Free life

Although we do not fully know the reasons behind The Hooker family setting Bristow free, we do know that it had something to do with Thomas Hart Hooker leaving to fight in the Revolutionary war. After buying his freedom for 60 pounds, he was able to buy 3 acres of land that included a gristmill for 140 pounds, a rare thing for a formerly enslaved man to buy. According to his will, Bristow states, "I do hereby give and bequeath all my Estate both real and personal unto Thomas Hart Hooker and Abigail Hooker, children of Thomas Hart Hooker." Just by looking at his will, it is fair to assume that Bristow might've been forced to give what he owned to his former enslavers children. Only a few years after he wrote the will, he sold the land he bought in 1788 to another family for 85 pounds, much less than what he had to pay for it. Sadly, Bristow died of peripneumonia in 1814, but his memory still carry's on in West Hartford today.