The wealthiest African American in Greenwich in the mid-19th century was an African-born farmer who first appeared in the 1810 census as Alla African, a "free coloured person." According to land records, African bought ten acres of farmland with buildings in the Stanwich Society area from Frank Husted for $400 in 1822. He purchased additional property in 1830 as shown in this detail from a land deed. His acquisition of land continued in 1839, when he bought ten acres from Benjamin Husted, Jr. for $300. By the 1860 census, the value of African's property totaled $2000--twice that of any African American in Greenwich.

Image: Land Deed, Major Lockwood and Hervey Lookwood to Alla African, February 28, 1830. Courtesy Town of Greenwich.

He was known at different times as Abby African, Allah African, Alley African and Ally Mink. By 1876, he appears to have lost his money. That year he is listed in the Pauper Account for Greenwich, which recorded expenditures for paupers.  Three years later funeral director Isaac L. Mead recorded in his ledger a funeral for Ally Mink, who died on March 19, 1879, at the age of 100 years. Who was Allah African? How did he come to Greenwich? What was his status within the community over the years? His is just one of the many stories of African Americans during the antebellum and post-Civil War periods in the North that is still waiting to be rediscovered and told.

Image: Pauper Account, Town of Greenwich, 1876-1877. The Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich.