Agrippa Hull was a free black man who enlisted in the Continental Army from Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and served for six and a half years until the end of hostilities. In early 2024 the Museum & Archives of the Stockbridge Library Association acquired, through private sale, Agrippa Hull’s certificate of discharge from the Continental Army, dated July 24, 1783 and signed by Gen. George Washington. The return of this extraordinary document to his hometown enhances the ability of the Museum & Archives to more fully interpret the significance of Hull’s life and service and has a treasured place in our collection of Hull-related artifacts that include his portrait and personal items.

Certificates of discharge were routinely submitted as evidence of a veteran’s qualifying service when applying for a military pension and commonly remained part of the pension records. To find one outside of these archives is unusual, and one belonging to a free African American soldier is rarer still. In addition, his discharge certificate figures prominently in Hull’s story: upon applying for his federal pension in 1818 he was loath to part with the certificate because it contained the signature of General Washington, whom he held in great esteem. Ten years later Charles Sedgwick, a local lawyer who was also Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, wrote a letter of support, requesting that Hull be awarded his pension without the signed documents, because “he had rather forego the pension than lose the discharge.”^[1] Sedgwick’s petition was successful and Agrippa Hull received his pension and retained his discharge. The note from Sedgwick can be seen in Agrippa Hull’s pension file.

Agrippa Hull was born free, to landholding parents, in Northampton, Massachusetts, on May 13, 1759. Upon his father’s death in 1761 the family fell on hard times, ultimately losing the title to their land. Hull’s mother, Bathsheba, sent the seven-year-old Agrippa to Stockbridge in the care of Joab Benny (or Binney), whom she knew from when they were both members of Jonathan Edwards’ congregation in Northampton. Between 1755 and 1768, Benny worked as a tanner and purchased upwards of fifty acres of land in Stockbridge, and it is likely that Bathsheba thought her son would have more opportunities there than in Northampton, given her precarious situation.