Liss
Born on Long Island, New York around the year 1763, Liss (or Elizabeth) was a freedom seeker who spent her childhood enslaved by two brothers of the wealthy Townsend family. By 1775 one brother, a shipping merchant named Samuel Townsend of Oyster Bay, was deeply involved in the Patriots’ plans for a revolution. When British troops marched into town, enemy officers billeted in Samuel's home alongside the family and the enslaved. Liss now had additional work each day, serving the unwelcome enemy guests.
One of these British commanders was named Colonel John Simcoe, whose regiment was called the Queen’s Rangers. Described by the Townsends as “honorable,” Simcoe required his men to follow strict rules of conduct. His own beliefs included a strong moral opposition to slavery, despite the fact that it was legal in all 13 colonies. Simcoe probably shared news with Liss of a new law promising freedom to enslaved Black people who would escape and join the British cause. During the winter of 1779, Liss also met his visiting friend, the gallant British spymaster, John André. As Simcoe’s regiment departed Oyster Bay in the spring, a valuable Townsend possession was secreted into the British caravan of horses and wagons. Liss had escaped.
Samuel’s son Robert Townsend, a merchant in Manhattan, had been recruited as a spy for General George Washington, using the code name “Culper, Jr.”. Following Liss’s escape, Robert closely followed Simcoe's troops, while urging his father to abandon any hope of recapturing Liss. Though she had escaped, Liss was re-enslaved in lower Manhattan by the British, just as Robert took on his role as the lead spy in Manhattan. He may even have convinced Liss to join his group known as the Culper Spy Ring, using the code name “355” which stood for the word “lady”. As an enslaved woman on the British side, Liss may have had access to high-level information in a role that seemed to arouse no suspicion.
Meanwhile, British spymaster John André conspired with a top American general named Benedict Arnold to hand over West Point Fort to the British for a price. Hoping his friend Col. Simcoe could take part, André met him in East Hampton, Long Island. An enslaved Black woman, who may even have been Liss, overheard the men talking and attempted to thwart the plot. But because of her slave status, she wasn't believed by the woman of the house, who said the intelligence about Arnold was just “foolish talk”. Instead, several days later André was captured accidentally by the Americans in Tappen, New York, after a secret meeting with Benedict Arnold. Washington was furious that one of his trusted generals would betray him. John André was found guilty of espionage and hanged to death. But Benedict Arnold escaped to Manhattan and switched sides, rounding up dozens of suspected American spies that Robert knew. Fearing he would also be caught, Robert moved to the edge of the city to a place called Peck Slip and ceased writing spy letters to Washington.
Near the war’s end, Liss became pregnant just as she faced imminent evacuation with the British. She reached out to Robert to ask for his help so that she could stay in New York. Robert took Liss into his Peck Slip home, hired a white maid, paid his father for her value, and wrote his final spy letter to Washington. In February of 1783, Liss gave birth to a mixed-race son named Harry. The war had been won, and a new life was beginning, but would the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness extend to Liss?
In a misguided plan, Robert sold Liss and her baby to a recently widowed friend who promised Liss would remain in New York. However, when the friend re-married, a fight with her new husband ended in tragedy. Their marriage dissolved, and out of spite, greed, or both, Liss was sold south to Charleston, South Carolina, while two-year-old Harry remained in Manhattan.
Liss’s new enslaver was a man named Richard Palmes who had once been part of the Boston Massacre of 1770. Prone to violence, Palmes had once been forced to make a public apology for beating a sheriff and was often bankrupt due to a bad habit of living beyond his means. Settling in Charleston after the war, his desire to own fine things extended to his purchase of Liss, who was so expensive that Palmes had to take out a sizable mortgage in order to buy her.
Two years passed before Robert discovered what had happened and confronted the man who had sold Liss south. He took possession of young Harry and began frantic efforts to bring Liss home. Ironically, she had to be smuggled into New York because of a new law that Robert had supported as a member of an anti-slavery group.
After reuniting with her son and living as a free person, Liss was finally freed by law in 1803 at age 40. Despite suffering deception, violence and separation from her child, Liss never stopped seeking her own freedom. Her assertion of her own will, her intrepid petitions to control her fate, the denials of her basic humanity, and her ultimate triumph in the face of repeated tragedy and injustice make her a symbol of enduring bravery.
