There has been earlier speculation that William Grubber was not the only slave living in the Rush household. Rush's wife, Julia Stockton, came from a slaveholding family in Princeton, New Jersey, and there was a possibility that Julia may have brought one or more slaves with her into her marriage with Rush. One figure who seemed like a likely candidate was Marcus, the servant Rush once mentioned in a letter to Julia during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Marcus had assisted Rush during this epidemic, and proven himself of great help to Rush. But was he doing so as a servant or as a slave?
|
The numberless times...the poor fellow...nursed at my breast...[I] brought him up almost as my own son. [1] It was unusual for a mistress to act as a wet nurse for one of her child-slaves. Also unusual was Marsh' education: unlike most slaves in the North American colonies, Marsh knew how to read and write by the time he reached adulthood. Historian Hugh Howard speculates that it was Annis who taught Marsh how to read and write, much like how she taught her own children.
Given Marsh' treatment as a child, it would appear as though the Stocktons, Annis in particular, may have, at times, viewed him as a member of their own family. But this did not change the fact that he was still a slave: once Marsh had matured, he began to work as a farmhand and coachman for Morven, the Stockton family's estate. [2] Then, in 1781, tragedy struck the Stockton family: Richard Stockton, after suffering from a painful "cancer of the lip that spread to his throat," died in February of 1781. [3] Stockton's will, drafted in 1780, gave his wife, Annis, the power to "at 'her discretion...grant freedom' to any deserving slave." [4]
|