When the Revolutionary War broke out, Tom signed up. He was later given his freedom because of this. And in 1780 the Bill of Rights freed the other slaves in Massachusetts also.

Tom's wife used to sing a sad song containing the phrase, "gene me, gene me!" It was still sung by my elders during my youth. I never knew the meaning^* of the words, but the meaning of the mournful sound was quite clear.

Tom died around 1787. His son Jack had inherited some farmland in the Egremont Plain on which he and his first wife Elizabeth made a home. After her death he married my great-grandmother, Violet. They had at least six children. My mother's father, "Othello" was one of them.

^* One explanation from linguists is that the words were probably from Wolof, a Senegambian language, and meant something like "get me out, get me out!"