Born around 1754 in colonial Connecticut, Prince Duplex spent the first decades of his life in servitude, gaining his freedom through his service in the Revolutionary War. Records suggest he was “Prince, the negro servant child of Samuel Riggs and Abigail his wife” who appears in a 1756 baptismal record at the First Congregational Church of Derby. That same year, the Riggs’ daughter, Abigail, married Rev.  Benjamin Chapman, pastor of the Congregational Church in Southington. When Samuel Riggs died in 1770, Prince became the property of his daughter, Abigail. He likely lived with Abigail and her family in Southington until 1777, when we see a man named Prince from Southington mustering into the Continental Army in 1777 as a “free man of color.” It is surmised that he gained his freedom as a condition of his service. Listed in military records as Prince Duplex, he served a three-year term, engaging in battles at Germantown and Monmouth, and wintering at Valley Forge. When his term ended, he reenlisted and served until the war’s end as a guard at Horseneck and Stamford. Afterwards, he returned to Southington, married a woman named Lement, and settled in Wolcott, where the Duplexes raised a large family. Around 1816, Prince, Lament, and some of their children moved to Danby, NY, which had been officially incorporated five years earlier. In 1819, Prince Duplex’s application for a military pension was approved, benefits which likely helped him purchase land and establish a 45-acre farm. Danby  records describe Prince Duplex as one of the town’s most notable residents. 

His descendants carried on his legacy. Among his children were his son and namesake, Prince Duplex, Jr., a leader in the African Ecclesiastical Society in New Haven, and his daughter, Vashti Duplex Creed, the first African American teacher in that city. His grandchildren included Dr. Cortland Van Rensselaer Creed, MD, the first known African American to graduate from Yale Medical School, and Edward Parker Duplex, a Gold Rush pioneer who became mayor of Wheatland, CA. Later descendants include decorated veterans, civil rights activists, PhDs, and physicians.