October 1742, Maryland

Potomac River, Great Falls Park (the Maryland side), USA.

October 18, 1742- My sixth great granduncle, Sebastian Thompson, has died at Yieldingbury, St. Mary's County, Maryland.
Son of Arthur Thompson, he married Charity Bailey, daughter of John Bailey.

Thompson, Sebastian, St Mary's Co., 18th Oct., 1742; 3rd March, 1742.
To sons Arthur and Sebastian and hrs., real estate.
" child. John, Sebastian, Monica, Charity Wheeler, Appolina and Mary Brown, personalty.
" wife Charity, extx., residue of estate.
Test: William Gillimore, John Mills, A. Thompson. 23.79.

Sebastian Thompson 28.11 SM £43.10.1 Mar 3 1742 Jun 9 1743
Appraisers: Samuel Abell, John Mills.
Creditors: Philip Key, Appolina Thompson.
Next of kin: Oswal Thompson, Sebastian Thompson.
Administratrix/Executrix: Charity Thompson.


October 1742: John Colvill’s “Negro Quarter” near the mouth of Quarter Branch and the Potomac is the first mention in print of a slave population.

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April 1742, Massachusetts

Map of Massachusetts highlighting Bristol County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

April 4, 1742- Curtis Cole is born to Ebenezer Cole & Prudence Miller in Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
On April 21, his grandmother, Ruth Curtis Miller, dies at the age of 52.

April 15, 1742- A divorce was granted to a slave named Boston. He charged that his wife cheated on him with a white man and that she bore his child.

(Curtis Cole is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Hugh Cole & Mary Foxwell and Samuel Luther & Mary Abell.)

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1740 To the Inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia...Concerning their Negroes

REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD To the Inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South-Carolina,  Concerning their Negroes.

I must inform you in the meekness and Gentleness of Christ that I think God has a Quarrel with you for your Abuse of and Cruelty to the poor Negroes. Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy Slaves, and thereby encourage the Nations from whom they are bought to be at perpetual War with each other, I shall not take upon me to determine. Sure I am it is sinful, when bought, to use them as bad, nay worse, than as though they were Brutes, and whatever particular Exceptions there may be (as I would charitably hope there are some) I fear the Generality of you that own Negroes are liable to such a Charge; for your Slaves, I believe, work as hard if not harder than the Horses whereon you ride. . . .

 . . [God] does not reject the Prayer of the poor and destitute, nor disregard the Cry of the meanest Negroes! The Blood of them spilt for these many Years in your respective Provinces will ascend up to Heaven against you. I wish I could say it would speak better Things than the Blood of Abel. But this is not all ⎯ Enslaving or misusing their Bodies would, comparatively speaking, be an inconsiderable Evil, was proper Care taken of their Souls. But I have great reason to believe that most of you, on Purpose, keep your Negroes ignorant of Christianity; or otherwise, why are they permitted thro’ your provinces openly to profane the Lord’s Day by their Dancing, Piping and such like? I know the general Pretense for this Neglect of their Souls is That teaching them Christianity would make them proud, and consequently unwilling to submit to Slavery: But what a dreadful Reflection is this in your Holy Religion? What blasphemous Notions must those that make such an Objection have of the Precepts of Christianity? . .

But I challenge the whole World to produce a single Instance of a Negro’s being made a thorough Christian, and thereby made a worse Servant. It cannot be. ⎯ But farther, if teaching Slaves Christianity has such a bad Influence upon their Lives, why are you generally desirous of having your Children taught? Think you they are any way better by Nature than the poor Negroes? No, in no wise. Blacks are just as much, and no more, conceived and born in Sin, as White Men are. Both, if born and bred up here, I am persuaded, are naturally capable of the same Improvement. ⎯ And as for the grown Negroes, I am apt to think, whenever the Gospel is preach’d with Power amongst them, that many will be brought effectually home to God.

1746 Virginia

November 16, 1746- David Potts leased a tract of land from Catesby Cocke, for five shillings in hand paid, with power to purchase. The lease covered a tract of 866 acres on Kittockton Run, in Fairfax County. The annual rental was one ear of Indain corn. Later, Catesby Cocke and his wife Mary conveyed the land by deed to David Potts, who is described as yeoman.

