Spring is allegedly here, although it’s snowing in parts of Maryland as I write this article. Over the last two weeks, we (me and the CCASM volunteers) have been back out in the field cleaning up the Swann House site after the winter rain and snow. We opened a new unit last Monday, but it’s early days so there’s not anything to report. Instead, I’d like to talk about a research problem I ran into last winter.
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Swann House Unit on 4 March 2024 |
My friend and colleague Julie Hawkins Ennis works with enslaved descendant family communities. She started with her family and then became one of the lead organizers in the Southern Maryland GU272 - Jesuit Enslaved reunion held last year here in Maryland.[i] One of the things she has said to me repeatedly is that the lack of records is frustrating. Somewhere, she says, there are records about the enslaved, perhaps among the families that owned her ancestors and those of other people. She’s right about the records, but in Charles County they’re also among the county’s land and probate records.
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Julie Hawkins Ennis (left) during a descendants event Maxwell Hall, Benedict Maryland, November 2022 |
Early
on in my research I consulted the Charles County land records to see if there
were manumission records. There are, but they aren’t indexed under either the
master’s name or the freed man or woman’s name. There are also certificates of
freedom, which are also not indexed. To find them you would have to read
through every deed recorded in Charles County between the county’s founding in
1658 and 31 October 1864 (the last day of slavery in Maryland). That’s
literally thousands of pages of hand written documents. I decided to try looking at
one year – 1817 – to see how free and enslaved people appear in the land
records of the county. I chose 1817 as I had already randomly run across
several certificates of freedom while working on other research questions. As I
knew there were certificates of freedom recorded in 1817, I decided to work
through the entire year.
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Index Page With Sarah Marshall Briscoe Sarah Briscoe manumitted Gracey and Caroline Brooks in 1817 but the deed is not listed here. |
What
I discovered as I worked through the land records is a number of legal
transactions during 1817 which include people of color, though not all of these were associated with freedom. In addition
to the certificates of freedom and manumission records, there are records for the entry
of enslaved individuals into the state from places outside of Maryland, bills of
sale, mortgages/deeds of trust (in which the enslaved were used as collateral
for the loan), deeds of gift, and a deed that appears to be for the purchase of
a woman’s freedom. These records don’t include probate records such as wills,
estate inventories, accounts, and orphans court minutes associated with a
deceased master’s estate (a topic for a future article). While these other records
are indexed, they are listed under the master’s name and not the name of the
enslaved individual. To find a specific enslaved individual you would need to
know the master’s name and then search through the indexes for every
transaction they were a party to. In 1817, the county land records contained 53
different transactions that included the names of 133 individuals: 124 enslaved
and 9 free born.
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| Table 1: 1817 Land Records with the Names of Enslaved and Free Born Individuals 8 individuals are listed twice Total number with duplicates removed is in ( ) in total row * 1 individual also listed in the Deeds of Manumission ** 7 individuals are also listed in the Mortgages/Deeds of Trust |
Each of these records contains different information about the individual. In 1805, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law requiring free African Americans to register with the county court.[ii] These certificate of freedom are the most detailed of the records, containing the name and age of the person, a description of their complexion, height, and any distinguishing characteristics, as well as a statement as to where they were born and raised and whether they were free born. For example, Nelly Butler received a certificate of freedom on 13 September 1817. The certificate tells us that she was 26 years old, placing her birth in about 1791. She was 5 feet, 5 ½ inches tall, with a brownish complexion, and was “stout made.” Nelly was free born and raised near Port Tobacco.[iii]
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Certificate of Freedom for Nelly Butler Charles County Land Records Liber IB no. 12, folio 123 |
While Nelly Butler was free born, Negro Molly was not. She received her certificate of freedom on 18 July 1817, which describes her as dark complexioned, 5 feet, 3 ½ inches tall, with a large scar on her forehead and a scar under her left eye. She was 20 years old and was born about 1797 in Durham Parish. While the certificate does not tell us how she got her freedom, it is possible that she and several other enslaved persons were all freed together. On the same day that she received her certificate of freedom two other individuals, Negro Mary (aged 46) and Negro Allen (age 26), who were also from Durham Parish, received their certificates. The three certificates were recorded one after another in the deed book.[iv]
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Certificate of Freedom for Negro Molly Charles County Land Records Liber IB no. 12 folio 90 |
I also suspect that some of the free born individuals weren’t all African American. Benedict Proctor received his certificate of freedom on 21 March 1817. Proctor was 22 years-old and was free born in Charles County in about 1795. His complexion is described as “bright mulatto” and he was 5 feet 4 inches tall with straight hair and several small scars on his hands.[v] Benedict Proctor may have been Piscataway-Conoy, but still needed a certificate to prove that he was indeed a free man.
