Slaves and the Underground Railroad

Samuel Middleton Semmes, 1811-1867

Samuel Semmes was born in Charles County, Maryland, educated at Georgetown College, and admitted to the Cumberland bar in 1833. He was an extremely successful Allegany County attorney and was appointed Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals in 1844. He represented Allegany County as a State Senator in the Maryland General Assembly from 1855 to 1860. His brother was Raphael Semmes, an Admiral of the Confederate Navy during the Civil War.

Samuel Semmes was a slave-owner.

Local ties to the Underground Railroad

Teresa McMinn, Cumberland Times-News

Mystery, folklore and patchy records surround the reasons that Samuel Semmes and Samuel Denson ended up in Cumberland.

At face value, Semmes was a Confederate slave owner, while Denson had escaped bondage.

A closer look, however, suggests they might have shared a common goal.

Community can take pride in tunnels
Escaped slaves likely sought refuge beneath downtown church

Matthew Bieniek Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Fleeing slaves finding their way north likely found a resting place and a bit of food and drink beneath Emmanuel Parish of the Episcopal Church in Cumberland. The low-ceiling, often-narrow tunnels are all that remain of Fort Cumberland, and over the years, an abolitionist rector turned the tunnels into a stop on the Underground Railroad, the route that escaped slaves followed to freedom.

City celebrates being part of Underground RR

CUMBERLAND — "I looked over Jordan and what did I see, coming for to carry me home? A band of angels coming after me, coming for to carry me home."

The words of the spiritual were familiar in the mid-1800s to black men and women who stood on the southern bank of the Ohio River near Ripley, W.Va., staring into Ohio and freedom from slavery on the far side.

Underground Railroad history

City woman recalls grandfather's role

MARIA D. MARTIRANO

FEBRUARY 9, 2004

CUMBERLAND —
As a child walking home from Frederick Street School, Romaine Franklin would stop by to see her grandfather, who gave her a coin each time.

She'd ask how he was doing, and he would respond "just tolerable." Then he asked which grandchild she was. And once she answered, he'd give her a nickel or a dime.

"I was one of his spoiled grandchildren," she said.

List of Criminals in Custody of the Sheriff of Allegany County. October Four, 1798.

       Negro Joe committed by the name of Joseph [unclear].
       
Rob Sinclair Sheriff