Born in 1788 to Cesar and Lois Peters, Henry Peters lived in Hebron with his siblings and parents, Cesar and Lois. They had been enslaved by Rev. Samuel Peters, an Anglican minister and Loyalist, who was driven from Hebron by the Sons of Liberty in 1774 and fled the country. In 1787 with Rev. Peters still residing in London, his nephew in Hebron attempted to settle his personal debt to his uncle by selling Cesar and Lois Peters and their eight children. Rev. Peters’ nephew, brother-in-law, and a slave trader forcibly took the family to Norwich to be loaded on a ship headed for South Carolina. When the Peters’ Hebron neighbors heard the news, they developed a plan to foil the trader’s intentions, concocting a story that Cesar Peters senior had stolen goods from a local tailor. (He had had clothes made but had not yet paid.) A local just of the peace issued an arrest warrant, and the family was returned to Hebron to “face charges.” 

In 1789, when Henry was an infant, the Connecticut General Assembly reviewed petitions to free the Peters family and ultimately agreed to do so. Henry Peters was the heir to his father’s small farm. He found ready employment by gentlemen farmers living in Hebron Center. In 1833 he purchased a small farm from one of these gentlemen farmers. With the assistance of the local Episcopal Church underwriting his mortgage, Henry Peters was able to add more acreage which passed on to his son. grew up to be a farmer and homeowner. Henry Peters died in 1862.