Phillis was enslaved in Longmeadow, Massachusetts by the town’s minister, Reverend Stephen Williams. For nearly 50 years she lived and worked under his roof in the parsonage. She arrived as a girl, bore at least one child, lost at least one child, and married Peter, a man enslaved in another household in town. Phillis first appeared in Williams diary in February 1728  It’s unknown how old Phillis was when she arrived, but in those first years, Williams refers to her as “our Negro girl.”  Phillis perplexed Rev. and Mrs. Williams by expressing her desire to marry an enslaved man in town named Peter, who was owned by Captain George Colton. More than a year later, Williams was still anxiously pondering the matter, and said that the town was “uneasy” over the situation and his wife “averse” to it. Church records indicate that Phillis and Peter did ultimately get their wish and marry, but not until six years and many pleas had passed. They married on May 22, 1744.

Phillis was  baptized and admitted into communion at First Church, married at First Church, and, in death, was buried out of First Church. In 1771, an aging Stephen Williams drafted his Last Will and Testament in which he left Phillis to his sons John and Samuel. She did not outlive her enslaver, though. On May 28, 1774, Phillis died of an ‘apoplectick fit.” Williams wrote in his diary, “Death is come into our House–…–phillis had ye character of being Honest–& I hope had had sight of Christ by faith, ye Lord be pleasd to pardon my Defects of Duty–towards her, & to my other Servants Deceasd.” He mentioned a considerable number of people attended her funeral the next day.  

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