Benajah Bushnell

In June 1759, Norwich, Connecticut businessman Benajah Bushnell sold Guy Drock, a slave of African ancestry, to Sarah Powers, the Caucasian woman Drock had possibly married. Ironically, this deed freed Drock from Bushnell’s control but not from slavery.

As a boy, and young man, Guy Drock worked for Captain Benajah Bushnell, who was a wealthy, influential land speculator, and one of the original settlers of what became Norwich in New London County in the Colony of Connecticut in New England. He got the title “Captain”, not from any association with seafaring, but because of his involvement with the local militia which conducted drills at least once a year, whether they needed it or not. Sometime around 1755, Sarah Powers, a young woman from Newport, on the Colony of Rhode Island, also started working for Benajah Bushnell. We do not know whether Sarah Powers was a voluntary employee of Bushnell or an indentured servant legally obligated to work for him for a specified period of time. In fact, we know very little about Sarah …. we do not even know for sure that she was born in Rhode Island, only that she had lived there prior to appearing in Norwich.

While working for Bushnell, Sarah apparently fell in love with Guy, and probably married him sometime around 1757 or before. It is likely that she also had a child by Guy between 1757 and 1759, perhaps Simon. In June, 1759, Guy and Sarah probably stopped working for Benajah Bushnell, and set about trying to make a new life for themselves. The so called French and Indian War was raging at the time. Guy opened a small blacksmith shop in downtown Norwich. He may have learned his blacksmith’s skills while working for Bushnell, or perhaps he became self taught after he left Bushnell’s service. During the war, inflation ran rampant. After the war, of course, came an economic depression. Guy and Sarah must have been hard pressed indeed to keep body and soul together. Then, to make matters worse, the British parliament started passing the series of acts that eventually led to the Revolutionary War.

Source: http://www.mixedracestudies.org/?tag=connecticut

Benejah Bushnell, the 1st, was chosen lieutenant of the first company, or train-band, in 1714. In 1720, he was elected deputy, an office which he filled eight times in different years. In 1721, he was appointed captain of the train-band, and in 1723, he took a prominent part in settling the boundary line between Norwich and Preston. He was an influential member of the Episcopal Church, was senior-warden and treasurer of that organization, and gave, in 1746-47. a lot of land at the north-east end of Waweequaw's ill, near the old Landing Place on which to build a church.

Source: Old Houses of the Antient Town of Norwich [Conn.] 1660-1800 https://books.google.com/books?id=NdxdH4HoSVcC&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&d...