Born: 4 July 1645, United States
Died: 8 January 1705
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Zipporah Potter
The following is republished with permission from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Zipporah Potter Atkins (c. 1645-1705), the first African American woman to purchase a home in Boston, was born to parents enslaved by Captain Richard Keayne. She was free because the 1641 law legalizing slavery in Massachusetts did not include children. Her father, Richard Done, received an inheritance from Keayne’s will that was passed on to her and possibly used to buy the property on Salem Street in 1670. The deed was uncovered at the Massachusetts Archives by Dr. Vivian R. Johnson, a retired Boston University history professor. Dr. Johnson also discovered that Atkins had initiated the deed of sale in 1699, making her the first African-American woman in Suffolk County to do so. When Zipporah Potter married and took the surname Atkins, the ceremony was conducted by prominent Protestant clergyman Cotton Mather.