Ghosts of Chestertown and Kent County by D.S. Daniels

Author:D.S. Daniels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-07-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

THE CIVIL WAR IN KENT COUNTY

A CONFLICTED SWORD

The War of 1812 was in some ways the official end of the colonial period and the beginning of the new era for America. But there was another great hurdle ahead for the country. For Kent County, it was one that would not be gotten over soon.

On the eve of the Civil War, Kent County had a population of 13,326—7,347 white, 3,411 free blacks and 2,509 slaves. In Chestertown, the number of free blacks equaled the number of whites. In other counties on the Eastern Shore (with the exception of Cecil, which had 950 slaves) and in southern Maryland, the number of slaves equaled or even exceeded the number of whites. Kent County was one of only three Maryland counties that had a free black population that exceeded its number of slaves.

Chestertown and Kent County had become accustomed to free black businessmen and women, tradesmen, artisans and laborers since the eighteenth century. As mentioned earlier, the so-called need for slave labor locally had declined with the introduction of less labor-intensive agricultural practices. Yet the majority of landed white leadership in Kent County remained firmly entrenched in their support of the institution of slavery.

While the value in real estate held by Kent County landowners was the highest in any Eastern Shore county, the contribution of slaves to the value of their personal property was not insignificant. In other words, even if they did not “need” slave labor, slaves remained bankable assets. This is supported by the number of slaves (including Harriet Tubman) whose oral histories indicate that among the most tenuous of times for a slave family were when their owner died and individuals were sold off to settle debts of the estate or liquidate assets for division among heirs.

Local slaveholders joined those of the more southern regions in their continued protest of the assistance offered in northern states to runaways, as this was to them outright robbery of their personal property.

Many slaves managed to escape from Kent County. Most famous was Henry Highland Garnet, who had fled with his family as a child. He became an abolitionist and ordained Presbyterian minister and was the first black minister to preach to the U.S. House of Representatives. He might be considered the one internationally known man from Kent County in his time, as he was invited to lecture abroad. Known for his eloquent, forceful and often fiery rhetoric, he urged slaves to stand up to their white masters, even if it should lead to their death, and thereby distanced himself from Frederick Douglass (although Douglass mourned Garnet upon the latter’s death). When the Civil War erupted, Garnet, along with Douglass, turned his attention to the founding of black army units and the recruitment of troops.

Also well known was Isaac Mason, whose free father managed to buy his wife and daughter but had insufficient funds to purchase Isaac and had to leave him behind when they traveled north. Isaac eventually escaped and made his way to Canada.

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