Sara Baro Colcher

She was born in Africa between 1835 and 1840 and was captured by the slave dealer Don de Mer when she was a child of about eight. The child had a string of beads around her waist which was thought to mark her as an African Princess.

Although the United States outlawed the international slave trade in 1808, according to an article in the October 1925 issue of Old-Time New England, de Mer traveled on Magadala, a ship operated by Captain Austin Dodge of Massachusetts. De Mer died while on the voyage, and Captain Dodge took Sarah to his sister, Elizabeth Conant, who lived in Topsfield, Massachusetts, with her husband, Nathaniel.

Although the Old-Time New England article states that she was educated and well taken care of within the Conant household, her true status in the home remains unknown. By 1860, she was living in Boston, with John McLellan, an auctioneer, and his wife, Catherine. While Colcher’s occupation is not listed in the 1860 census, it is likely that she was boarding in the McLellan household and was employed as a domestic worker.

According to Old-Time New England, Sara worked as a cook in the home of Mrs. Gordon Dexter, of Boston and Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. Sara became ill while working for Mrs. Dexter, and was brought to the Cabot-Lee-Kilham household in Beverly, where she was cared for by Miss Henrietta Kilham. Miss Kilham donated the carte de visite to Historic New England, then the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, in November 1925. Sara died in 1882, and is buried in the Conant family plot in Topsfield, Massachusetts.

Throughout the research, it was noticed the number of inconsistencies with primary sources. Sara Baro Colcher is listed as being twenty years old in both 1855 and 1860, and her name is occasionally spelled “Sarah.”

Additionally, early biographies of Sara are now outdated. For example, the 1925 Old-Time New England article uses very neutral language when saying, “Sarah Baro Colcher was given to Captain Dodge, who brought her home to his sister, Elizabeth Dodge Conant.” Without any firsthand documentation, Sara’s social and legal status remains unknown.

Historic England (Feb. 26, 2018); Theodore Wyman, Photographer (Boston, Mass.) circa 1864; Topsfield Historical Society by Amy Coffin