Revolutionary War-Era Manuscript Broadside Announcing Adoption of Articles of Association by Woodbury, Connecticut Committee of Inspections, 1775 

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• Lot Description
  Revolutionary War-Era Manuscript Broadside Announcing Adoption of Articles of Association by Woodbury, Connecticut Committee of Inspections, 1775 
  
  Manuscript broadside, 7.375 x 11.75 in., August 21, 1775 contemporaneous copy Notification by the Woodbury [Connecticut] Committee of Inspections announcing that they had voted to adopt the Articles of Association agreed to by the First Continental Congress in September 1774. In summary, the document gives notice to all inhabitants that the Woodbury Committee agrees with Congress' Articles of Association and warns that anyone who does not will be publicly exposed and ostracized. Although not signed, this document was penned by Captain Benjamin Stiles, Sr. (1720-97) a former Deputy to the Connecticut Colonial Assembly, Crown Surveyor for Fairfield and Litchfield Counties, Attorney, and Militiaman. His wife owned the noted slave, Jeffrey Brace, who fought with the Colonials and won a Badge of Merit during the Rev. War.
  
  In full, the document reads [the “Olde” English made new for an easier read]:
  
  At a Meeting of the Committee of Inspections for the town of Woodbury Convened on the 21st day of August 1775 said Committee proceeded to take into their most serious consideration the important matter and business for which they were appointed in relation to the Association entered into and recommended by the Continental Congress holden at Philadelphia on the 5th day of September last and approved of by the Inhabitants of the town in a legal meeting holden in said Woodbury on the 17th day of November 1774. Nemine Contradicente. This Committee being unanimously agreed to exert ourselves with the utmost care and diligence in Supporting and Carrying into execution every part of said Association according to our abilities and it is the opinion of this Committee that if any of the good people of this town shall go Counter (either by word or action) to any one article of said Association construed in a strict sense it shall be the duty of this Committee publicly to advertise them according to the direction of said Association, let their public or private character be what it will, and in such case all persons must break off all connection with such persons or persons or expect to be advertised by the Committee as violators of said Association and furthermore it is the opinion of this Committee that if any person or persons shall by word or action prove themselves to be inimical to the method taken by the Continental Congress for the maintaining and securing of our just rights and privileges, or that shall endeavor too Influence others of the good people of these Colonies to disunite from them though it cannot be said to be a breach of any one particular article of said Association (Strictly Construed) that it may be our duty to Publish such person that the world may know what Sentiment they have. The above voted in the Affirmative." [Docketed on the Reverse it reads "A Copy of Woodbury Committee vote"].
  
  Captain Benjamin Stiles, Sr. graduated Yale in 1740 and practiced law in Southbury, CT. His sister, Mary, was married to Revolutionary War Colonel Benjamin Hinman. Stiles was appointed by the crown as the surveyor for Fairfield County in 1749, and, (after its formation) Litchfield County in 1752. From 1754-71 he served as a Deputy to the Connecticut Assembly. In 1764 he was appointed a Captain of Militia. In 1775, the same year as this document, he was suspected of being too conservative in his views and was cited before the General Assembly for "Contempt of Government" the complaint charging him with having said that the "Three Colony Representatives in the Continental Congress were three good-for-nothing dogs, and no more fit for the place than his sick negro Jeff." No specific action was taken against Stiles, however, because his brother-in-law was Colonel Hinman, and he was also a friend of Ethan Allen (of Green Mountain Boys fame) and other patriots. Further, his son, Benjamin Stiles, Jr., (1756-1817) was a member of the militia as was his wife's slave, Jeffrey Brace.
  
  Jeffrey Brace gained notoriety during the Revolutionary War and is the subject of the biography The Blind African Slave, or memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, nicknamed Jeffrey Brace, originally published in 1810 and recently re-published. Briefly, Brace was captured in Africa at age 16 and shipped to America, had a few cruel masters before he was purchased in 1768 by Benjamin's wife, Mary. Prior to Mary's purchase, Brace, who was 6'3" and extremely strong, fought (mostly in Cuba) as an "enslaved sailor" during the French and Indian War. Mary taught Brace to read and write and treated him as part of the family. He fought with the Continental Army for over 5 years, winning the Badge of Merit, which was rarely presented to blacks at the time. After the war he was honorably discharged and freed from slavery. He returned to Woodbury where he lived with Benjamin Stiles Jr. for a short while. He then left the Stiles family and moved to Vermont, got married, raised a family, and changed his name back to its original African, and eventually went blind before his death. After the war Benjamin Stiles Sr. represented Southbury at a meeting held at Hartford, Jan. 3, 1788, for the ratification of the US Constitution and he was later a State Auditor. 

  Condition

  The document is in fine condition, with some wear along perimeter, including few short tears, with one 1.25 in. vertical tear along bottom edge that does not impact text.
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