Topsfield Stories
African Princess in Topsfield
Click to enlargeBuried in the family lot of Albert Austin Conant, in Pine Grove Cemetery, lies the body of an African princess. It was a strange mis-adventure that brought this girl from far away Africa to Topsfield, where she lived for a number of years in the home of Major Nathaniel Conant at the corner of Main and Haverhill streets. It happened that Mrs. Conant’s brother, Captain Austin Dodge, of Beverly was owner of the barque Magdala, and made voyages to Africa. In 1844, while on one of these voyages, he was traveling inland near Sierra Leone, and came across a tribal war being fought there. In order to escape its cruelties many of the women and children were fleeing toward the coast, when some, from fatigue, dropped behind and became separated from the others.
A slave dealer, Don de Mer, just then came driving his slaves under the lash and, with a short raw hide whip, forced some of these stragglers to come along with his slaves. He was a passenger on board Captain Dodge’s return trip and brought on board with him three of the last acquired captives. The sailors made clothes for them, as they were naked, but one of these, a child about eight years of age, had a string of beads around her waist which was thought to mark her as an African princess.
Don de Mer died on the passage and the girl, who gave her name as Sarah Baro Colcher, was given to Captain Dodge, who brought her home to his sister, Mrs. Elisabeth Dodge Conant, in Topsfield, who brought her up and gave her an excellent education. She proved trustworthy and grateful and developed into a fine woman. When she became of age she went into domestic service and was for many years cook in the home of Mrs. Gordon Dexter of Boston and Beverly Farms. While she was living there she was taken ill and Mrs. Kilham of Beverly, the niece of Captain Kilham, had her brought to her home and cared for until she recovered. It was for a time the care of Miss Henrietta Kilham, then a child, to read aloud to her every afternoon, and she remembers being told that in spite of all the intervening years she (Sarah) was never able to forget the lash.
The Society is fortunate to have in its collection a small mahogany box that once belonged to Sarah.