Post Revolutionary Life in Black Rock Village
1784 SLAVE EMANCIPATION BEGINS
Connecticut had 30 Black slaves in 1680, and early on, when their numbers were low, they were neither held in life bondage nor was that bondage hereditary. But as the number of Black slaves climbed in the colony -- to over 6,500 by 1774 -- servitude became lifelong, hereditary slavery. Long before the Revolution, Black Rock ships along with other New England slave trading ports had brought slaves back from the West Indies. Rum was the currency used to barter for human cargo, and so much rum was used for the purpose that at times rum shortages plagued the colonies. Connecticut blocked slave importations in 1774, but a slow, gradual emancipation began only 10 years later, and slavery was not officially abolished until 1848. As late as 1790, Fairfield's slave population stood at 203.
WILLIAM WHEELER'S TALES OF EVERYDAY VILLAGE LIFE
William Wheeler, son of Capt. Ichabod and great-great grandson of the first settler, Thomas, was a journalist, local historian, schoolteacher and farmer. As a young man, he began keeping journals of local history as told to him by his ancestors. William's eleven journals also include tales of everyday life in Black Rock, poems, essays, gossip, notes on how he should live his life, and descriptions of critical historical events in Black Rock, Fairfield, and on the Sound. His journals continue to be a gift to Black Rockers today, as much of what we know about early days in the village come from William's writings. His shipwright father saved for years to educate his son, and in 1780 William began studying in Fairfield to prepare himself for Yale. After graduating, William was teaching in Black Rock by 1789, long before records indicated a school existed. William lived in a saltbox house next to his father, who lived in the John Wheeler house on Brewster Street. William's home-lot extended to Ellsworth Street, where a boundary stone for his property, now unreadable, remains. A house he built for his son William Jr. is still standing on the corner of Hackley Street and Harbor Avenue overlooking Brewster Cove, its view of the harbor little changed over the years.
1791 SAMUEL SMEDLEY APPOINTED FEDERAL CUSTOMS HOUSE COLLECTOR
After the revolution, Capt. Samuel Smedley engaged in the West Indies trade, mastering the brigantine Greenfield, which carried horses, lumber and oats to Caribbean islands, and returned with rum, salt and molasses. Hearing that Washington had appointed him customs house collector for the port of Fairfield, he left the sea and began working long before his official commission was approved, signing bonds for ships in Fairfield as early as 1789. He served for 24 years. Customs officers not only met all ships sailing into port, but licensed vessels, collected bonds and duties, checked mail, recorded alien arrivals, and appointed and supervised district lightkeepers. Smedley’s office was operated out of his home on the Old Post Road as ordered by the government. The required customs storehouse, previously built by Sturges and Smedley in 1772, remained at the Upper Wharves. Parts of the original structure still exist, on the site of today's Fayerweather Yacht Club.
1800, CAPT. THOMAS BARTRAM, MAN OF ALL TRADES, BUILDS HIS HOMESTEAD
The Bartram family, one of the first non-Wheeler families in the village, settled in Black Rock in 1775. A clan of many ship captains involved in the early West Indies trade, Bartrams became involved in the village seaport when Capt. Ebenezer Jr. purchased 1/6 of the Upper Wharf. Capt. Thomas, one of his four sons who followed the sea, was an early ship captain, and owned numerous vessels built for the coastal and West Indies trade. A self-made man and part owner of several wharves, he built his homestead at the corner of Bartram and Brewster streets in 1800 (or 1801?). Capt. Thomas had a knack for making money, and operated as a merchant, shipper, blacksmith, wood seller, money lender, livestock raiser and livery owner. Beginning in 1801, he kept detailed account books of every transaction, providing modern readers deep insight into the shipping era as well as daily village life. Capt. Joseph, his son, carried on the seafaring tradition, and the family lived in Black Rock for many generations.
1802-1807 COASTAL SHIPPING & WHARF EXPANSION
As the 1800s dawned, Black Rock's West Indies trade appeared poised to boom. To that end, 1802 saw major wharf and road improvements, with Church Street, today's Ellsworth Street, now extended to today's Fairfield Avenue. By 1803, Black Rock Harbor boasted six stores, five wharves and four vessels regularly sailing out of its bustling harbor. Ship captains trading with local farmers ran packet boats and other vessels directly from their stores on the docks. The arrangement provided farmers with a market for their crops and livestock while providing jobs for shipwrights, sail makers, carpenters, chandlers, coopers, dock workers, and sailors. The wharf stores collected country produce like corn, oats, flax, hemp and rye, while selling tea, sugar, rum, cooking pots, paper, calicos and silks. Bartering was standard; money rarely changed hands. A farmer could bring his crops to market and trade them for whatever his family lacked, repaying his debit balance with his own crops or labor. In the same stores, wealthy locals, many of them shippers themselves, could obtain scarce luxury items brought from nearby New York or Boston, as well as from foreign ports -- London, the West Indies, the Orient. But two crippling embargoes, in 1807 and 1812, dashed hopes of a major boom in foreign trade, and coastal shipping eventually outpaced the West Indies trade to become the major fuel of the village's economy. The village's glory days plying the oceans worldwide were largely over, though its chandleries developed a reputation for quality work that they drew vessels from all over southwestern Connecticut.
Black Rock Harbor Light
The first Black Rock Harbor Light, better known as Fayerweather Lighthouse, was a wooden octagon built in 1807 to guide the growing number of ships navigating its deep water harbor.
A fierce storm destroyed the structure in 1821, and the US Congress authorized a far stronger lighthouse a year later. Today's tower, built of locally quarried brownstone and crowned by a cast iron lantern, began operating in 1823. Its oil-based lighting system required constant maintenance and vigilance.
Seven lighthouse keepers, including the legendary Kate Moore, worked the light during the 115 years of its operation. A recently launched US Coast Guard Cutter bears Kate’s name, in honor of the twenty-plus lives she saved during her tenure.
Fayerweather Light ceased offering navigational aid in 1933, when it was decommissioned. But as the third oldest lighthouse along the Connecticut shore, it remains an enduring symbol of Black Rock’s rich maritime history, and its most recognizable emblem.