Titus Kent

Titus Kent was an enslaved servant to Samuel Kent beginning in 1772, by the time of the Revolutionary War, his slaveholder was Elihu Kent, Sr.{{Cite web |date=2014-06-11 |title=Elihu Kent, Jr. House (1786) - Historic Buildings of Connecticut |url=https://historicbuildingsct.com/elihu-kent-jr-house-1786/ |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=historicbuildingsct.com |language=en-US}} Kent lived in Suffield, Hartford, Connecticut, where he was also enslaved by other people.

Upon hearing of the Lexington Alarm (April 19, 1775), announcing the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Captain Elihu Kent Sr. led 59 men of the local militia to Boston, first stopping at Springfield, Massachusetts.{{Cite web |title=Elihu Kent Jr. House — 1787 |url=https://buildingsofnewengland.com/2020/09/22/elihu-kent-jr-house-1787/ |date=September 22, 2020 |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=Buildings of New England |language=en}} Kent, who enlisted in the militia, served in Elihu's company in the 3rd Connecticut Regiment in the Connecticut Line, commanded by Colonel Samuel Wyllys.{{Cite book |last=Greene |first=Robert Ewell |url=http://archive.org/details/blackcourage17750000unse |title=Black courage, 1775-1783 : documentation of Black participation in the American Revolution |date=1984 |publisher=National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution |isbn=978-0-9602528-4-8 |pages=31, 37, 41, 59, 65, 80}}{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/connecollections12connuoft |title=Connecticut Historical Society Collections |date=1932 |publisher=Hartford |pages=351–352}} Titus served for eight years, most of the time in Long Island, New York.

Suffield volunteers comprised about one-third of the Connecticut militia.{{cite web|url=http://www.suffieldtownhall.com/content/77/107/default.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405064150/http://www.suffieldtownhall.com/content/77/107/default.aspx | title=Town of Suffield, Connecticut - History |archive-date=2012-04-05 }} Town militia companies contributed to the Connecticut militia regiments.{{Cite web |title=Understanding the Connecticut Militia |url=https://www.sarconnecticut.org/understanding-the-connecticut-militia/ |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=Connecticut Sons of the American Revolution |language=en-US}} Initially, the Continental Congress discouraged slaves from enlisting in the Continental Army, to appease the slave states. However, the Kingdom of Great Britain offered freedom to slaves who fought on behalf of the British Army, forcing the Continental Congress to relent and offer the same.{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/revolution/revolution_slavery.cfm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209001600/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu:80/learning_history/revolution/revolution_slavery.cfm| archive-date= 2014-02-09 | title=Slavery, the American Revolution, and the Constitution |website=Digital History, University of Houston }}

Kent had a daughter, Hannah Austin. She was from Hartford, Connecticut. She washed laundry to earn the money to raise her four children and care for her disabled husband. Hannah raised money for the local anti-slavery society.{{Cite book |first1=Darlene Clark |last1= Hine |url=http://archive.org/details/isbn_0926019147_2 |title=Black Women in United States History |first2=Elsa Barkley |last2=Brown |first3=Tiffany R. L. |last3=Patterson |first4=Lillian S.|last4= Williams |date=1990 |publisher=Carlson Publishing Inc |isbn=978-0-926019-14-0 |pages=679, 692 |language=English}}{{efn|There is also a geneaological note: "Titus (colored) BLW #1665-100, CT Line, a Jonathan Kent heir of Elihu Kent made aff'dt 8 Mar 1830 that Elihu Kent was the owner of Titus Kent a slave, a Hannah Austin made aff'dt in 1830 at Suffield CT & gave the following, towit; that her mother became the wife of Samuel Kent, Esq of Suffield CT & that her step-father Samuel Kent owned a slave named Philip who was exchanged for a slave named Titus & after the suid Samuel Kent died he became the slave of Elihu Kent a son of Samuel Kent."{{Cite book |last=White |first=Virgil D. |url=http://archive.org/details/genealogicalabst0000whit |title=Genealogical abstracts of Revolutionary War pension files |date=1990 |publisher=Waynesboro, Tenn. : National Historical Pub. Co. |isbn=978-0-945099-15-4}}}}

After the war, he applied for a pension or bounty-land warrant.

{{citation|title=Titus Kent (colored) | work=U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15 |publisher= National Archives | location=Washington, D.C. | via=ancestry.com}} On April 15, 1806, the United States Congress passed an act to provide bounty-land warrants to soldiers of the Revolutionary War. In 1830, an heir of Titus, Jonathan K. Kent, received a warrant on his behalf.{{citation|title=Titus Kent, warrant 1665, Connecticut | work=U.S. Revolutionary War Bounty Land Warrants Used in the U.S. Military District of Ohio and Relating Papers (Acts of 1788, 1803, and 1806), 1788-1806; Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Record Group 49 |publisher= National Archives | location=Washington, D.C. | via=ancestry.com}}

== Memorial==

In recognition of his military service from 1775 to 1783, a Witness Stone Memorial was installed by the Suffield Historical Society and the Sibbil Dwight Kent Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 2022.{{Cite news |date=2022-05-19 |title=Installation ceremony for Titus Kent Memorial taking place (1st and 2nd columns) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant-installation-ceremony-f/150604407/ |access-date=2024-07-04 |work=Hartford Courant |pages=L2}}

• Titus Gay, who called himself Titus Kent after his father's surname. Titus was an enslaved man until he was freed in 1812. He also lived in Suffield, Connecticut.

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Category:18th-century births

Category:18th-century American slaves

Category:Connecticut militiamen in the American Revolution

Category:People from Suffield, Connecticut