David Potts was a prosperous yoeman or freeholding farmer. He had intended this ground to comprise his home plantation for the support of his family and near relatives.

David Potts was descended from Quaker stock from Pennsylvania, but lived among the Baptists of Virginia. He was a slave owner.

Early on, the Quaker church had championed the manumission of slaves and the abolition of slave labor. But that had little to do with Loudoun County during the colonial era. The Quakers of the time were losing members to other Protestant churches, and some of the leaders of the Fairfax meeting were slaveowners. In the end, they were simply colonials.

David Potts was also an entrepreuner who developed plantations and a water grist-mill near the Gap of Short Hill on the waters of the North Fork of Catoctin Creek.

 

1746- Daughter Jane Potts is born to David and Ann Potts in Loudoun County, Virginia.
 
(Jane Potts is my 5th great grand aunt. Our common ancestors are David Potts and Ann Roberts. David Potts is my 6th great grandfather.)

1755 Maryland

1755- Maryland is a plantation colony, with tobacco dominating the provincial economy. European demands for tobacco provoke the colonists to increase production. Most of Maryland's inhabitants make their living working on their own or someone else's plantation.

Tobacco is a labor-intensive crop. Each slave or indentured servant working on a tobacco plantation in colonial days may have planted and weeded about two acres of cleared land with 10,000 plants a year, requiring bending over perhaps 50,000 times.

40% of the population is black, however not all of these persons were enslaved. For one reason, it was not uncommon for the landowner to free mulatto children in his will.

Charles Ball, Slave, Speaks of Maryland

"...the masters in Maryland only allowed the men one wool hat, one pair of shoes, two shirts, two pair of trousers-- one pair of tow cloth, and one of woollen--and one woollen jacket in the year. The women were furnished in proportion. All other clothes they had to provide for themselves. Children not able to work in the field, were not provided with clothes at all, by their masters. It is, however, honourable to the Maryland slave-holders, that they never permit women to go naked in the fields, or about the house; and if the men are industrious and employ themselves well on Sundays and holydays, they can always keep themselves in comfortable clothes."

"It is true, that from the period when the tobacco plants are set in the field, there is no resting time until it is housed; but it is planted out about the first of May, and must be cut and taken out of the field before the frost comes. After it is hung and dried, the labour of stripping and preparing it for the hogshead in leaf, or of manufacturing it into twist, is comparatively a work of leisure and ease. Besides, on almost every plantation the hands are able to complete the work of preparing the tobacco by January, and sometimes earlier; so that the winter months form some sort of respite from the toils of the year. The people are obliged, it is true, to occupy themselves in cutting wood for the house, making rails and repairing fences, and in clearing new land, to raise the tobacco plants for the next year; but as there is usually time enough, and to spare, for the completion of all this work, before the season arrives for setting the plants in the field, the men are seldom flogged much, unless they are very lazy or negligent, and the women are allowed to remain in the house, in very cold, snowy, or rainy weather. I who am intimately acquainted with the slavery, both of Maryland and Virginia, and know that there is no material difference between the two, aver, that a description of one is a description of both; and that the coloured people here have many advantages over those of the cotton region."

 From: Slavery in the United States.

A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball,
a Black Man, Who Lived Forty Years in Maryland,
South Carolina and Georgia, as a Slave Under Various
Masters, and was One Year
in the Navy with Commodore Barney, During the Late War.

1772 St. Mary's

1772- Thomas Newton (II) dies in St. Mary's, Maryland.

(Thomas Newton is my 5th great grand uncle. Our common ancestors are my 6th great grandparents Thomas and Katherine Newton.)

Will of Thomas Newton

Thomas Newton, Signed: March 27, 1772; Proved: Sept 15, 1772

 ~~Item I give and bequeath to my son Arnold Newton, one shilling sterling & no more of my Real or personal Estate,

Item I give and bequeath to my son Henry Thomas Newton one shilling sterling and no more of my Real or personal Estate.

