Richard Hill: Acquisition of Land from Town Proprietors Following Emancipation
On April 11, 1796, Richard Hill, a free Black man living in Kennebunk, sent a petition letter to the “proprietors” of Wells (the 108 home and land owners in Wells as of 1734) to acquire a plot of common land.
In this letter, Richard apprised the proprietors “humbly” that “he has a piece of common land enclosed in his field … that would greatly accommodate your petitioner, who is poor but wishes and strives for a honest living among the free born sons of America.” In the letter, he “prays” that the proprietors “grant him and his heirs [this] small and uncultivated tract of barren soil, … which will greatly add to the happiness of your petitioner when he is toiling and sweating to obtain a honest self-support for a numerous family.” Richard makes this request praying that the “spirit of benevolence, which so generally dwells within the breast of the proprietors …, may burst forth with so much compassion to a poor African, although happy in having a dwelling, poor as it is, in such a community where freedom and happiness reign.”
Richard clearly knew the process for obtaining a grant of “common land” was to send a petition letter to the proprietors. In addition, we can surmise that he understood the importance of finding a drafter skilled in using the legal terms sprinkled throughout the letter and appealing to the proprietors’ republican self-conception following the Revolutionary War; and that he was well-connected enough to find such a drafter willing to compose and write the letter for him.
Since “his mark X” is written in the middle of the signature line, we can infer that Richard likely did not physically write the letter himself. We don’t know the extent to which he composed the content contained within. Regardless, Richard was successful in acquiring this plot of common land for him and his family—an uncommon situation for most Black people in the region at that time and a testament to his skillful navigation of the legal system. In 1796, Richard would have been one of the only—if not the only—Black landowner in Kennebunk.
Despite his successful petition to acquire this land, we don’t know how long Richard and his “numerous family” remained in the area and tended to the land, as none of the Kennebunk censuses list Richard as a “householder in town.”
Reflection Questions
What might have motivated Richard Hill and his family to leave Kennebunk, given their status as landowners?
This research was compiled as part of the Just History Walk: Lives Between Two Rivers which took place on November 8, 2025. For more information about this walk, click here. For more research related to this area, click on the tags below. To download a hi-res version of the poster below for educational use, please contact where@atlanticblackbox.com.
Poster design by Meadow Dibble