Prince Mortimer
Once Enslaved, Now Honored in Connecticut
2025 Black History Month: Unsung Heroes
Middletown, CT
This Black History Month, the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project honors the unsung hero Prince Mortimer (c. 1724 - 11 Mar. 1834).
Black History Month 2025 in Middletown, Connecticut, began dramatically on February 1st as Rapallo Avenue was renamed Prince Mortimer Avenue in honor of a man captured at the age of 6 years old near his home in Guinea, West Africa, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean through the perilous Middle Passage, and enslaved until his death more than 100 years later.
Adopting the surname of Phillip Mortimer who purchased him, Prince Mortimer described the ocean voyage as miserable and filthy. Details of his early years in Connecticut are unknown, but the selection of this avenue as a commemorating gesture reflects the route that he took during his daily life in Middletown. During the colonial era the city was a busy trans-Atlantic and inter-American seaport, so his skills as a rope-maker were in demand.
During the Revolutionary War, Prince Mortimer was said to have been a servant to several American officers including General George Washington for whom he ran errands. According to one historian, Prince is quoted as saying he had “straddled many a cannon while fired by the Americans at the British troops.” However, association with these officers and participation in the American patriots’ rebellion did not result in Mortimer’s freedom from slavery.
When Philip Mortimer died (1794) Prince was promised manumission in the will. However, George Starr, Mortimer’s son-in-law, challenged the will in court and won, and at the age of 70 Prince became enslaved to Starr. Seventeen years later (1811), Starr accused Prince of attempted murder by arsenic poisoning. He was found guilty at the age of 87 and sentenced to life in prison, relieving Starr of the burden of caring for an enslaved elder. Imprisoned for the remainder of his life, first at New-Gate Prison in East Granby (considered one of the worst prisons in America) and later at a new facility in Wethersfield, Mortimer died in 1834 at 110 years of age - never attaining freedom. HIs was a life filled with abuse, unkept promises, and injustice.
John Mills, President of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a Connecticut-based non-profit organization, worked with Middletown City Historian, Deborah Shapiro, and Dr Jesse Nasta of Wesleyan University to have an ordinance passed allowing honorary street names in the city. As part of the dedication ceremony for Mortimer, a commissioned art piece will be presented depicting a reimagined image of Prince standing in the rope-making facility. The portrait will hang in the Middletown town hall for the full month of February.
Middletown, Connecticut, begins its Black History Month celebration by naming a city street for Prince Mortimer, a child captured near Guinea, West Africa at age 6. With the help of Municipal Historian Deborah Shapiro and Dr. Jesse Nasta of Wesleyan University, the three activists campaigned for two years to honor Prince, an enslaved man who worked as a rope maker and who carried messages to colonial troops, including General George Washington. Prince died in prison in 1834 at age 110 after being accused of trying to poison his enslaver.
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Material for this article compiled from interviews, The Middletown Press, “A Century in Captivity: The Life and Trials of Prince Mortimer, a Connecticut Slave;” and “NewGate of Connecticut.”