Rebecca Posey (b. circa 1837 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-000361
Fled from slavery, Baltimore County, Maryland, 1852
Biogaphy:
Enslaved at Hampton Plantation near present-day Towson, Maryland, Rebecca Posey fled on Friday, August 20, 1852. The success of effort is not known. Her initiative, however, demonstrated the primary agency of black Marylanders, as part of a larger multi-racial, multi-regional effort, to see themselves get free. John Ridgely (1790 - 1867) owned Hampton and its enslaved laborers for most of the Antebellum Era. He inherited the plantation house and grounds from his father, the former Governor of Maryland, Charles Carnan Ridgely (1760 - 1829), but not its slaves. Charles Carnan Ridgely's will set his slaves upon varying paths toward eventual manumission at best, or freedom from labor at worse (for those too old to legally be freed). Thus, when John Ridgely became "master" of Hampton upon his father's death in 1829, he literally had to rebuild its labor force. He accomplished this during the succeeding decades through purchase and procurement.
At the time John Ridgely began rebuilding Hampton's slave community, slavery as an institution of economic importance was losing much of its standing. Baltimore County's enslaved population fell steadily between 1830 (6,160 enslaved) and 1860 (3,182), while the number of free blacks, and total blacks increased, reflecting a regional trend for all of Maryland's central counties. Manumissions, free-births, and sale out of the region accomplished much of this decline. Self-emanicipation by running away did not so much contribute to the decline as much as benefit from its ramifications. The number of African Americans in Hampton's area (enslaved and free), and the proximities of both Baltimore City to the south and the State of Pennsylvania to the north, gave flight an attractive feasibility. The fact that John Ridgely rebuilt the entire slave population of Hampton by purchasing slaves previously held in other parts of the state likely increased the bondspeople's collective knowledge of the world beyond the plantation.
Thus, from the time of the transition to John from his father, nearly
40 Hampton slaves made flight attempts (for examples, see: Charles
Brown, John
Hawkins, John
Kyle, Davy
Jones, and Ellick).
At least twenty-five percent these attempts took place during the 1850s,
including Rebecca Posey's attempt. John Ridgely sent Hampton overseer
Nelson Cooper to reclaim the diminuitive, light-complexioned fifteen-year
old runaway, offering a reward of one-hundred dollars for her return.
Return to Rebecca Posey's Introductory Page
|
|| Search the Archives || Education & Outreach || Archives of Maryland Online ] Governor General Assembly Judiciary Maryland.Gov
|