Maryland & the South

Historian Anthony Cohen with replica tobacco hogshead.
Photo: Susan Tichy, 2016, Colonial Williamsburg

Bacon, James Louis. The Ties That Bind: From Slavery to Freedom. Self-pubished, 2016.

• A family history by a descendant of William and Matilda Bowie, freed by the will of Roderick McGregor [Magruder].

Barlowe, Arthur. “The First Voyage Made to the Coast of America.” Excerpt. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 4th Ed., Vol 1. Ed. Nina Baym, et.al. NY: WW Norton, 1979. 67-75. Now also available on line.

Berlin, Ira and Leslie S. Rowland, eds. Families and Freedom: Documentary History of African-American Kinship in the Civil War Era. NY: The New Press, 1997.

• Letters and testimony of freed slaves document the transformation of African-American family life. Notes and an ample introduction place the documents in context.

Berlin, Ira, Barbara J. Fields, et.al., eds. Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War. New York & London: The New Press, 1992.

• Letters from former slaves, army officers, civilian officials, and ordinary people, selected from the multi-volume Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, by the same editors. Notes place the documents in context and in narrative order.

Brown, Bertram Wyatt. Southern Honor: Ethics and Behaviour in the Old South, 25^th Anniversary edition. Oxford University Press, 2007.

• Extremely useful. Read it and weep–not for the Lost Cause, but for the narrow, deluded, and self-serving ideology that caused such a tide of misery. If you grew up in the South  (or, like me, at its edges) you may recognize, however reluctantly, some elements of your  own up-bringing. For me, it provided painful illumination of the belief in a MacGregor identity.

Brown, Letitia Woods. Free Negroes in the District of Columbia, 1790-1846. NY: Oxford University Press, 1972.

• A microcosm of 19^th c. life in the District, drawn from newspapers, court records, family histories, wills, and church documents. Includes a few (white) Magruders, as well as several African-American families associated with them. It was here I found the Gray descendants still enslaved by Magruders 150 years after Priscilla Gray’s entrapment in perpetual servitude.

Brown, Thomas F. and Leah C. Sims. “‘To Swear Him Free’: Ethnic Memory As Social Capital in Eighteenth-Century Freedom Petitions.” In Meyers & Perreault.

• Details the struggle to obtain or maintain freedom by those descended from both free and enslaved forbears.

Calvert County, Maryland. “Articles of Agreement between William Berry and Margaret Preston.”[1669]. In Demos.

Calvert County, Maryland. “Petitions of Richard Preston and His Servants to the Provincial Court.” [1663]. In Demos.

King James VI’s 1604 attack on Tobacco
Photo: Susan Tichy, 2014, Innerpeffray Library, Perthshire, Scotland

Cardno, Catherine. “‘The Fruit of Nine, Sue kindly brought’: Colonial Enforcement of Sexual Norms in Eighteenth-Century Maryland. In Meyers & Perreault.

Carr, Lois Green, Russell R. Menard, and Lorena S. Walsh. Robert Cole’s World: Agriculture and Society in Early Maryland. Chapel Hill: UNC, 1991.

Carr, Lois Green, Philip D. Morgan and Jean B. Russo. Colonial Chesapeake Society. Chapel Hill: UNC, 1988. See, below, articles by Fausz, Lee, and Miller.

Clark, Wayne and Helen C. Rountree. “The Powhatans and the Maryland Mainland.” In Rountree (1993) 112-135. In Rountree, 1993.

Clayton, John. “Letter from the Reverend John Clayton to the Royal Society of London.” [Virginia, 1688]. In Demos.

Cook, Ebenezer. “The Sot-Weed Factor.” Colonial American Writing, 2nd Ed. Ed. Roy Harvey Pearce. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969. 588-608. Now also available on line.

Demos, John. Remarkable Providences: Readings on Early American History, Rev Ed.  Boston: Northeastern UP, 1991.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Penguin, 1982. Many editions, and on line.

Dunn, Richard S. “Masters, Servants, and Slaves in the Colonial Chesapeake and the Caribbean.” In Quinn.

Fausz, J. Frederick. “Merging and Emerging Worlds: Anglo-Indian Interest Groups and the Development of the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake.” In Carr, Morgan & Russo 47-98.

Fawver, Kathleen. “The Black Family in the Chesapeake: New Evidence, New Perspectives.” In Debra Meyers & Melanie Perreault’s Colonial Chesapeake: New Perspectives. New York: Lexington Books, 2006. pp 51-80.

