Phyllis Brown was enslaved for much of her life by Capt. Peleg Brown and/or his descendants. She was married to Pero Hallam, who was enslaved by two different families, the Noyses and the Hallams. Despite living separately for most of their marriage, records show Phyllis Brown and Pero Hallam brought at least seven and perhaps as many as eleven children into the world. Finally, when she was “in her advanced years,” Phyllis was permitted to live with her husband in the house he had occupied for years.

A 1796 probate record shows Phillis enslaved alongside several of her children. Listed in Peleg Brown’s inventory is “1 Negro Woman [about 56 years old] woman named Phills” and three children, including “1 Negro boy named Pero aged 17 years old, slave for life,” “1 Negro girl named Lucy aged ab 15 years Slave for Life” and “1 do [ditto] named cate aged 7 yers Free at 25 years.” Accounts indicate that religion was important to both Pero Hallam and Phyllis Brown. It is not clear when Pero Hallam died, but his name appears in a January 1, 1827 town record so his death must have taken place sometime after that date. Phillis’s name appears in records for the town Almshouse starting in 1829 and as late as October 1833, after which there is no further mention of her.