Caesar Nero Paul (c. 1741 – 1823), patriarch of a prominent New England family of writers, clergymen, and abolitionists. A victim of the Atlantic slave trade as a young child, he became a free man after the French and Indian War; married a white woman and founded a family in

Exeter, New Hampshire Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. ...

; and lived to see his children attain important positions in the free Black community of the early United States.

Life

Caesar Nero Paul was born around 1741 at an unknown location in Africa. He was kidnapped as part of the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

and brought to Exeter, in the British

Province of New Hampshire The Province of New Hampshire was a colony of England and later a British province in North America. The name was first given in 1629 to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America, and was nam ...

. There he was held enslaved by Major John Gilman and called "Caesar Nero" following the Colonial fashion for giving slaves Classical names. His enslaver, scion of the locally powerful Gilman family, was called to fight in the French and Indian Wars, taking the fourteen year old Caesar Nero along with him. Later freed, Caesar Nero chose the family name Paul for himself and married Lovey Rollins, a white woman and daughter of a lawyer from nearby Stratham. (New Hampshire was one of the few American states never to formally outlaw interracial marriage). Together they had at least six children, the most famous of whom was Thomas Paul, founder of the First African Baptist Church in Boston. In their later years, Caesar and Lovey Paul moved to join Thomas in Boston, where they lived the rest of their life. Caesar Nero stood at the head of at least two generations of abolitionists, with many of his children and grandchildren attaining prominence. Along with Thomas, three other sons became Baptist ministers:

Nathaniel Paul Nathaniel Paul (died July 1839) was a Baptist minister and abolitionist who worked in Albany, New York, Wilberforce Colony in Canada, and traveled to the United Kingdom to raise support to aid African Americans. He was a brother of Thomas Paul. ...

in Albany, Benjamin Paul in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and Shadrack Paul in

Epping Epping may refer to: Places Australia * Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Epping railway station, Sydney * Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Epping Forest, Kearns, a he ...

, New Hampshire. His daughter Rhoda stayed in Exeter to marry the revolutionary soldier

Jude Hall Jude (Judas) Hall was an African-American soldier in the American Revolutionary War. He served from 1775 to 1783, thus earning his freedom from slavery. After the war, he married and settled in Exeter, New Hampshire, where his homestead is still ...

. Accomplished among his grandchildren were the abolitionist

Susan Paul Susan Paul (1809–1841) was an African-American abolitionist from Boston, Massachusetts. A primary school teacher and member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, Paul also wrote the first biography of an African American published in t ...

, the poet

James Monroe Whitfield James Monroe Whitfield (c. April 10, 1822 – April 23, 1871) was an African-American poet, abolitionist, and political activist. He was a notable writer and activist in abolitionism and African emigration during the antebellum era. He published th ...

, and Thomas Paul Jr., one of the first Black graduates of Dartmouth College. Three other grandchildren, the sons of Rhoda Hall, were kidnapped into Southern slavery, never to see their family again.

Legacy

The novelist

Pauline Hopkins Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859 – August 13, 1930) was an American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes, as demonstrated ...

could trace her lineage to Caesar Nero Paul, great-great-grandfather on her mother's side. She celebrated the Paul brothers in speeches and writings and brought attention to the role Black Americans played in the founding of the country.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Caesar Nero Paul family of New England People from Exeter, New Hampshire Year of birth uncertain 1823 deaths