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Certificate of Freedom for Benedict Proctor Charles County Land Records Liber IB no. 12, folio 9 |
While
the certificates of freedom contain detailed information about an individual,
the other legal documents contain lesser amounts. The two deeds of manumission
recorded in 1817 are for two women and their children. Manumission freed the enslaved individual, and, after 1805, the individual had to register as a freedman or woman. When they registered they received a certificate of freedom. In the case of Gracey
Brooks, she and her daughter Caroline were freed by June 1817. The deed of
manumission was executed on 26 June 1817 by their mistress Sarah Briscoe. The
manumission deed states that Gracey was 40 years old (born about 1777), but
does not give us any information about Caroline. Gracey also received a
certificate of freedom on 8 June 1817. The age is the same and she is further
described as yellow complexioned, 5 feet, 3 inches tall, with a missing upper
fore tooth, black eyes and a small scar on her forehead. There is no
certificate of freedom recorded for Caroline.[vi]
On the other hand, the manumission deed dated 10 June 1817 from William Penn to
Sarah and what are assumed to be her children only lists the names and ages of
Sarah and the children: Sarah (age 26), Amanda (age 8), Nancy (age 3), and
Baptist (age 2 months). The deed does not state that the children are Sarah’s
offspring.[vii]
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Deed of Manumission from Sarah Briscoe to Gracey and Caroline Brooks Charles County Land Records Liber IB no. 12, folio 80-81 |
The
entry records contain information about the age of the enslaved and where they
had lived before being brought into the state of Maryland. Alexander Langster
brought 5 year-old Eleanor into Maryland on 1 May 1817 from Alexandria County,
which at the time was part of the District of Columbia but is now part of
Virginia. Eleanor was born there and Langster had brought her into Maryland to
be employed by him and not to sell her. A young man named Godfrey (born about
1799) was brought back to Maryland from Madison County, Kentucky in April 1817
by Henry Yates. Yates stated in the document that Godfrey had been taken to
Kentucky in 1814 from Charles County.[viii]
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Entry Record for Godfrey and Enslaved 18 Year Old Charles County Land Records, Liber IB no. 12, folio 42 |
The Bills of Sale and the mortgages and deeds of trust are a mixed bag in terms of information. On 11 July 1817, John R Norris sold Daniel Norris four enslaved individuals and all of his farm animals for the grand total of $1,500. The enslaved individuals may have been a family group and are named in the bill of sale as a man named Wat, a woman named Rachel and her 3 month old infant, and a 10 year-old girl named Matilda. Another possible sale of a family group was made on 29 October 1817 by William H Pile to Horatio C. McElderry and included Ralph and Sabre and her 3 children - John, Susan, and an infant.[ix]
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Bill of Sale for Enslaved Individuals Ralph, Sabre and Her 3 Children Charles County Land Records, Liber IB no. 12, folio 152 |
Other bills of sale only list individuals with a minimal amount of information as in the sale of Auzy on 1 April 1817 by Alexander Langster to John Matthews. There is little information about Auzy other than the name of his former owner Thomas Joseph Speake.[x]
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| Bill of Sale for the Enslaved Man Auzy Charles County Land Records Liber IB no. 12, folio 10 |
William F. Shaw used his enslaved men Charles (age 23, born circa 1794) and Henry (age 16, born circa 1801) to secure a $315 loan to him from Vincent Posey. Charles and Henry had also been used to secure several past loans between Shaw and Posey. If Shaw failed to repay the loans then Charles and Henry would become the property of Vincent Posey.[xi] On 28 June 1817, Alexander Scott used his enslaved woman Fanny, a dark mulatto aged about 25 and her 2 year-old daughter Harriet as collateral to secure a mortgage of $292.75 with interest from Edelen, Thompson & Co.[xii]
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Mortgage Between Alexander Scott and Edelen, Thompson & Co. Scott used the Enslaved Fanny and her child as collateral Charles County Land Records Liber IB no. 12, folio 86-87 |
Deeds of Gift are another category of legal transactions. The two deeds of gift in 1817 were both made by William Mason Sr. (son of George Mason of Gunston Hall in Virginia) on 7 October 1817 to his sons George and William Jr. Twenty-five individuals are listed in the two deeds (13 to George and 12 to William Jr.) but no information other than their names is given. William Mason Sr. owned two plantations in Charles County, Araby and Mattawoman. He died a few months after executing the deed of gifts to his two sons who inherited the two plantations. The people listed in deeds probably lived on or had family ties at one or both of the properties.[xiii]
The final document was a receipt recorded by Mary Butler on 27 September 1817. The receipt was for the payment of £70 current money on 28 April 1801 by Charles Toppings to Joseph Edelen for “…the purchase of a negroe woman commonly called Mary Butler.” Whether Topping had freed Mary, or if she had been freed as part of the court cases surrounding the enslavement of the Butler family during the eighteenth century is unclear. If she was filing the receipt it may indicate that she was a free woman by 1817. There is a Mary Ann Butler included in the 1817 certificates of freedom, but she is not this Mary Butler.[xiv]
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Receipt Recorded by Mary Butler Charles County Land Records Liber IB no. 12, folio 128 |
There
are records about enslaved and freed people living in Charles County before
emancipation came on 1 November 1864 when the new Maryland Constitution freed
all enslaved peoples living in Charles County. The problem is that few of the records are indexed and finding
people will take a great deal of time. But the reward is information about the
enslaved people who worked on the farms and in the homes, shops, and businesses
in Charles County. And perhaps, a connection to their living descendants. I’m not sure that I’ve answered Julie’s question about where all the records are. And I’m sure she’s correct that some remain hidden in family papers scattered in family holdings and archives. But the public records do hold a wealth of information if one has time to wade through them.
A table with the names of the 133 individuals, age (if known), the names of their enslavers, type of record, and the Land Record Reference is included in this article after the endnotes.
[i]
Brice-Saddler, Michael. “Georgetown sold their ancestors. They just had a
historic family reunion.” The Washington
Post 4 September 2003. Electronic document. Accessed 10 March 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/03/georgetown-slaves-descendants-gu272/.
[ii]
Maryland Laws, Chapter 66, Laws of 1805.
[iii]
Charles County Land Records (CCLR) Liber IB no. 12, folio 123.
[iv]
CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folios 90-91.
[v]
CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folio 9.
[vi]
CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folio 80 (for both documents).
[vii]
CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folio 64.
[viii]
CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folios 42 and 58.
[ix] CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folio 10.
[x] CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folio 11
[xi] CCLR Liber IB no. 11, folio 385. Liber IB no. 12, folios 1-2.
[xii] CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folio 86.
[xiii] CCLR Liber IB no. 12, folios 136, 160. Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties, CH-11 Araby. Electronic document. Accessed 10 March 2024.
[xiv]
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