Survey team member Joyann Reynolds is a passionate and skilled researcher of local history. During a recent team meeting while discussing our need to learn more about Amesbury’s history, she recognized how little information there is about the regional Black community.

Through her research, Joyann discovered the remarkable story of Hiram Gardner, once a resident of Amesbury.

Hiram Craig Gardner was an ordinary man with an extraordinary gift. His home and gardens on Elizabeth Street were filled with plants, flowers, and vegetables that should NOT have been growing in Amesbury.

Many were crops native to Southern states like coffee beans, sugar cane, white tomatoes and brown Virginia lettuce. Each year he experimented with many hybrid varieties such as giant ten-pound beets and sold his unusual produce locally. He welcomed gardeners from all over New England to view his gardens, experiments, and achievements.

What’s more extraordinary is that Hiram Gardner was born a slave in Virginia, and where his mother, with baby Hiram in her arms, was sold for $900 in the 1860s. As a slave he did not attend school and could not read or write until much later in life.

Exactly how Hiram arrived in Amesbury is not entirely clear since he was, apparently, in addition to his horticultural skills, a good storyteller. But after the Civil War the family became free citizens and it’s believed his father was working in a soap factory in Amesbury and the family lived on Water Street.

Read more about Hiram Gardner

Join us as we celebrate Black History Month

For those interested in learning more, scholars Dr. Kabria Baumgartner and Dr. Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello have just published a web-based guide to the African-American Community of Essex County, available here.