Item I give and bequeath to my son William Newton, all my Land called Andrews wood Also Newtons property to him and his heirs for ever.

~~Item I give and bequeath to my Daughter Sarah Newton, one negro girl named, Henrietta and one shilling sterling & no more of my Real or personal Estate.

Item I give and bequeath to my Daughter Susanna Poole, one negro Girl named, Monica, and one, Shilling sterling, and nomore of my Real or personal Estate. I

tem I give and bequeath to my son Ignatius Newton, one negro boy named George and one, Shilling Sterling & nomore of my Real or personal Estate

~~I give and bequeath to my beloved wife, Susanna Newton, during her natural life, three negros Viz~~ Priss, Hammer, & Balander, with their increase, & after my wifes decease my son William Newton to have an Equal part with my 3 youngest Children, among my three youngest Children, Equally, Viz~~Elizabeth Newton, Clement Newton and Mary Newton, my will and meaning is that my wife keep with her my three youngest Children till they are able to shift for themselves. I Constitute nominate and appoint & ordain my beloved wife Susanna Newton, and my son William Newton Joynt Executors of this my Last will and Testament, in Witness whereof I have hereunto, set my hand and affixed, my seal this 27th day of March Anno Domino 1772

Thomas Newton (((seal)))

Sign d, Seal d, & declared to be the Last will & Testament

Of Thomas Newton Senr in the presence of us

Michael Wellman

Eliza X Wellman

Jarrad Wellman

Those words underlined before the signing & sealing those presents Viz(My son William Newton to have an Equal part with my 3 youngest Children)



Saint Marys County to wit,

On the fifteenth day of September seventeen hundred & seventy two, came, Michael Wallmen, Elizabeth Wellman, & Jarred Wellman the three subscribing witnesses to the above Last will and Testament, of Thomas Newton deceased and severally made a Oath that they did see, thomas, Newton the Testator therein named sign and seal this will, and heard him publish and declare the same, to be his Last will & Testament, and that at the time of his sodoing, he was to the best of their and Each of their understanding of sound and disposing mind & memory & understanding, and that they respectively subscribed their names, as witnesses to the Said will, in the presence and at the request of the Said Testator, and in the presence of Each other.

Sworn before J A Thomas Dy comis er~~~~~~~~~~

***************************************************************************************************************

Transcribed by Judith A. Burger February 1, 2001 from a photocopy of the original court document Libra: T. I. A. Page: 639-640, obtained from Norma I. Dawson, Register of Wills, St. Mary's County, Maryland. The photocopy was good, the writing fair though distorted and very small.

1776 Maryland Census

We find these Worland households listed in:

Census of 1776, St. John's and Prince George's Parishes

John Worland Household
John Worland..........56
William Worland.....15
James Worland.......13
Thomas Worland......2
Walter Worland........1
Rebecca Brady........65
Mary Worland.........39
Stacey Worland.......27
Elinor Worland........24
Mary Worland.........20
Eleanor Murtle........17
Ann Murtle...............11
Negroe: Fortune......41
Tom............21

Robey Worland Household
Robey Worland........48
Edey..........................48
Number of White males......4
Number of White females...4
Number of Slaves.................8

Charles Worland Household
Charles Worland.......29
Winifred.....................20
Number of White males.......3
Number of White females....2
Number of Slaves..................3

1783 Virginia

October 7, 1783 - The House of Burgesses grants freedom to slaves who served in the Continental Army.


1783- Peter Gideon marries Mary Catherine Ernst.

October 7, 1783 - The House of Burgesses grants freedom to slaves who served in the Continental Army.

1787 Baltimore, Maryland

1787- The Quakers condemn slavery at the Friends Yearly Meeting in Baltimore.

(1827) Rev. Nathaniel Paul Hails The End Of Slavery In New York

In 1827 Rev. Nathaniel Paul, a minister in Albany, New York, hails the final abolition of slavery in that state. His address given on July 5, 1827 in Albany marks that occassion. The address appears below.

