Muckamug, Sarah, - 1751

Sarah Muckamug was the daughter of Peter Muckamug (Narragansett)  and Sarah Robbins (Hassanamisco Nipmuc), living in Providence, Rhode Island.  She was an indentured servant in the well-respected household of John Whipple on Towne Street, Providence.  Around 1728, she and a Black slave named Aaron Whipple had four children, Rhoda, Abigail, Abraham, and Joseph.  A year after the birth of Joseph, in 1741, Sarah and Aaron's relationship had dissolved.  Bounding out her three oldest children to the family of Richard Brown, she with her newborn removed towards Hassanamisco. By 1744 she met Fortune Burnee, a free Black man at Hassanamisco and had a child, Sarah.  When Sarah Robbins died in 1749, she left her property to her daughter, who applied to the Massachusetts General Court for permission to sell a part of that land that was three miles distant from the family homestead. The Burnees sought to build a new structure on their property and possibly add some cows.  In late 1750 or early 1751, Sarah fell ill from "a long sickness" and became reliant on town assistance.  The Selectmen of Groton placed her in the care of one of her neighbors, Hezekiah Ward.  There she later died in the summer of 1751.  Daniel R. Mandell, “The Saga of Sarah Muckamugg, Indian and African American Intermarriage in Colonial New England,” in Martha Hodes, ed., Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History (New York, NY: New York University Press, 1999), 72-90.