Thomas Thomas (1817-March 9, 1894) was an American abolitionist and entrepreneur.[1]
Life
editThomas was born into slavery in Oxford, Maryland to Joseph and Sophia (Giles) Thomas.[1][2] As a child, he was hired out to work as a waiter on steamboats on the Chesapeake River. At age 17, he entered negotiations with his enslaver to buy his freedom, and on which a price of $400 was decided, to be paid in installments. Thomas worked additional side jobs in order to raise funds for this goal, and ultimately made enough money after working on steamboats in Mississippi at age 19.[1]
As a free man, Thomas continued to work on the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers, and later worked as an entrepreneurs, buying and selling vegetables and dairy products for a profit.[1]
He was briefly jailed in 1843 in Louisiana, for breaking a law regarding free Blacks entering the state. In 1844, he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where his mother and sister both lived. There, he worked at the Hampden House hotel and the Union House. In the late 1840s, he was hired by abolitionist John Brown to work in his wool sorting rooms.[1]
In 1850, Thomas worked as the steward of Holyoke's Samoset House. The following year, he became a member of the League of Gileadites, an African-American self-defense group organized in part by John Brown.[1]
In 1853, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he worked at a hotel across from the office of then-attorney Abraham Lincoln. Thomas returned to Massachusetts in 1855, after the Illinois hotel closed, and promptly joined a group of men planning to go to California to work. Thomas stayed in California for three years, before returning to Illinois.[1]
He had returned to Springfield, Massachusetts by 1862, where he opened a successful saloon and restaurant, which became popular with African-American veterans following the Civil War.[1][3] In 1866, he co-founded a branch of the Prince Hall Masons in the city.[1]
Personal life
editThomas was married three times. His first wife, Lydia, died around 1837 in Maryland. His second wife, Margaret Williams, whom he married in 1841, had two children, neither of whom survived childhood. His final wife was Martha H. Hall, whom he married in 1843. The couple adopted a daughter, Hattie Belle Simmons.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j McCarthy, Cliff (2022). "Who Were the Members of Springfield's League of Gileadites?" (PDF). `Historical Journal of Massachusetts. 50 (1): 181–183.
- ^ McCarthy, Cliff. "Thomas Thomas, of Springfield – Documenting the Early History of Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley". websites.umass.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-05.
- ^ Carvalho, Joseph III (2012). "Uncovering the Stories of Black Families in Springfield and Hampden County, Massachusetts: 1650–1865" (PDF). Historical Journal of Massachusetts. 40 (1): 85.