• A demographic analysis of the 1776 census for Harford County, Maryland—which yields surprising insights into African-American families in both freedom and slavery.

Fields, Barbara Jeanne. Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century. New Haven: Yale UP, 1985.

• Maryland’s status as “the middle ground” between north and south, freedom and slavery, has long carried with it an image of moderation. As this impressive book demonstrates, the middle ground was also the site of intense struggle, extreme ideas, and high emotion. Highly recommended.

Ferguson, Alice L.L. and Henry Ferguson. The Piscataway Indians of Southern Maryland. Acokeek: Alice Furgoson Foundation, 1960. [pamphlet]

• After the Furgusons discovered that their Maryland home was on the site of a Piscataway village, they devoted their lives to its study and preservation.

Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. NY & Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989.

• Doesn’t include the Chesapeake, and is sometimes reductive, but makes a worthy attempt to break down the false idea that  British cultural inheritance in America is a single tradition.

Fitzhugh, William W. Cultures in Contact: The European Impact on Native Cultural Institutions in Eastern North America, A.D. 1000-1800. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1985.

Fausz, J. Frederick. “Patterns of Anglo-Indian Aggression and Accommodation along the Mid-Atlantic Coast, 1584-1634.” In Quinn.

Genovese, Eugene D. & Elizabeth Fox Genovese. Fatal Self-Deception: Slaveholding Paternalism in the Old South. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Hait, Michael, transcriber. “Prince George’s County, Maryland, Military Service Records,” name list from “The Draft in Maryland,” The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore MD, 26 Sept 1864, p1, Genealogy Trails (accessed 2 Dec 2011).

Hall, Clayton Colman, ed. Narratives of Early Maryland, 1633-1684. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910. Primary documents, some complete and some excerpted.

Heinegg, Paul. Free African-Americans of Maryland and Delaware, from the Colonial Period to 1810. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2000.

• A history of free African-American families in the Colonial period—most of whom were descended from white women who had children by African or African-American men. Also available free on line.

Heinton, Louise. Searching for Ancestors Who Were Slaves: An Index to the Freedom Records of Prince George’s County, Maryland, 1808-1869, typescript prepared by Louise Heinton, 1971, MSA S1411, Index 38.

• An electronic publication of the Maryland State Archives. Magruders start with Image #59 in the M’s. http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/stagser/s1400/s1411/000013/html/s141113-0059.html

Hienton, Louise Joyner. Prince George’s Heritage: Sidelights on the Early History of Prince George’s County, Maryland, from 1696 to 1800. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, nd. With fold-out map of early plantations.

Higginson, Francis. “A Catalogue of Such Needful Things as Every Planter Doth or Ought to Provide to Go to New England.” [1630]. In Demos.

Hodgen, Margaret T. Early Anthropology in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Philadelphia: U Penn, 1964.

Ifill, Sherrilyn A. On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-First Century. Beacon Press, 2007.

• Inspired by the work of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and backed by the author’s long experience as a civil rights lawyer, this book explores the continuing effects of early 20th c. lynchings and attempted lynchings on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Though details of the lynchings are difficult to read, Ifill’s purpose is not to break our hearts but to encourage a public conversation that can take us beyond the legacies of terrorism and trauma.

Jennings, Francis. “Indians and Frontiers in Seventeenth Century Maryland.” In Quinn 216-241.

Jennings, Francis. The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest.  New York: WW Norton, 1976.

• If you read only one book about European arrival on the east coast, read this one…though it has one curious flaw: though careful and accurate in other terminology, Jennings consistently refers to Scotsmen as Englishmen.

Johnson, Gerald W., ed. The Maryland Act of Religious Toleration: An Interpretation. Annapolis: Hall of Records Commission, 1973. [pamphlet]

• The text of the Act, with various interpretations, also available on line.

Higginson, Francis. “A Catalogue of Such Needful Things as Every Planter Doth or Ought to Provide to Go to New England. [1630]. In Demos.

Kulikoff, Allan. Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800. Chapel Hill: UNC, 1986.

Lee, Jean Butenhoff. “Land and Labor: Parental Bequest Practices in Charles County, Maryland, 1732-1783.” In Carr, Morgan & Russo 306-341.

