Cato Cole (c. 1739-1825) was born in New England to his mother, Jin Cole, who was captured as a child in Africa and transported to Boston at the age of 12. It is not clear when or where Cato was born, but he was still an infant when he and his mother were sold to the Reverend Jonathan Ashley of Deerfield in about 1738. The Deerfield Church recorded Cato’s baptism on August 9, 1739. Cato’s name appears in Ashley’s account book, as the minister frequently hired out Cato and Titus, another man Ashley enslaved, to work for other Deerfield residents. His name also appears on a list of militia members during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). After Reverend Ashley’s death, Cato served Ashley’s son, Elihu, and then his grandson, Thomas Ashley. George Sheldon, Deerfield’s town historian, who knew Cato personally, wrote that “in Cato was seen the last relic of chattel slavery…although not held as a slave after the adoption of the [Massachusetts] constitution, he remained a servant in the Ashley family until his death.” Cato’s death record shows his transition from “servant” (a commonly-used term in the eighteenth century for an enslaved person) to “resident”: “Cato Cole a Negro man formerly a Servant of the Rev. Jonathan Ashley & now a resident in Col Thomas Ashley’s Family Died Nov 19th 1825.”