A three-volume account book kept by multiple generations of the Grave family, primary sources such as church and probate records, and stories passed down through the centuries allow us to envision the early inhabitants of the Deacon John Grave House, one of Connecticut’s oldest houses, dating to 1681. In addition to Grave family members, its residents numbered a series of enslaved persons. 

Cate was among the individuals held in bondage in the household, but she appears to have been among the few—and perhaps the only—woman enslaved there. Unlike the series of enslaved boys and men whose names and physical labor are documented in the Grave family account book, Cate’s name does not appear in its pages or most other primary documents. The one exception is in John Grave II’s 1726 will, where Grave wrote that he was leaving to his wife, Elizabeth, “ye one third part of all my moveable estate, & ye use or profit of one third part of all my lands & of my old dwelling house during her natural life & my Negro woman Cate.” Also listed in John Grave II’s inventory are “the Negro man’s bedding” and the “Negro woman’s bed.” 

The records do not show when, where, or to whom Cate was born, what sort of work she performed, whether she had children, or when, where, or how she died. All we know for sure is that she was in the household in 1726, when John Grave wrote his will.