Private Caesar Thompson*

Private Caesar Thompson (unknown-1799) was enslaved by Samuel Welles of Natick, a wealthy landowner who had settled in Natick due to the availability of land. In 1775, Welles sent his “negro man” to serve in the campaign on Canada (the unsuccessful mission to capture Quebec led by General Benedict Arnold). He served in many locations during the war, including West Point, the Highlands, the York Hutts, and Phillippsburg (where the British had offered emancipation to any enslaved men who would join their army). He served throughout the war, leaving due to injury. He received a pension, approved in January 1783.  

Thompson was “fully and freely given” his freedom by Welles on the 18th of February 1783, just a week before slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts on February 25th.  

He and his wife and two sons moved to Acton where his daughter, Dorcas, was born in 1784. Later in 1785 he married Peggy Green in Acton. In 1796 the town petitioned the legislature to put the Thompson family on the state poor list and asked for reimbursement of the town’s expenses on their behalf. Thompson was basically a man without a town since he had been enslaved when he fought for Natick.  

In 1801 his daughter, Dorcas, married Pomp Freeman in Natick.

Samuel Welles’ granddaughter Isabella Pratt Welles married Hollis Horatio Honeywell; when the town was split off from Needham, it was named Wellesley in their honor.

Note: More often than not, service, vital, and/or other historical records were created and kept by men of English and European backgrounds. They employed a wide range of descriptive terms, such as "mulatto," negro," and "dark complexion." These terms cannot fully capture any soldier's identity, but they do offer clues. In some cases, the surname of a soldier of color connects him to a Natick family that is well documented. Often, these soldiers are Indigenous men. The biographies in this project make it possible to say more not only about a soldier's identity or background, but also about the life he led in Natick and beyond.