{{Short description|18th-century African American leader}}
'''Peleg Nott''' (fl. late 18th century) was an African American leader who in 1780 became the Black Governor of Connecticut, an elected office that nominally presided over the state's Black community, estimated at 5,885 people at the time.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Mouthaan |first=James |date=2019 |title=Nott, Peleg |url=https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-78485 |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=Oxford African American Studies Center |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.78485|isbn=978-0-19-530173-1 }}</ref> Although they held little real political power, these governors were elected by fellow African Americans (both free and enslaved) according to traditional African custom, generally in accordance with their reputations for probity and influence and their owners' prestige.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lang |first=Joel |date=2002-09-29 |title=Chapter Three: The Sins of Our Fathers |url=https://www.courant.com/news/special-reports/hc-sherman.artsep29-story.html |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=Hartford Courant |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Anthony |first=Billie M. |date=2015-04-07 |title=Monument to the Black Governors |url=https://www.ctexplored.org/monument-to-the-black-governors/ |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=Connecticut Explored |language=en-US}}</ref>
Born into slavery, Nott was the legal property of Jeremiah Wadsworth, a prominent Hartford merchant, politician, commissary for the Continental Army, and the wealthiest person in Connecticut. After driving a provisions cart during the American Revolutionary War, Nott was entrusted with the supervision of Wadsworth's farm in West Hartford. A "first-rate feller," Nott was described as "remarkable for his exact dress and military bearing" and was well known for the trust that Wadsworth placed in him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartley |first=W. M. B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDkBAAAAYAAJ |title=Hartford in the Olden Time: Its First Thirty Years |publisher=F. A. Brown |year=1853 |location=Hartford, CT |pages=39–40 |language=en}}</ref> Soon after Nott's election as Black Governor, Wadsworth freed Nott and his wife and granted him property somewhere near the present-day Wadsworth Athenaeum.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
No records exist of Nott's birth or death. According to the Oxford African American Studies Center, he "is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave in Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground."<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nott, Peleg}} Category:18th-century births Category:18th-century deaths Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:18th-century African-American people Category:Black Patriots in the American Revolution Category:African-American people with free status before 1865 Category:African-American history of Connecticut Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut