Researching Great Neck's pre-Civil War Freed Slaves: A Continuation

Since his first presentation in February 2024, Morgan has continued his research and will report on his latest findings. 

As cemetery caretaker, Morgan scrubbed clean the gravestones of two brothers, Joseph Ross Hendrahand and Marcus Hendrahand, more clearly revealing that they died in 1862 and 1860 respectively.

Morgan has been delving into Seventh Day Baptist church records in Waterford and Greenmanville, the Mystic Seaport archives and collaborating with a Washington, North Carolina research librarian to learn more about these two young men. He will share fresh findings at the presentation to answer the question: “What did Mary Harkness’s grandmother have to do with these mysterious freed slaves in West Neck Cemetery?” And how did they come to be buried there?

Morgan encourages those who plan to attend the talk to go to that cemetery beforehand, find the gravestones located in the northeast corner of the cemetery about 5 feet from the wall, and begin to ponder: “Given just the information on the gravestones, what more can we learn about these young men? What questions do we have, what would be interesting to know, and what research strategies and avenues do we follow to get the answers?” Morgan will ask those present what they may know or may have heard about these men in local folklore. 

Since last February 2024, Morgan's research has opened up three broad questions and a "zinger":

1. Is Ross actually interred in Boston? How might he have found a way back here?

2. Who commissioned, paid for, and placed each of these stones? When and why?

3. Where did they live on Great Neck, and what was the legacy of slavery in post-slavery Great Neck?