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Jeffrey Brace: First African American Citizen of Poultney
One of Poultney’s early settlers was a free black, Jeffrey Brace. Brace was born in West Africa in approximately 1742 as Boyrereau Brinch. He came from a family that held high positions in his country. His father Whryn Brinch was Captain of the king’s Life Guards, as was his grandfather.
When Brinch was about sixteen years old he and a group of his friends were captured by white traders and taken by boat to Barbados, where they were sold into slavery. While enroute from Africa to Barbados he was confined to a space that only allowed him to sit or lie on his back, was only allowed two meager meals per day and had to contend with the foul stench of the hold.
He was to endure many years of brutal and inhumane treatment starting in Barbados. Here after leaving the ship he was placed in the “House of Subjection” where he and the other slaves were starved, whipped and tortured into subjection.
