Week Twenty-Nine at the Maryland State Archives

I continued working on case studies of Maryland State Colonization Society (MSCS) emigrants. I discovered that Stepney Harper, the father of an emigrant family, encountered financial difficulties in 1829, forcing him to sell all of his property to pay creditors. This may have been one of the impetuses to encourage the Harpers to settle in Liberia in 1832.  After he purchased himself, his wife, and one of his sons, it’s hardly surprising that he found himself in debt. Sadly, of the four Harpers who emigrated, only Stepney’s son Lafayette was still living by 1843. The amount of documentation that I can uncover on the MSCS emigrants varies widely, but it is satisfying to be able to flesh out their stories whenever I can.

I also attended a couple of programs last week. The most interesting one was a lecture on the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park held at the Annapolis Maritime Museum. National Park Service (NPS) historian and manager, Barbara Tagger gave a wonderful presentation about Harriet Tubman and the ways in which the natural landscape can teach us about her life. I also had a chance to meet Barbara Tagger and talk to her about other NPS projects that she has worked on, including the Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth home in Atlanta. The Annapolis Maritime Museum is a hidden treasure that interprets the Chesapeake Bay, a waterway that has been central to the livelihoods and political importance of Annapolitans, including the African American community.

Krystal