Tobias Wornton

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Newburyport, Massachusetts(?)

The following is from the 2004 National Park Service study Patriots of Color researched and prepared by George Quintal:

Tobias Wornton was an "African," the "slave of Capt. Winthrop Sargent."^I

Researcher Emma Kaplan provides the following:

… his granddaughter Mrs. Nancy Prince in her 1850 Narrative states: “I was born in Newburyport in 1799. My mother was the daughter of Tobias Wornton who was stolen from Africa … although a slave fought for liberty, and was in the Revolutionary army at the battle of Bunker Hill. My grandmother was an Indian”^II … Tobias Wornton was known as Backus.^III

Footnotes:

1. Kaplan, Emma N. “African American Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War.” Manuscript, 328.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid, 329.

Learn more about Quintal's study.