Person

Primus Hall

Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site

a black iron gate with the words primus avenue sits at the entrance of an brick lined alley
A street where Hall owned land in Beacon Hill is now known as Primus Avenue

NPS Photo/A.Oswald

Quick Facts
Significance:
Revolutionary War veteran, Community leader and activist
Place of Birth:
Boston, Massachusetts
Date of Birth:
February 29, 1756
Place of Death:
Boston, Massachusetts
Date of Death:
March 22, 1842
Place of Burial:
Boston, Massachusetts
Cemetery Name:
Mount Hope Cemetery

Primus Hall served his country and his community in the Revolutionary War and beyond.

Born in Boston in 1756 to enslaved parents Delia and Prince Hall, Primus Hall spent much of his youth in Danvers, Massachusetts. Delia’s enslaver, David Walker, sent one-month old Primus to live with shoe-maker Ezra Trask. Walker had arranged for Hall to serve a term of indenture as an apprentice shoemaker with the Trask family. As Hall later reflected:

I was given to a Mr. Ezra Trask of Danvers, with the express understanding that he the said Trask was to bring me up and learn me the trade of shoemaker as soon as I was old enough, and that at the age of twenty one years I was to be free—the same as any white person.1

Though born to enslaved parents and subsequently given to Trask, Hall did not consider himself enslaved. In fact, he referred to himself as the adopted son and apprentice of Trask. He even used Trask’s surname when he enlisted in the war.2

Although bound out to learn shoemaking, Hall later said that the trade did not suit him. Trask allegedly encouraged Hall to explore other career opportunities, so he worked as a farmer and wagon driver in nearby Salem for some time. At the age of 19, he ultimately decided to join the Continental Army.

In January 1776, Primus Hall enlisted as a private in the Continental Army for a one-year term. Throughout several enlistments over the course of the war, Hall served in Boston, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and other colonies. In his final 22 months of service, he served as steward to Colonel Timothy Pickering. In this role, he traveled to various cities along the Eastern Seaboard, including Philadelphia and Baltimore. More significantly, he witnessed the British Army’s surrender at Yorktown, which secured American independence from the British Crown. He received his final discharge from the Continental Army and returned to Danvers in December 1782.3

In the years following the war, Hall resettled in Boston. To acclimate himself to the new town, he likely moved in with or near his father, Prince Hall, the founder of the first Black Masonic Lodge and a well-established member of the Black community in Boston. The two appear on tax records together in 1785.4

Hall married several times, had at least six children, and eventually became a successful soap-boiler and property owner. He purchased his first plot of undeveloped land in 1794, and by 1800, he began accumulating parcels along Southack Street—now Phillips Street—firmly establishing himself in the rapidly developing Beacon Hill neighborhood.5

Hall’s financial success and family life coincided with the emergence of his community activism. Likely drawing inspiration from his father’s advocacy, Hall particularly focused on ending slavery as well as uplifting his community. For example, in 1788, Hall, along with his father and about 20 other men, submitted a petition to the Massachusetts legislature to end the slave trade in the state and provide mechanisms to prevent kidnapping into slavery.6

Along with his father and other Black leaders, Hall made several attempts to get a separate public school established for Black children. When these efforts failed, he opened his Beacon Hill home for use as the community-run African School in 1798. Unfortunately, the school only operated for a few months before closing because of a yellow fever outbreak. The school later moved to a carpenter’s shop on Belknap—now Joy Street—in 1803, and then the basement of the African Meeting House a few years later.7

After a long life of service, Hall died on March 22, 1842, and is believed to be buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.8 Unlike many Black revolutionary soldiers who died in poverty and obscurity, Hall accumulated a significant amount of wealth and property as well as a high degree of social standing and influence.

Equally important, Hall became a powerful symbol as abolitionists and civil rights activists of the antebellum era used his story to highlight Black citizenship and patriotism in their fight against slavery and injustice.

He left behind a legacy of community service and advocacy that continued to inspire subsequent generations in the fight for freedom and equality.

This article has been adapted from the longer form story-map Primus Hall: A Revolutionary Life of Service researched and created by National Parks of Boston’s 2022 Digital History Internship Cohort. We encourage you to explore this story-map for a more comprehensive and interactive look at the life of Primus Hall and his military and community service.

Footnotes

  1. Primus Hall, Pension No. W. 751, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. NARA M804, page 75, via Fold3.com. 
  2. Primus Hall, Pension No. W. 751, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. NARA M804, page 35, via Fold3.com.
  3. Primus Hall, Pension No. W. 751, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. NARA M804, page 7, via Fold3.com.
  4. “1785 additional and abatement books,” City of Boston Tax Records, 1780-1821, reel 1 (1780-1786), p. 608, Boston Public Library. Archive.org.
  5. Primus Hall, Pension No. W. 751, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. NARA M804, page 13, page 38, via Fold3.com. Primus Trock Hall,” Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, via Ancestry.com. Births, marriages, deaths 1635-1844, Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001, Image 301, via FamilySearch.org.“Deaths,” Columbian Centinal, December 21, 1808, via GenealogyBank.com., “Primus Hall,” Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, via Ancestry.com.,“Deaths,” Boston Patriot, January 22, 1817, via GenealogyBank.com., Though we could not find any birth certificates for the children, we did find death notices connecting Primus Hall to at least three of the children. The children are believed to be as follows: Phebe Ann Clark, died June 1, 1821, age 3, George P. Hall, died June 7, 1825, age 4, Peter, died December 24, 1829, age 1, Ezra T. Hall, died February 5, 1843, age 18, Hannah Hall, died February 26, 1850, age 19
  6. “Documents Relating to Negro Masonry in America.” The Journal of Negro History 21 no. 4 (Oct. 1936): 428-9. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2714334.
  7. George A. Levesque, “Before Integration: The Forgotten Years of Jim Crow Education in Boston,” The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 48, no. 2 (Spring, 1979): 115. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2294758. Manisha Sinha, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), 127. [42] "Though Dwelling in a Land of Freedom,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/though-dwelling-in-a-land-of-freedom.ht
  8. Records show Primus Hall buried at Saint Matthews Church Cemetery. The church and cemetery closed in the 1860s and the bodies moved to another cemetery. It appears that many of the bodies were re-interred at Mount Hope Cemetery. “Primus Hall,” Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, via Ancestry.com. “Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Genealogy,” FamilySearch, via FamilySearch.org.

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Last updated: December 12, 2024