homes around the corner from Joel\u2019s homestead.\u00a0 They never married.\u00a0 By the time of her death, Eliza had assembled more than $3,000 in real estate holdings\u2014at a time when houses sold for $300.\u00a0 Over the ensuing twenty years Mary parlayed her investments to holdings of \u201c$30,000 to $50,000,\u201d making her one of the wealthiest women in Bridgeport.<\/p>\n
Mary and Eliza Freeman overcame significant obstacles as women of color in nineteenth-century America.\u00a0 The story of their success could serve as inspiration to many.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Of the three dozen or so houses that made up this long-vanished community, only two survive on their original foundations: the homes of the Freeman sisters.\u00a0 Surrounded by a storage warehouse complex, a five-story brick apartment house, and expansive parking lot, the houses have somehow come through the last century and a half with relatively few modifications.<\/p>\n
Eliza\u2019s residence is a Greek Revival \u201chalf house,\u201d three bays in width with a side hallway.\u00a0 It retains a walnut stair rail, almost Shaker-like in its severe yet elegant simplicity. Most of the major rooms contained mantelpieces of simple Grecian styling.\u00a0 Although a storefront was cobbled on in 1906 and a fire caused damage in the 1980s, enough survives so that a full restoration can be effected.<\/p>\n
Mary\u2019s house is located just to the north and is an Italianate-styled double house or duplex.\u00a0 It is built over a high brick \u201cEnglish\u201d basement with its main entrances under a second-story piazza.\u00a0 The double-house design provided for rental income\u2014Mary\u2019s usual tenant was the pastor of Bethel Church.\u00a0 The interior is virtually intact with simple mantelpieces, four-panel doors with thumblatches, and tiny rooms that seem to shout of Mary\u2019s frugal nature.<\/p>\n
The Freeman Houses constitute a unique survival.\u00a0\u00a0 They present an opportunity to exhibit a chapter of Connecticut\u2019s history that has for too long been overlooked.\u00a0 They deserve to be restored for the edification of today\u2019s citizens as well as that of future generations.<\/p>\n
Want to learn more about the Mary and Eliza Freeman houses and the area? The Bridgeport History Center has the following materials available:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n National Register of Historic Places nomination, Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses<\/p>\n Bridgeport City Directories<\/span><\/p>\n Connecticut Census Records, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By:\u00a0 Charles Brilvitch A community of \u201cfree people of color\u201d began to coalesce around the lower reaches of Bridgeport Harbor the same year (1821) that Bridgeport itself came into being.\u00a0 Comprised of freed blacks born in Connecticut,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,45],"tags":[80,118,146,181,196],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-african-american-heritage","category-south-end","tag-black-history","tag-freeman-houses","tag-little-liberia","tag-south-end-2","tag-womens-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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