At this time, we do not know if the servants working here were enslaved. From census records, we do know John and Sarah had slaves in their other house on South Water, or Towne, Street before moving in here. The 1790 census recorded three servants, a white female and two black males living in the house, but no one identified as a slave. It was not uncommon in the North, however, for slaves to be called “servants,” but the census corrects for this; you just need to read the records very carefully. From family documents, we know that in 1801, the family had four servants: Jesse, an older woman, Jonathan, who also was their coachman, and a teenage boy and girl. We know that both of the young people and Jonathan were of African descent. Certainly, for a family and a house like this to operate in the New Republic it was practically a necessity to use the labor of slaves and servants—people who knew such families more intimately than even their closest friends.
In 1784, the Rhode Island General Assembly did pass a gradual “general emancipation” law, stating that from after March 1, 1784 children born to enslaved women were to be apprenticed to their owners until age 18 for females and 21 for males, and then were to be considered free. So, depending on the age of the so-called servants, we might be able to determine their legal status, but that information has eluded researchers thus far. To be sure, John Brown was not an advocate for emancipation or abolition and he enslaved people on his other properties, so it would not be surprising if he had them work in this house, if only seasonally or for special projects.