Nathaniel KEENE

1642 - 1725  (82 years)

• Name	Nathaniel KEENE
  Born	5 Aug 1642	Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts
  Gender	Male
  Noteworthy	Convicted of killing a slave woman, Rachel, and fined £5.
  Owned Slaves?	Y
  Witchcraft connection?	Y
  Died	5 Jan 1725	Kittery, York, Maine
  Buried	unknown
  Person ID	I10324	Main
  Last Modified	7 Nov 2023

  
  

  Father	Christopher CANE,   b. Abt 1613, England ,   d. 9 Dec 1653, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 40 years)
  Mother	Margery MNU,   b. Abt 1615, England ,   d. 3 Apr 1687, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 72 years)
  Family ID	F5134	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Sarah GREENE,   b. Abt 1659, New Castle, Rockingham, New Hampshire ,   d. Aft 1725, Kittery, York, Maine  (Age ~ 67 years)
  Married	2 Nov 1688	Kittery, York, Maine
  Children	1. Joseph KEENE,   b. Abt 1692, Scarborough, Cumberland, Maine ,   d. 5 Nov 1767, Kittery, York, Maine  (Age ~ 75 years)   2. Hannah WALLAGE,   b. 14 Dec 1820, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts ,   d. 21 Jun 1884, New York, New York, New York  (Age 63 years)
  Last Modified	30 Oct 2023
  Family ID	F3536	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Born - 5 Aug 1642 - Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Married - 2 Nov 1688 - Kittery, York, Maine Died - 5 Jan 1725 - Kittery, York, Maine  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Notes

  7 children —— Rachel of Kittery, Maine (?-1695) was an African-American enslaved woman in the New England state of Maine, who was murdered by her enslaver, Nathaniel Keen, who was subsequently put on trial on for murder. The trial established court precedent in the New England colonies for how juries ruled on murder cases that involved the slave owner murdering an enslaved individual. The only documentation that she existed is several paragraphs in the Province & Court Records of Maine. She was called Rachel & lived in the town of Kittery, York, Maine. Rachel was a slave, who was owned and beaten to death by Nathaniel Keen in late 1694 or early 1695. Nathaniel Keen was arrested & charged with the murder of Rachel on or about May 1, 1695 with the trial being held on May 16, 1695. “Superior Court held at Kittery for York County, present Thomas Danforth, Elisha Cook, & Samuel Sewall, justices.” Sewall was a strong advocate for the rights of slaves . “Sewall, who was probably a slaveholder himself, had first felt misgivings about the practice one day in June 1700…” Sewall went as far as to argue in his book The Selling of Joseph, published in 1700, that New England should do away with the practice of slavery. “But this view could not have been very widespread, for the anti-slavery ranks in Massachusetts at that time were represented wholly by Samuel Sewall.”Rachel’s murder & the subsequent trial of Nathaniel Keen had a direct impact on Sewall embracing an abolitionist position with regards to slavery. “The case was committed to the jury, who bring in their verdict; they find Nathaniel Keen guilty of cruelty to his negro woman (Rachel) by cruel beating & hard usage.” The case of the murder of Rachel was according to Lorenzo Greene “a test case”, which in more modern legal terminology, the case of Rachel’s murder was precedent setting. Unfortunately, the precedent was to find the defendant guilty of cruelty rather than the original charge of murder & to the value of the life of a slave was 5 pounds & additional court costs. [1]

  
  

• Sources

  [S151] WikiTree, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Keene-1654.