Robert Fisher, born John Fisher (b.1825 - d.?)
MSA SC 5496-3374
Accomplice to slave flight, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 1852

Biography:

In 1852, John Fisher, a free black, attempted to help Eliza Cook, a slave owned by George Stewart, escape to freedom.  Stewart lived in Anne Arundel County, where he owned a large farm with more than two dozen slaves.  Fisher was convicted of "enticing a slave to run away," and sentenced to six years in prison.  He was released in 1858, and at that point may have returned to Worchester County.

Fisher was born free in Worcester County, Maryland, probably in 1825, although prison records state he was born in 1829.  While he was likely born John Fisher, by the time of his 1852 trial he was "John Fisher alias John Roberts alias Robert Fisher," and was committed to the Maryland State Penitentiary as Robert Fisher.  In 1829, at age four, he was indentured by his mother to a Henry Jones to learn to farm.  By 1852, Fisher was free of his indentures and was possibly living in Baltimore under the name John Roberts, working as a laborer.

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