Book overview
The Narrative of Primus uncovers the remarkable, nearly forgotten story of a ten-year-old boy taken from his mother's bedside in West Africa and forced aboard a slave ship bound for America. That boy, Primus, survived the Middle Passage, endured decades of enslavement in colonial Connecticut, raised a family, and through faith, resilience, and grace, laid a foundation that would ripple across generations.
Drawing on rarely cited historical sources including an embedded first-person narrative hidden since 1824 in the writings of Lydia Sigourney, John Mills reveals Primus as more than a footnote to slavery or a name in a ledger. He restores him as a father, a church member, a scholar of scripture, a community figure, and a man whose voice still echoes across three centuries.
Through meticulous archival research, Mills traces the lives of Primus's descendants from the Revolutionary War, where his son Job fought for American independence while enslaved, through the Civil War, where Sgt. Daniel Stanley Lathrop served with the famed 29th Connecticut Colored Infantry, and into the twentieth century, where the lineage continued to serve in both World Wars and National Guard militias shut out of state support.
Part genealogy, part social history, and part personal journey, The Narrative of Primus blends historical storytelling with the author's lived experience as a Black American and direct descendant of enslaved ancestors. Mills interrogates myths surrounding American liberty, challenges long-held racial narratives, and re-centers Black families whose sacrifices helped shape the nation.
The Narrative of Primus is a compelling and deeply personal contribution to African American history, slavery studies, New England history, Connecticut history, genealogy, and the American story. It reminds us that America was built not only by the celebrated, but by the unseen-and that their descendants are still here to tell the story.