Lurie, Nancy Oestreich. “Indian Cultural Adjustment to European Civilization.” Seventeenth Century America: Essays in Colonial History. Ed. James Morton Smith. Chapel Hill: UNC, 1959.

MacLeod, William Christie. “Celt and Indian: Britain’s Old World Frontier in Relation to the New.” Beyond the Frontier: Social Process and Cultural Change, edited by Paul Bohannan & Fred Plog. Garden City: Natural History Press, 1967.

• Deals with a later period and a different state, but does provide insight into mutual cultural change.

Main, Gloria. Tobacco Colony: Life in Early Maryland, 1650-1720. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1982.

Maryland State Archives. African Americans in Maryland, Archives of Maryland Historical and Biographical Series.  http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/afriamer/html/afriamer.html

Maryland State Archives. Beneath the Underground: The Flight to Freedom and Communities in Antebellum Maryland. An electronic publication of the Maryland State Archives. http://www.mdslavery.net/ugrr.html

Maryland State Archives. Archives of Maryland on Line, Index of records of the Slavery Commission. http://www.aomol.net/html/commission.html

Maryland State Archives. Prince George’s County Court (Freedom Affidavits) 1810-1850, MSA CM 1183-1, electronically reproduced as Archives of Maryland Vol. 763, p44, 2009.

Maryland State Archives. General Assembly (Laws), 1834-1835, Session Laws 1834, Chapter 316, MdHR 820916, 2/2/6/14, An act to allow Roderick McGregor… to bring into this State, a negro man herein named, passed 21 March 1835, reproduced as Archives of Maryland Vol. 541, p395 (accessed 18 Nov 2011).

Maryland State Archives, Special Collections (Newspapers), MSA SC 5400/5496. Maryland State Archives on Line.

Maryland State Archives, Special Collections (Newspapers), Daily National Intelligencer, press date 26 Feb 1839, ad date 26 Feb 1839-1 June 1839, runaway advertisement for Matilda Bowie, MSA SC 5400/5496, digital image, Maryland State Archives on Line, (http://mdsa.net/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5400/sc5496/runaway_advertisements/pdf/18390226dni1.pdf: accessed 18 Nov 2011).

Maryland State Archives, Prince George’s County. Index to the Probate Records of Prince George’s County, Maryland, 1696-1900. Bowie: Prince George’s County Genealogical Society, 1988.

Maryland State Archives, Prince George’s County. Register of Wills (Estate Papers). MSA C2119.

Maryland State Archives, Prince George’s County. Register of Wills (Wills). MSA C1326-4.

Maryland State Archives, Prince George’s County. County Court (Land Records). MSA CE 65-62 & other series. MDLandRec.net.

Menard, Russell R. Economy and Society in Early Colonial Maryland. New York: Garland Publishing, 1985. [also Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1975.]

• A thorough & well-reasoned demographic history. Alexander Magruder is among the settlers included in the data, and the book overall is invaluable for placing his life in the context of those around him.

Menard, Russell R., Lois Green Carr, and Lorena S. Walsh. “A Small Planter’s Profits: The Cole Estate and the Growth of the Early Chesapeake Economy.” Material Life in America, 1600-1860. Ed. Robert Blair St. George. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1988. 185-201.

Cultivating Tobacco 1797, Benjamin Henry Latrobe
Sketchbook III, 33, Maryland Historical Society

Meyers, Debra & Melanie Perreault. Colonial Chesapeake: New Perspectives. New York & other cities: Lexington Books, 2006.

Miller, Henry M. “An Archaeological Perspective on the Evolution of Diet in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1620-1745.” In Carr, Morgan & Russo 176-199.

Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. New York: WW Norton, 1975.

Morgan, Philip D. Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

• A comparative study of black life in the Chesapeake, where African-American culture was oldest, and the newly-settled Carolina lowcountry.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Record Group 21, Entry 111, Transcripts of Wills Probated [in Washington DC], Vol. 3.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Record Group 21, Entry 115, Old Series Administration Case Files [for Washington DC], 1801-78.

The National Society of the Claiborne Family Descendents. www.claibornesociety.org

Neill, Edward D. Terra MariÆ; or Threads of Maryland Colonial History. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1867.

Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave. Eakin Films & Publishing, Enhanced Edition, 2014.

• Many editions of Northup’s book are available, including free from the Documenting the American South web project at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html
• Consider the annotated edition edited by Sue Eakin who first brought the book to 20th c. readers, and for forty years devoted herself to the authentication and annotation of this edition. Includes maps, images, and additional information about people, places, and events narrated by Northup. 99 cents on Kindle.

