Bristow (1731–1814) was an enslaved man who served in the French and Indian Wars beginning at the age of 25, fighting alongside Ambo under Col. Phineas Lyman in the First Connecticut Regiment from 1755 to 1761. His gravestone notes that he was born in Africa, though the specifics of his early life — where exactly he was born, how old he was when captured, his experience on the brutal Middle Passage, and his likely time in the West Indies — remain unknown. He may have been brought to Connecticut through merchant Roger Hooker, who made eleven trips to the West Indies before the Revolution and was a stepbrother to Thomas Hart Hooker, the man who would later enslave Bristow. Notably, Thomas Hart Hooker was only about 10 years old when Bristow first marched with the militia, meaning Bristow’s military service predated his enslavement by Hooker entirely. The military offered Bristow rare opportunities — travel, skill-building, and earning wages of £4 per month — that were otherwise nearly impossible for an enslaved man to access. Those earnings likely contributed to his ability to purchase his own freedom from Thomas Hart Hooker in 1775, some 17 years after his military service ended. Bristow went on to live as a free man in West Hartford until his death in 1814, and the recognition of his passing in church records reflects the standing he had earned in his community over a long and remarkable life.