Hagar & Maria

Research Subject
Written By John Mills

Roger’s Cemetery - New London, CT

In my studies, I came across two sisters, Hagar and Maria; African slaves in New London Connecticut of a wealthy 17th century trader named James Rogers.

James' son John had 6 kids; 4 by his wife, but the two eldest by his father's slave Maria; a circumstance I define as rape, yet family lineage lists her as "a partner." John would become the leader of the Rogerene Quakers; a religious sect that splintered from the Seventh Day Baptists. His ancestors describe him as a religious man, celebrated for never owning a slave, paying little mind to the dynamics regarding the children he fathered from his father's slave; a 1902 book not even acknowledging Maria or her children even existed.

Maria’s sister, Hagar, was emancipated on the death of James Rogers. In 1709, 21 years after being freed, Hagar's former master's son (James Jr.) attempted to force her and her children back into slavery, telling the courts they were property of his fathers estate. She was forced to pay bond to remain free while the case proceeded. John Rogers' is documented as helping Hagar in her fight for freedom against his brother. Sarah Rogers (John's Sister-in-law) is listed as taking in Hagar's youngest son (Wait) as a means to keep him out of his mother's fight for her family's freedom; although Sarah would eventually sell Wait to her own son; the irony. It would take 7 years, but Hagar's freedom was eventually upheld.

That’s enough about them. I really couldn't care less about the privileged, self-righteous and self-congratulating arrogance of those who oppress, then claim themselves to be good, righteous saviors, celebrated by our current day structure. I came here to the Rogers Cemetery, a place now maintained by Rogers ancestors, Connecticut College and the Waterford Historic Commission, looking for two Black Queens...Hagar and Maria. I came to this location off the Thames river because the perseverance of millions of Black women like them, fighting for a better life for their kids, is the only reason I exist. I didn't expect to find them, but I'll keep searching for where to lay flowers...because they mattered.

John Mills

Originally from San Diego, John Mills is a technologist by trade, but an equity advocate and independent scholar by passion. The descendant of both southern and northern enslaved, John focuses on unearthing little known people and stories of this country’s history in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. John presents research through the lens and perspective of a descendant, with intent to inspire understanding and empathy, a means to inspire good, God fearing people, now armed with information, to look into whether they may be unwittingly aligning to biases resulting from the reverberating effects of a past time. John is a member of the Connecticut Freedom Trail and a member of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum Council. John is also working with an international team funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in an effort to deliver transformational impact on digital methods in cultural institutions...a means to decolonize museums. Finally, John is working with the state of Connecticut, business leaders and scholars in Middletown, CT to honor and memorialize a former enslaved individual by the name of Prince Mortimer.

https://alexbreanne.org
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