Hannah Archer Till Chapter, NSDAR

Why did we choose August 6 to Organize?

On August 6, 1965 – The Voting Rights Act was passed, which outlawed the discriminatory literacy tests that had been used to prevent African Americans from voting. Suffrage is finally fully extended to African American women. We thus celebrate the anniversary of this momentous date by officially organizing our chapter on the same date 56 years later.

Why are our chapter colors purple, yellow-gold, and white?

The United States Women’s Suffrage movement used these colors. August 2021 is the 101st anniversary of the 19th Amendment which gave many women the right to vote.

HANNAH ARCHER TILL

Hannah Archer Till (also known as Hannah Archer or Hannah Mason, circa 1722-1826) was an enslaved pastry cook and servant to General George Washington. Hannah Till purchased her freedom during the American Revolutionary War. Born in Kent County, Delaware, on November 25, 1721, she was originally named Long Point by her father, an Oneida Indian. The name was originally given to her father for his successful conflict with a buck at that place near Smyrna, Delaware.

Her mother was a slave whose name is not recorded. Her owner, John Brinkley, sold her under the name Hannah at the age of 15 when he brought her to a slave sale in Pennsylvania. She was sold again at the age of 25 to Parson Henderson, who then took her to Northumberland, England. It was here that she was treated well and for the first time paid for her services. After returning to British North America, thirty-five-year-old Hannah was sold to Parson Mason of New York. During her servitude, Hannah was trained as a cook and was often allowed to sell her homemade products. She met and married Issac Till, a New York whip maker.

By 1776, Hannah was legally owned by Reverend John Mason of the Associate Reformed Church in New York. Mason leased Hannah to cook for Washington and his wartime staff, and so she joined her husband Isaac Till, an enslaved cook leased by Captain John Johnson of Bergen County, New Jersey.

Noticed for her dignity and grace, Till became the personal cook for the general, serving by his side through all of his campaigns for the next six and a half years. It was important for the general to keep a trusted person as his cook, as poisoning was an often-used assassination technique during that era.

Hannah and Isaac already had at least three children. At Valley Forge, they had another, during the harsh winter of 1779, Till gave birth to son Issac Worley Till Jr. who was one of the few children born in General Washington’s Army during the war. Both cooks had an arrangement with the commander-in-chief and their respective owners whereby they would purchase their freedom, which they each completed on October 30, 1778. Nine months later, the couple had Isaac Worley baptized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania apparently as a free child. Now paid directly for her work, Hannah Till continued as General Washington’s personal pastry cook, except for half a year, which she spent working for Major General Marquis de Lafayette.

After the surrender of the British forces under General Charles Cornwallis to General Washington at Yorktown in 1781, Till’s services were lent to General Marquis de Lafayette for an additional six months before her term with General Washington ended. After the war, Hannah and Isaac Till employed themselves cooking for families in Philadelphia. They raised at least seven children together and became members of the newly built First African Presbyterian Church.

In 1824, John Fanning Watson interviewed a widowed Hannah before she briefly reunited with General Lafayette, who had returned to Philadelphia as part of a national tour. Till was 102 years old, and at the time, she was still able to recollect her life and travels. She died three years later on December 13, 1826, at the age of 105 and was buried in Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania. A ceremony was held at Till’s gravesite in Eden Cemetery on October 3, 2015, when the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) honored her as a Patriot of the American Revolutionary War.