Alice Jehu

Birth & Death Dates Unknown — Appears in Records 1810-1819

After Sarah Jehu’s death, her daughter Alice, who was sometimes called Alice Jehu and sometimes Alice Fishman, did not fare as well. Throughout the 1810s Alice was chargeable to the town and was “struck out” to a series of ever-changing households: first Artimis Brownell, then Simeon Irish, and then back and forth as the men competed with each other to offer lower and lower prices to the town ranging from $1.10 to a paltry 24¢ per week. Occasionally a new bidder like Isiah Clapp would speak up, and Alice would move once again.^[1]Alice Jehu Struck Out, Little Compton Town & Vital Records, Vol 2, pgs. 325, 339, 341, 345, 347, 352, 354. Little Compton cared for its poor, as duty demanded, but the quality of that care was severely suspect.

Marjory Gomez O’Toole, Executive Director, LCHS

First published in “If Jane Should Want to Be Sold: Stories of Enslavement, Indenture and Freedom in Little Compton, Rhode Island,” by the Little Compton Historical Society, 2016.

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