02/27/2026
Enslavement is rooted in trafficking of people for the profit and comfort of others, not only once, but often many times over the course of a person’s life. For many of the thousands of people enslaved in Colonial New York, the Revolution brought with it yet another round of involuntary movement, as individuals on all sides fled their homes to escape the military and political violence of the conflict, often bringing those they enslaved with them. In the Fall of 1777, two sisters, Jenny and Juba Fundy, began an arduous journey together, one that would take them across Haudenosaunee and British territory in New York, ultimately to Canada. This was not a journey that they chose, however, but rather one chosen for them by Molly Brant, widow of Sir William Johnson and the person who would hold them in bo***ge until her death.
We first encounter hints of their story in a receipt for shoes. In the spring of 1769, at the very end of a list of the Johnson estate’s expenses to shoemaker John Loney, lies an important final entry for the month of April. The last line of the bill, a mere one shilling charge, was for “Mending a pair [of shoes] for Little Juba.” The attachment of the descriptor “Little” to Juba’s name is of particular interest. Combined with later documentation that would provide approximate ages for Jenny and Juba as adults, this reference to her indicates that Juba was a young girl, likely around ten years old in 1769, while Jenny would have been seven.
Three years later, both girls journeyed from Johnson Hall to St. George’s Church in Schenectady where, along with at least two dozen other enslaved people of African descent denoted in the records as “Sir William Johnson’s 24 Slaves,” Jenny and Juba were baptized.
But it was upon Sir William’s death in July of 1774, that Jenny and Juba’s familial connection to one another would be reported for the first time. Within his will, Sir William bequeathed to Molly Brant “One Negroe W***h named Jenny the Sister of Juba.” Notably, Jenny and Juba were the only enslaved individuals mentioned by name within the will. Additionally, the fact that Jenny is attached directly to Sir William’s wife, Molly Brant, could signify that she may have been involved in minding the young Johnson-Brant children or even serving as a personal attendant for Molly Brant.
Sir William’s exact motivations for specifying the relationship between Jenny and Juba remain unknown. Perhaps having done so to avoid potentially confusing Jenny who was the “Sister of Juba” with another enslaved woman also named Jenny, this distinction nonetheless ties the two sisters together for us in the present, as much as it did for them 252 years ago.
As a part of Molly Brant’s household, Jenny, and presumably Juba, would eventually move with Brant and her children to the Mohawk village of Canajoharie in 1774. Across the subsequent three years, the conflict and tensions of the American Revolutionary War wound its way through the Mohawk Valley, eventually pushing Molly Brant and her household to make their way to Fort Niagara in 1777.
It is after this chaotic exodus that we find our last piece of concrete information elaborating on Jenny and Juba’s lives. Within the accounts of a “Return of Loyalists on Carleton Island” in 1783, three enslaved individuals are included within the household of Molly Brant. These three were Juba Fundy (age 23), Jane (Jenny) Fundy (age 20), and Abraham Johnston (age 45). Not only does this record include the sisters’ approximate ages, but it also serves as one of the very rare instances where those enslaved by the Johnson and Brant family have last names ascribed to them.
As was sometimes the case within systems of bo***ge, the name “Fundy” could indicate the family to which the girls had originally been enslaved, perhaps even an iteration of the prominent Mohawk Valley family name “Fonda.” Or it could have been of an entirely different origin. While Jenny’s first name is one that may appear familiar to many within our local context, Juba’s first name adds another angle to their personal stories. Often spelled “Jubah” or even “Jubo” throughout the Johnson Papers, the name itself has ties to the Arabic language with historical connections to cultures located in and around modern-day Sudan, perhaps indicating from where the sisters or their ancestors were trafficked.
While no information is currently known about Jenny and Juba’s life in Canada following the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, we know that Molly Brant would settle in Kingston, Ontario and setup her household there until her death in 1796. At that time, Jenny and Juba would have been 33 and 36 respectively, having lived through the injustices of enslavement and the turbulence of a conflict they were forced to endure. Though there is important understanding to be gleaned from the few records that document glimpses of their stories, it’s just as important to recognize the continued need for discovery in the face of so many of the unknowns that obscure the stories of many others just like Jenny and Juba.