Osterweis, Rollin G. Romanticism and Nationalism in the Old South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967.

• It’s humbling to realize to what extent American Magruders’ identification with Clan Gregor is just one more manifestation of the old South’s Romantic fantasizing about itself.

Peasley. “A Relation of Maryland.” London, 1635. In Hall.

Pogue, Dennis J. King’s Reach and 17th-Century Plantation Life.  St. Leonard: Jefferson Patterson Museum Park, 1990. [pamphlet]

Prince, Bryan. A Shadow on the Household: One Enslaved Family’s Incredible Struggle for Freedom. Ontario: McClelland and Stewart, 2009.

• A Maryland-D.C. story about the struggle to free members of the Weems family. It is full of names, anecdotes, legal cases, and newspaper accounts. Also a very good read. Upton Beall, who married into the family that owned the Weems family, was a descendant of Alexander Magruder. The early deaths of both Upton and his wife, Jane Robb Beall, were among the events the precipitated the crisis for the Weems family.

Provine, Dorothy S., compiler. District of Columbia Indentures of Apprenticeship, 1801-1893. Lorettsville, VA: Willow Bend Books, 1998.

Provine, Dorothy, compiler. Registrations of Free Negroes 1806-1863, Prince George’s County, Maryland. Washington, DC: Columbian Harmony Society, 1990.

Provine, Dorothy S., compiler. Registrations of Free Negroes, 1806-1863, Prince George’s County Maryland. Washington, D.C.: Columbian Harmony Society, 1990.

• Extracted from the Registry of the County Clerk, 1806-1829; the Register of Wills, 1820-1852; and Affidavits of Freedom, 1810-1863, Prince George’s County Court, using microfilm copies: CR47, 249 and CR47, 250.

Provine, Dorothy, compiler. District of Columbia Free Negro Registers 1821-1861. 2 vols. Heritage Books, 1966.

• Abstracts of freedom registers, some with physical descriptions, a few with family members named. Index is in the second volume. Includes both black and white Magruders.

Provine, Dorothy, compiler. District of Columbia Indentures of Apprenticeship 1801-1893. Willow Bend Books, 1998.

• Abstracts of indentures for apprentices, many of whom were people of color. Includes both black and white Magruders.

Purchas, Samuel. “A Discourse on Virginia.” Excerpt. Colonial American Writing, 2nd Ed. Ed. Roy Harvey Pearce. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969. 22-33. Now also available on line. Sometimes spelled Purchase.

Purchas, Samuel. “Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas His Pilgrimes.” Excerpt. Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter, et al. Lexington: DC Heath, 1990. 137-148.

Quinn, David B., ed. Early Maryland in a Wider World. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1982.

Ricks, Mary Kay. Escape on the Pearl: The Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad. NY: William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2007.

• A narrative of the Underground Railroad’s largest escape attempt, when (in 1848) nearly 80 enslaved Americans attempted to sail from D.C. to Philadelphia on The Pearl.

Riordan, Timothy B. The Plundering Time: Maryland and the English Civil War, 1645-1646. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2004.

• A thoroughly detailed marshaling of evidence. Excellent on the years leading up to Ingle’s Rebellion, as well as the plundering time itself.

Rogers, Helen Hoban. Freedom and Slavery Documents from the District of Columbia. 1792-1822. 3 vols.

• Abstracts of records in the Recorder of Deeds office, including bills of sale, certificates of freedom, certificates of slavery, emancipations, and manumissions. Includes both black and white Magruders.

Rountree, Helen C.  The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture. Norman: U Oklahoma, 1989.

Rountree, Helen C. Powhatan Foreign Relations 1500-1722. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1993.

Sarson, Steven. Yoeman Farmers in a Planters’ Republic:Socioeconomic Conditions and Relations in Early National Prince George’s County, Maryland. Journal of the Early Republic 29 (Spring 2009). 63-99.

• George and Sarah Magruder, of Anchovie Hills, are one of the families studied.

Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Maryland from the Earliest Period to the Present Day, 3 vols. Baltimore: John B Piet, 1879.

Smith, Abbot Emerson. Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776. Chapel Hill: UNC, 1947.

Smallwood, Stephanie E. Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.

