Jeffrey Brace -- 1742-1827 -- African, Revolutionary Veteran, Author, Abolitionist

Jeffrey Brace was born in West Africa with the name Boyrereau Brinch. At sixteen he was captured by European slave traders, shipped to Barbados, sold to a ship's captain, and eventually arrived in New England. Some years later, while still enslaved, Brace enlisted in the Continental Army and he won his freedom fighting in the Revolution. At the war's end in 1784 he settled in Poultney, in newly formed Vermont - the first state to prohibit slavery. He met an ex-slave, married, and they raised their family here. In 1810 he published his life story, one of the most unique and important anti-slavery memoirs written in America.