Week Nineteen at the Maryland State Archives

I spent much of last week working on case studies of slave holders in Dorchester County associated with an advertisement offering a reward of $3,100 for a group of 26 runaways. William Still, a noted Underground Railroad conductor, documented this escape in his 1872 book. The fugitives also faced severe rainstorms and a lack of provisions. Also complicating this remarkable 1857 escape, was the fact that approximately 20 of the runaways were children and infants. Nevertheless, all but one of them reached the North safely. Around this time, Dorchester County was plagued (from the slave holder’s point of view!) with several instances of slaves running away. Although Harriet Tubman, a native of Dorchester County, did not lead this particular escape, her knowledge of Underground Railroad routes likely helped this group make it safely to the North.

This year, LOSIM will be participating in Washington, D.C.’s annual Emancipation Day celebrations in April. For background information about slavery in D.C. and the commemoration of freedom, we watched and discussed, Enslavement to Emancipation, a documentary produced for D.C. public television. It was really interesting to analyze the documentary as a public historian and to think of things we would have done the same or differently if we were doing something similar for our project.

For a description of my weekend activities around Maryland and Virginia, please visit my blog.

Krystal