Enslaved Workers for the Foote Family

List of enslaved workers from Foote family papers

"a negro woman"

Letter to Ebenezer Foote from Catherine Livingston, Oak Hill, Linlithgo, New York, 15 April, 1800: "Sir... I am sorry we had not the pleasure of seeing you when last at Catskill. Mr Bill has promised to forward these lines to you on the subject of accommodating you with a negro woman which he informs me you are in want of. The one I have to dispose of is twenty one years of age and the reason of parting with her, is her having a young child, and the father of it, not being married to her, and not acting agreeable to me, my wish is to remove her from him. She is perfectly honest and sober, and until now, was very useful to me, but now that there is three in my kitchen under a twelvemonth (three babies? —K.A.F.) I am under the necessity of parting with her. If you are in want of a woman she will answer, being acquainted with all kinds of Country, and house work, and perfectly well disposed. Should be glad of an answer. I gave seventy pounds for her, but to have a good place for her shall not differ about the price.
With esteem and respect, Yours Catherine Livingston.

Bet

In a letter to Ebenezer Foote from his brother Justin, New York, 24 January, 1806, Justin mentions that his wife, "Marie still having trouble getting such service as she likes." and also, "Have just bought a black girl much like your Bet, but she is not Hagaar.

Joel

"Joel has absconded in consequence of our discovering some more money which he took" is some of the news in a letter from Frederick Parsons Foote, Delhi, Delaware county, New York, to his father, Ebenezer, 11 June, 1815. He further states that Joel took the money from a trunk belonging to his sister Margaret, "There were seven half Dollar pieces that he took. we have got all the money back from those persons who he let have it— I wish you would try if you please to get him on board of a vessel if he should be brought back."

Several days later, Frederick writes, "Joel has not yet returned, and I hope never will it is now better than a week since he went of[f]—"

• Princeton University Library, Rare Books and Mss.

Corporal Trim, I

In September of 1780, mentioned in letter of Asa Worthington, West Point, to Ebenezer Foote, "Asa next writes: Monday. Corporal Trim is going to the village and to the Conn. lines with some Orders, have you any Commands for him. I shall be with you today."
Named (by Soldiers at West Point, the Worthington or Foote families?) for a character in "Tristram Shandy" by English author and satirist Lawrence Sterne.

Corporal Trim, II

Enslaved servant of the Leavenworth and Foote family. Born in New York state, in (estimated) 1792 [Census of the U.S., 1860].

The 1860 Census of the U.S. lists him as a "Late body servant of Gen. Leavenworth and now a man of all work," age 68, in the household of Ann Gould, "Lady." [Census of the U.S., Delhi, Delaware county, NY, Family Number 1036]

• Note: There should be a number of people in the village who can remember the Delhi corporal, Trim, without knowing where he came from. He had been a slave of my grandfather's, attended the Colonel on Field Days, and was a house servant at other times, and when I came across this note, it occurred to me that our Trim had been named for this army one. Trim was of course freed with the others, but chose to stay on with the Colonel, until the family was broken up, and then did jobs about the village as late as my girlhood days. [KAF, Ebenezer Foote, the Founder, p. 23]

• David Murray, Delaware County, New York; history of the century, 1797-1897. Centennial celebration, June 9 and 10, 1897. p. 342:
  I cannot omit to mention “Corporal Trim,” a somewhat prominent character in Delhi fifty or sixty years ago. C.E. Wright, who learned his trade in the Gazette office, thus alludes to him: “Of course many of your people will remember ‘Corporal Trim,' as he was styled, a colored servant, or body guard of General Leavenworth. Long after Trim had left the service of his master, he loved to tell to a company of listeners, when his tongue was well lubricated by a few potions of old rye, of his fright when the General ordered him during the battle of Chippewa or Niagara Falls, I don't remember which, to wipe with a tuft of grass the brains of a man that had been sprinkled upon the saddle of his horse, a cannon ball having taken off the owner's head, all in view of the ‘Corporal.’ Of course Trim obeyed, but the ‘hair of his head stood on end like quills upon the fretful porcupine, and he was pale even to white ness.' According to his own story, the close of the battle found the redoubtable ‘Corporal snugly ensconsed under the lowest layer of a rail fence, whither he had crawled for safety. It was a rare treat to hear this quaint character relate these with many others of his adventures.'”

• In a letter from Rensselaer Foote to his sister, Catherine, Delhi, Delaware county, New York, 15 June, 1842: "When you write, instead of a long moral discourse, I want You to tell me all about our old friends,— not forgetting old Trim—"