Primus Hall

Because recordkeeping of the era was incomplete, his parentage is uncertain, but a common belief is that his father was Prince Hall and his mother a woman named Deliah.

[3][nb 1] Hall was "bound out" to Ezra Trask, an Essex County shoemaker, as a baby or an infant.

An arrangement was made to teach Primus to be a shoemaker, and at twenty-one, he was set to obtain his freedom.

Instead, before that happened, due to diagnosed health issues, Hall was given his "freedom with full liberty for me to transact any of all business of every kind."

After one year, Hall re-enlisted and fought in Battles of Saratoga, and was there for the Surrender of General Burgoyne.

He wrote his wife, "I have luckily met with a likely negro fellow who has lived several years in Salem ...

"[9] The Godey's Lady's Book published an account of Hall engaging with George Washington during a visit to Pickering.

Minardi wrote: [W]hile in camp, when Washington felt he needed exercises, Hall set up a sort of jump rope for him, fastening one end to a stake and holding the other taut at his own chest.

This anecdote gave an amusing picture of the nation's founding father engaged in play 'with true boyish zest.'

After Washington and Pickering had fallen asleep, Hall sat on a box, leaning his head into his hands to sleep.

Washington awoke, realized that Hall had given him his bed provisions, and insisted that there was sufficient straw and blanket to cover them both.

[1][9] Besides inspiring Boston's African-Americans to pursue justice and quality in education, the school offered them opportunities for employment and economic growth, which in turn provided funds for future generations of African-American Bostonians to pursue higher education.

[9] Primus Hall was active in signing and submitting petitions to the state legislature regarding slavery starting in 1788.

In his petition, Hall gave an account of his engagement in New York and New Jersey battles, including when he followed two enemy soldiers for half a mile and took them prisoner.

[1] His obituary read that he "was well known, particularly to the younger portions of our citizens, to whom he was in the habit of recounting scenes of the Revolutionary War.