Caesar (c. 1737? – 1852) was an enslaved man in New York who is notable for a surviving 1851 daguerreotype portrait, one of the earliest known photographs of an African American person in the United States.
He is also remembered as possibly the last enslaved person to die in New York State (after slavery was fully abolished there) and as a candidate for the earliest-born person ever photographed while alive, though his claimed birth year is unverified and likely exaggerated.
Caesar was born (supposedly in 1737) on the Bethlehem House estate in Bethlehem, New York, owned by the Nicoll family (specifically associated with Rensselaer/Van R. Nicoll). He lived through multiple generations of the same enslaving family, outliving several masters. He was allowed to retire around 1817 at about age 80 but continued living with the family.
New York gradually abolished slavery: most enslaved people were freed by July 4, 1827, but Caesar was not officially manumitted until around 1841 (when remaining forms of slavery ended). His final connection was with Wm. Nicoll Sill (grandson of a previous master).
In 1851 (a year before his death), a member of the family, likely the son of his last master, persuaded the elderly Caesar to sit for a daguerreotype portrait. A handwritten note accompanying the image reads (with original spelling):
“Ceasar [sic], born a slave of Van R. Nicoll, son of William, in 1737 at Bethlehem, N.Y., where he died in 1852. The last slave to die in the North. This daguerreotype was taken in 1851. His 2nd master was Francis Nicoll, son of Van R. Nicoll and his 3rd master Wm. Nicoll Sill…”
He died in 1852 and is buried with a tombstone claiming he was 115. The 1850 census lists him as “Cesar Nicholls,” age 110. No contemporary records firmly confirm his exact birth year, so the longevity claims remain unproven (though impressive if accurate).
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