We look forward with pleasing anticipation to that period, when it shall no longer be said that in a land of freemen there are men in bondage, but when this foul stain will be entirely erased, and this, worst of evils, will be forever done way. The progress of emancipation, though slow, is nevertheless certain: It is certain, because that God who has made of one blood all nations of men, and who is said to be no respecter of persons, has so decreed; I therefore have no hesitation in declaring this sacred place, that not only throughout the United States of America, but throughout every part of the habitable world where slavery exists, it will be abolished.

However great may be the opposition of those who are supported by the traffic, yet slavery will cease. The lordly planter who has his thousands in bondage, may stretch himself upon his couch of ivory, and sneer at the exertions which are made by the humane and benevolent, or he may take his stand upon the floor of Congress, and mock the pitiful generosity of the east or west for daring to meddle with the subject, and attempting to expose its injustice: he may threaten to resist all efforts for a general or a partial emancipation even to a dissolution of the union. But still I declare that slavery will be extinct; a universal and not a partial emancipation must take place; nor is the period far distant. The indefatigable exertions of the philanthropists in England to have it abolished in their West India Islands, the recent revolutions in South America, the catastrope and exchange of power in the Isle of Hayti, the restless disposition of both master and slave in the southern states, the constitution of our government, the effects of literary and moral instruction, the generous feelings of the pious and benevolent, the influence and spread of the holy religion of the cross of Christ, and the irrevocable decrees of Almighty God, all combine their efforts and with united voice declare, that the power of tyranny must be subdued, the captive must be liberated, the oppressed go free, and slavery must revert back to its original chaos of darkness, and forever annihilated from the earth.

Did I believe that it would always continue, and that man to the end of time would be permitted with impunity to usurp the same undue authority over his fellow, I would disallow any allegiance or obligation I was under to my fellow creatures, or any submission that I owed to the laws of my country; I would deny the superintending power of divine providence in the affairs of his life; I would ridicule the religion of the Saviour of the world, and treat as the worst of men the ministers of an everlasting gospel; I would consider my Bible as a book of false and delusive fables, and commit it to the flames; nay, I would still go farther; I would at once confess myself an atheist, and deny the existence of a holy God.

But slavery will cease, and the equal rights of man will be universally acknowledged. Nor is its tardy progress any argument against its final accomplishment. But do I hear it loudly responded,—this is but a mere wild fanaticism, or at best but the misguided conjecture of an untutored descendant of Africa. Be it so, I confess my ignorance, and bow with due deference to my superiors in understanding; but if in this case I err, the error is not peculiar to myself; if I wander, I wander in a region of light from whose political hemisphere the sun of liberty pours forth his refulgent rays, around which dazzle the star-like countenances of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox and Grenville, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hancock and Franklin; if I err, it is their sentiments that have caused me to stray….We do well to remember, that every act of ours is more or less connected with the general cause of emancipation.

Our conduct has an important bearing, not only on those who are yet in bondage in this country, but its influence is extended to the isles of India, and to every part of the world where the abomination of slavery is known. Let us then relieve ourselves from the odious stigma which some have long since cast upon us, that we were incapacitated by the God of nature, for the enjoyment of the rights of freemen, and convince them and the world that although our complexion may differ, yet we have hearts susceptible of feeling; judgment capable of discerning, and prudence sufficient to manage our affairs with discretion, and by example prove ourselves worthy the blessings we enjoy.

Page from Afro-American Publication - Ohio, 1843

Prices for Slaves in Virginia

Taken from: Thirty years a slave. From bondage to freedom. The institution of slavery as seen on the plantation and in the home of the planter. Autobiography of Louis Hughes. (pub. 1897)

Servant women sold for $500 to $700, and sometimes as high as $800 when possessing extra qualifications. A house maid, bright in looks, strong and well formed, would sell for $1,000 to $1,200. Bright mulatto girls, well versed in sewing and knitting, would sometimes bring as high as $1,800, especially if a Virginian or a Kentuckian. Good blacksmiths sold for $1,600 to $1,800. When the slaves were put upon the block they were always sold to the highest bidder. Mr. McGee, or "Boss," as I soon learned to call him, bought sixty other slaves before he bought me, and they were started in a herb for Atlanta, Ga., on foot.