BEVERLY — Historic Beverly’s Abby Battis was doing research for an exhibit on enslaved people of Beverly when she came across a name that intrigued her.
Philis Cave was a former enslaved woman who lived in a home in Prides Crossing in Beverly and worked as a laundry woman into her 90s for Robert Rantoul, a prominent resident.
Would Rantoul, who had expressed admiration for Cave in his autobiography, have paid for her burial, Battis wondered?
That question led to a satisfying answer when Historic Beverly recently discovered Cave’s gravestone at Central Cemetery in Beverly, where she is buried alongside another enslaved woman, Nancy Milan.
The headstone marking the graves of the two woman was lying flat on the ground, almost completely covered up by grass except for the name “Nancy” and a portion of Milan’s last name.
According to Battis, Historic Beverly’s associate director of collections, it was the first grave of an enslaved person from Beverly to have been discovered. The fact that it was found mostly buried, in a cemetery with tens of thousands of other graves, was something of a miracle and, considering its historical significance, “monumental,” she said.
“This really now has fueled our fire to do more (to uncover the history of slavery in Beverly),” Battis said.
The gravesite of Cave and Milan had actually been discovered in 2012, when a researcher posted a photo of it on findagrave.com and identified it as being in Central Cemetery in Beverly.
The posting, however, did not specify where the grave was within Central Cemetery, which according to findagrave.com has 17,828 graves. When Battis returned from one futile search a few weeks ago, she told Historic Beverly staffers, “Whoever finds it gets a $100 bill.”
A couple of days later, a volunteer for Historic Beverly came across the headstone with the telltale “Nancy” barely visible. She called over the other searchers, who dropped to their knees and began pulling back the grass with their bare hands.
“It was quite exciting,” said Jonathan Schuster, a Historic Beverly staffer who was there that day. “I was not hopeful because throughout the previous days quite a few people had been looking for it.
“It’s a massive, massive milestone,” he added. “It’s a steppingstone to hopefully find other enslaved people buried in Central Cemetery and other cemeteries in Beverly.”
Historic Beverly, in fact, has since discovered two more graves of former enslaved people in Central Cemetery, George Stephens and Simon Slaughter, who both served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Such discoveries will continue to add to the city’s knowledge of the history of slavery in Beverly, which is the subject of the exhibit, ”Set at Liberty,” that opened last month at Historic Beverly’s Cabot House museum. More than 400 enslaved people lived in Beverly in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Battis said.
Each time researchers discover another name, it’s a chance to dig into their personal history and finally tell their stories.
Battis said Philis Cave was sold into slavery as a child in Salem to a Mr. Cave (enslaved people took the last name of their enslavers). She was paid for in iron. Philis remembered being carried away to Cave’s farm in Middleton in the bottom of a horse-drawn carriage, according to Rantoul’s autobiography.
Philis came to Beverly at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. She lived in Prides Crossing with Milan and another former enslaved woman, Chloe Larcom. As a free woman, Philis worked for Rantoul, apparently walking every day from Prides Crossing to his house on Washington Street in downtown Beverly.
Philis worked until the day she died Jan. 20, 1852, Battis said.
“It appears that she was desperate to stay out of the poor house. That’s why she’s working until she’s 90,” Battis said. “She really just wanted to be well-respected and not be viewed as poor and destitute.”
Historic Beverly plans to restore the gravestone and put it upright once again, Battis said.
On Juneteenth, the group plans to place a wreath on the grave of Philis Cave and Nancy Milan, making sure they are no longer forgotten.
Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.