George Fayerweather III (1802– 13 November 1869) was a blacksmith and activist for abolitionism. He was of mixed
Narragansett and
African Ancestry from
South Kingstown, Rhode Island
South Kingstown is a town in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 31,931 at the 2020 census. South Kingstown is the second largest town in Rhode Island by total geographic area, behind New ...
.
Early life and education
Fayerweather was born to George Fayerweather, a blacksmith who built the 1820
Fayerweather homestead, and a Narragansett woman who was the descendant of a
sachem
Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...
.
His father was descended from slaves freed after the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
.
Work
Like their father, Fayerweather and his brother Solomon took up blacksmithing as a skilled trade, as did several of their descendants. It was a key position in a 19th-century village.
Fayerweather moved to
Canterbury, Connecticut
Canterbury is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 5,045 at the 2020 census.
History
The area was settled by English colonists in the 1680s as ''Peagscomsuck''. It consisted mainly of land north of Norwich, so ...
, where in 1833 he married
Sarah Harris (1812–1878), a free black woman born in
Norwich, Connecticut
Norwich ( ) (also called "The Rose of New England") is a city in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Yantic, Shetucket, and Quinebaug Rivers flow into the city and form its harbor, from which the Thames River flows south to Long ...
, to free parents. She was the first African-American girl admitted to
Prudence Crandall’s school in Canterbury. Several parents took their daughters out of the school, and it was closed under the notorious Connecticut Black Law of 1833.
Fayerweather and his family moved to Kingston in 1855 to the Fayerweather homestead; he followed his father and brother Solomon as the village blacksmith.
[.] Their residence became a center of anti-slavery activity in the community, and they entertained numerous famous abolitionists in their home.
Fayerwether died on 13 November 1869 in Kingston, and was buried at Old Fernwood Cemetery.
External links
Guide to the Fayerweather Family Papers University of Rhode Island
References
People from South Kingstown, Rhode Island
1802 births
1869 deaths
People from Washington County, Rhode Island
History of Rhode Island
African-American abolitionists
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