Slaves and the Underground Railroad

James Pembroke was born a slave on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and sent by his owner, Frisby Tilghman, to Rockland, south of Hagerstown in Washington County. There Jim learned the skills of a blacksmith.

He escaped from slavery on October 28, 1827, going first to Pennsylvania, and later moving to New York and Connecticut. He became a minister and changed his name to James W. C. Pennington.

$ 25 REWARD.
Ran away from the subscriber living in Cumberland, on Thursday morning, the 31st of
January last, a black man
named
JERRY
about 25 years old, of a dark complexion, about 5 feet 5 or 6 inches high, and tolerably well built. He is a tolerable good rough Carpenter —a good cook, and can do almost any kind of farming work. No particular body marks or scars recollected. He took with him a fur Hat, a drab cloth Roundabout, one pair of brown and one of blue cloth Pantaloons. No other clothing particularlary recollected.

Jerome: The Runaway Slave Who Returned - 50 Years Later

Note: Jacob Brown, author of Brown's Miscellaneous Writings, tells the following story about a runaway slave from the Grantsville area named Jerome. Brown recorded the story in 1889:

Jerome, as a youth, was brought to the Grantsville area from Georgetown, Md., by a man who had a number of slaves. Brown described him as "... an exceedingly bright, likely, and intelligent boy. Jerome was then about 17 years of age, fair skinned, and as intelligent as any white man in the neighborhood.

$50 REWARD RAN AWAY from the subscriber, living in Petersburg, Hardy county, Va. On Saturday the 3d inst. a bright mulatto man called
Jess

A Runaway.
Was committed to the jail of Allegany county, Maryland, on the 21st day of August last, a negro man named CHRISTOPHER ATERS, who says he was commonly called, when at home, by the name of KIT, aged about twenty-five or thirty years. Had on when committed, a blue Cassinett short coat, brown Cassinett pantaloons, homemade waistcoat and also a hair cap. He says he belongs to a Mr. Balwin Luvee, of Faquier County, Va.
The owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, otherwise he will be discharged according to law.

"Nelly and Ben"

From the Cumberland, Maryland Advocate, run-away slave notice, January 11, 1832

$100 REWARD.
Ran away from the subscriber near Frankfort, Va. on Sunday night the 11th of December, inst. two coloured people :—One a black man named
BEN,

"Aunt Judy", 1805-1866

Her tombstone reads
"A Faithful Friend and Helper
There is neither bond nor free for all are one in Christ Jesus."

Aunt Judy was a one-time local slave and later servant in the Robert Hall McCleave (1808-1886) household, in whose family plot she is buried. In 1860, Allegany County was identified as having 666 slaves, 467 free "colored", and 27,215 whites.

This runaway slave notice for Aaron and Henry Adams appeared in The Advocate, Cumberland, Maryland, Wednesday, January 11, 1832. The slave notices appeared in the back of The Advocate in a section called "The Allegany Advertiser" which featured all types of ads for things to buy and sell.

Black History Month

Ned, Murph, Sam, Enoch, Daphney, William, Hannah and Jupe.

These are the names of some of the 17 slaves John Blackford owned at the Ferry Hill Plantation near Sharpsburg in the 1800s, Paula Reed told the audience Sunday during a Black History Month program at the Robert W. Johnson Community Center in Hagerstown.

Ned and Jupe ran the rope ferry across the Potomac River, to what was then Virginia, for Blackford, said Reed, a historic-preservation consultant with Paula S. Reed and Associates in Hagerstown.

Boonsboro church pays tribute to former slaves

All eight founding members of St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Lappans Road were slaveholders, and members of the church in the 1800s profited from slave labor. And it is believed that slaves might have helped construct the church.