Hagar Blackmore
Born: in the mid 1600s in Angola
Died: May 11, 1735 in New London County, Connecticut
“Hagar Blackmore, who arrived in Massachusetts Bay from Angola about thirty years after the first Africans appeared in New England, was the first African woman in the new world to explain how she understood slavery and freedom.”
Resources
From video, books and articles, learn more from this list of historical research.
Her Family
From Angola to her life in colonial Connecticut, learn more about her family and descendants.
Lesser-Known Stories of Early America with Catherine Adams, Ph.D.
A conversation with Catherine Adams, Ph.D. about her book “Love of Freedom: Black Women in Colonial and Revolutionary New England.”
Hagar Blackmore’s life and journey from Angola to New England is written about in this book.
“Adams discussed “Love of Freedom,” the first study of black women in colonial and Revolutionary New England. The work explores lives of hitherto unknown Black women in New England and examines how patriarchy and race conjoined to impact the lives of Black women in the north. Adams shared how she wove together primary sources to document these lesser-known stories.”
As posted here on their YouTube channel.
Interview on June 23, 2025 by the Clinton Foundation at the Clinton Presidential Library, moderated by Quantia “Key” M. Fletcher.
Contact
More information is being added to this site as it becomes available. Please get in touch if you have research to contribute.