Laurel Hill Cemetery (3B) - grave of Amos Potamia

Located down the hill on your right you will find the gravestone of Amos Potamia. Inscribed are the words, “Respected in life lamented in death was born a slave in Wilmington, Mass Feb. 14 1770 died a freeman of Christ in Reading May 24 1858.” 

Not much is known about Amos’ life as a slave, but we know that he accumulated property, owned a house in Reading and was able to invest $2,000 dollars in the Andover and Medford turnpike (current Route 28/Main Street in Reading), which shared the fate of similar investments by his white neighbors, and was lost. 

According to Reading historian Lilley Eaton, “he was greatly esteemed as a man and was an active Christian.” 

It may be possibly that Amos earned his freedom from slavery during the mid to late 1780s, as the newly ratified Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 and a series of legal case that came before Massachusetts courts ended the practice of legal slavery in the state by 1783.