Smith, John. “The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles,” and other writings. Excerpts. Norton Anthology of American Literature, 4th Ed., Vol 1. Ed. Nina Baym, et.al.  NY: WW Norton, 1979. 102-120. Now also available on line.

Smith, John. “The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles,” and other writings. Excerpts. Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter, et al. Lexington: DC Heath, 1990. Now also available on line.

Still, William. The Underground Railroad. Benediction Books, 1999

• A wealth of anecdotal information about people who made their way to Still’s house in Philadelphi. Sadly, there is no index. Available free from iBooks.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 1998. [1853]

• Published in response to accusations that Stowe made up the details of slave life in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, this book documents the sources, both written and oral, from which she drew her ideas for the novel.

Thornton, Russell. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History since 1492. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.

Tornabene, Hugh, compiler. Marriages, Prince Georges County, Maryland, 1777 to 1886. 2004. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm

1840, U.S. Census, Prince George’s County, combined population & slave schedule, Maryland, 3^rd District, (Marlborough), Ancestry.com.

1850 U.S. Census, Prince George’s County, Maryland, population schedule, Marlborough District. Ancestry.com.

1850 U.S. Census, Prince George’s County, Maryland, slave schedule, Marlborough District. Ancestry.com.

1860 U.S. Census, Prince George’s County, slave schedule, Maryland, Marlborough District. Ancestry.com.

1880 U.S. Census, Prince George’s County, Maryland, 3^rd District, Upper Marlborough. Ancestry.com.

1860 U.S. Census, Washington, D.C., population schedule, Ward 7. Ancestry.com.

1860U.S. Census, Mortality Schedule for Year ending 1 June 1860. Ancestry.com.

1870 U.S. Census, Washington, D.C, population schedule, Wards 3 & 7. Ancestry.com.

Wagandt, Charles L. The Mighty Revolution: Negro Emancipation in Maryland, 1862-1864. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1964. Dated, but sometimes useful.

Washburn, Wilcomb E. “The Moral and Legal Justifications for Dispossessing the Indians.” Seventeenth Century America: Essays in Colonial History. Ed. James Morton Smith. Chapel Hill: UNC, 1959. 15-32.

White, Andrew. Voyage to Maryland: Relatio Itineris in Marilandiam. Transl & ed. Barbara Lawatsch-Boomgaarden. Wauconda, Illinois: Bolshazy-Carducci, 1995.

White, Father Andrew. “A Briefe Relation of the Voyage unto Maryland.” [1634]. In Hall.

White, John. “The Fifth Voyage of Mr. John White.” Excerpt. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 4th Ed., Vol 1. Ed. Nina Baym, et.al.  NY: WW Norton, 1979. 83-87. Now available on line.

Whitman, T. Stephen. Challenging Slavery in the Chesapeake: Black and White Resistance to Human Bondage, 1775-1865. Baltimore: Maryland Historial Society, 2007.

• A really good history, full of detail. Makes clear how conditions and the forms of resistance varied over time.

Whitman, T. Stephen. The Price of Freedom: Slavery and Manumission in Baltimore and Early National Maryland. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1997.

• Lays out the complications of enslavement /term enslavement/apprenticeship, etc. and the complex ways both enslavers and enslaved used the law to gain what they wanted. Emphasizes how active blacks were in figuring out how to work the system to gain freedom for themselves & family. Everyone should read this book.

Wilcox, Shirley Langdon, ed. 1850 Census, Prince George’s County Maryland. Bowie: Prince George’s County Genealogical Society, 1978.

Windley, Lathan A., compiler. Runaway Slave Advertisements: A Documentary History from the 1730s to 1790. Volume 2: Maryland. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1983.

• Because people who had run away are described in such detail–including, sometimes, their interests and abilities–these ads are one of the few places where you can get a feel for individual people. Believe me, you’ll be reading this book for hours. Multiple-volume series; covers several states.

Works Project Administration. Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States. Kindle edition, n.d.

Works Project Administration. The Negro in Virginia. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 1994. Based on interviews and oral histories, a compilation of tale and folkways. As there is no comparable book for Maryland, this is the closest we can get.

Wright, James M. The Free Negro in Maryland, 1634-1860. NY: Octagon Books, 1971. E-book available from The Internet Archive, 2007. Dated, but can be useful.

Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. Southern Honor: Politics and Behavior in the Old South. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. [1982]

Annie Davis, a slave in a small town 20 m from Baltimore, Aug 1864.
Source: Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War