Ebenezer Hills, died at Vienna, New York, August, 1849, aged 110.
He was born a Slave, in Stonington, Conn., and became free when
twenty-eight years of age. He served through the Revolutionary War, and
was at the battles of Saratoga and Stillwater, and was present at the
surrender of Burgoyne.
The Colored inhabitants of Connecticut assembled in Convention in 1849,
to devise means for their elective franchise; a gentleman present
reports the following extract:--"A young man, Mr. West, of Bridgeport,
spoke with a great deal of energy, and with a clear and pleasant tone
of voice which many a lawyer, statesman, or clergyman might covet,
nobly vindicating the rights of the brethren. He said that the bones of
the Colored man had bleached on every battlefield where American valor
had contended for national independence. Side by side with the white
man, the black man stood and struggled to the last for the inheritance
which the white men now enjoy, but deny to us. His father was a soldier
Slave, and his master said to him when the liberty of the country was
achieved, 'Stephen, we will do something for you.' But what have they
ever done for Stephen, or for Stephen's posterity?" This orator is
evidently a young man of high promise, and better capable of voting
intelligently than half of the white men who would deny him a freeman's
privilege.