Flora

About the Subject

Flora was a woman of African heritage enslaved in Milford and Stratford, both towns in Connecticut. Her life spanned the crucial era of the American War of Independence that provided freedom from Great Britain for some but denied it to Flora and hundreds of thousands of other enslaved people. Nothing is known of Flora’s early life, but a bill of sale from when she was in the possession of the DeWitt family of Milford, Connecticut, provides a clue. The Bill of Sale notes that Flora was nineteen years old on December 13, 1796. Thus, her birth around 1776 coincided with both the onset of the American Revolution and the beginnings of antislavery activism in Connecticut.

During Flora’s lifetime, Connecticut’s free Black population grew, while the enslaved population dwindled. She became one of the last people in Stratford to remain in bondage. According to the 1790 census, among Milford’s population of 2,100, sixty-three people (or 3%) were enslaved. This means that the DeWitt family, which enslaved five people, was an exception.

Flora’s life was mostly controlled by the DeWitt women, who considered her their personal property. Like many other enslaved people, Flora would have had very little privacy or personal space and limited independence. At nineteen years old, Flora was sold to Asa Benjamin, a cordage and cable manufacturer in Stratford, Connecticut, where she lived from 1796 until her death around 1815.