Samuel Fraunces

Who was Samuel Fraunces?

Samuel Fraunces was an American restaurateur and owner/operator of Fraunces Tavern in New York City. During the Revolutionary War, he provided for prisoners held during the seven-year British occupation of New York City, and may have been a spy for the American side. At the end of the war, it was at Fraunces Tavern that General George Washington said farewell to his officers. Fraunces later served as steward of Washington's presidential household in New York City and Philadelphia.

Since the nineteenth century, there has been a dispute about Fraunces's racial identity. According to his 1983 biographer, Kym S. Rice: "During the Revolutionary era, Fraunces was commonly referred to as 'Black Sam.' Some have taken references such as these as an indication that Fraunces was a black man. ...[W]hat is known of his life indicates he was a white man." Philadelphia historian Charles Blockson, however, cited references to Fraunces being described as "Negro," "coloured," "Haitian Negro," "mulatto," "fastidious old Negro," and "swarthy." But, as Rice wrote in her Documentary History of Fraunces Tavern: "Other than the appearance of the nickname, there are no known references where Fraunces was described as a black man" during his lifetime.