Above: Lottery tickets printed in 1785, probably on the Franklin Press and signed by Samuel Vernon III. They were issued by the Second Congregational Church on Clarke Street to raise funds for the restoration of the church and parsonage which “were in a great measure destroyed” by their use as a British army hospital during the occupation.
In the recent press about the Newport Gardner letter purchased by the NHS, much has been made of the report that he “won the lottery” and bought his freedom. In the colonial and early federal period, lotteries were used to raise money for all kinds of public and private works: building a school or church, laying a road, opening a mine. Tickets were sold to anyone who had the cash, and in fact apprentices, servants and enslaved individuals, here in Newport and elsewhere, bought chances for all the reasons that folks do today.
While the information currently available to us is contradictory about whether Gardner bought his freedom or was freely manumitted, it does seem clear that he, and three associates, won the proceeds of a lottery in 1791. The award is mentioned in several letters and reminiscences from the early 19th century, and here is a confirming newspaper report:
From the “Salem Gazette,” May 10, 1791.
No. 17221, which drew 2000 dollars in the Semi-annual State lottery, was paid on Friday laſt, by Meſſrs. Leach and Foſdick, in Boſton. The proprietors were four Africans belonging to Newport.
Most important to note, however, is the fact Gardner was actively assembling money by hiring himself out during his free time while still enslaved. This practice was not uncommon in urban New England during the period of slavery. If he bought his freedom, and that of his family, it was not because of a single stroke of luck, but rather because of years of hard and continual work.