Slavery: Charles County
Henry Lowe Mudd’s farm was located near the small Charles County, Maryland town of Bryantown. Richard Macks, a Charles County slave at the time Dr. Samuel Mudd grew up there, recalled Bryantown quite well:
I was born in Charles County in Southern Maryland in the year 1844 ... the county where James (sic) Wilkes Booth took refuge in after the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865.
...In Bryantown there were several stores, two or three taverns or inns, which were well known in their days for their hospitality to their guests and arrangements to house slaves. There were two inns both of which had long sheds, strongly built, with cells downstairs for men and a large room above for women. At night the slave traders would bring their charges to the inns, [and] pay for their meals, which were served on a long table in the shed. Then afterwards they were locked up for the night.
...When I was a boy, I saw slaves going through and to Bryantown. Some would be chained, some handcuffed, and others not. These slaves were brought up from time to time to be auctioned off or sold at Bryantown, to go to other farms in Maryland, or shipped south.
To be shipped south was the worst thing that could happen to a slave. Slaves sold to other farms in Maryland retained some hope that they would see loved ones again, but to be sold south to the plantations of Georgia, Mississippi, or Louisiana meant the slave would most likely never see father, mother, brother, sister, or children again. One of the slave owners’ most powerful means of control over slaves was to threaten to sell them south if they didn’t completely submit to their master.
In Maryland, a slave always had hope he could escape to freedom in nearby Washington, Baltimore, or points north. In the deep south, there was no such hope. Some slaves sold south were taken to Baltimore and placed on ships to New Orleans. These were the lucky ones. Others were forced to walk the hundreds of miles to the deep south, chained together like animals in groups called coffles.
Almost every issue of the local Port Tobacco Times newspaper carried ads for buying and selling slaves, or capturing runaways:
Slave Patrols
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Charles County whites formed neighborhood patrols to keep a close watch on slaves’ movements by day and night. Slaves couldn’t leave their master’s premises without a permit. Any slave caught by a patrol without a pass from the owner, particularly at night, was dealt with harshly. Former slave Richard Macks told about the Charles County slave patrols:
In Charles County and in fact all of Southern Maryland tobacco was raised on a large scale. Men, women and children had to work hard to produce the required crops. The slaves did the work and they were driven at full speed sometimes by the owners and others by both owner and overseers. The slaves would run away from the farms whenever they had a chance, some were returned and others getting away. This made it very profitable to white men and constables to capture the runaways. This caused trouble between the colored people and whites, especially the free people, as some of them would be taken for slaves. I had heard of several killings resulting from fights at night. |
Port Tobacco Times
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One time a slave ran away and was seen by a colored man, who was hunting, sitting on a log eating some food late in the night, He had a corn knife with him. When his master attempted to hit him with a whip, he retaliated with the knife, splitting the man's breast open, from which he died. The slave escaped and was never captured. The white cappers or patrollers in all of the counties of Southern Maryland scoured the swamps, rivers and fields without success.
Former slave Page Harris told about his Charles County farm, where the owner trained blood hounds for hunting runaway slaves:
I was born in 1858 about 3 miles west of Chicamuxen near the Potomac River in Charles County on the farm of Burton Stafford, better known as Blood Hound Manor. This name was applied because Mr. Stafford raised and trained blood hounds to track runaway slaves and to sell to slaveholders of Maryland, Virginia and other southern states as far south as Mississippi and Louisiana.
In 1860, the year after Dr. and Mrs. Mudd began farming, the Federal Census recorded 603,000 people living in Maryland, including 87,000 slaves and 84,000 free blacks. Maryland had the highest number of free blacks of any state. In the six counties of Southern Maryland, more than half the total population was black.
But free blacks were not really free. In reality, they were tightly controlled by the white community. The August 6, 1857 issue of the Port Tobacco Times reported that thirty-three unemployed Free Negroes were rounded up and sold to the highest bidder for the balance of the year. One of those rounded up threatened to complain to the “Port Tobacco authorities” and received “five stripes” for his presumption.
Former slave Page Harris told about his Charles County farm, where the owner trained blood hounds for hunting runaway slaves:
I was born in 1858 about 3 miles west of Chicamuxen near the Potomac River in Charles County on the farm of Burton Stafford, better known as Blood Hound Manor. This name was applied because Mr. Stafford raised and trained blood hounds to track runaway slaves and to sell to slaveholders of Maryland, Virginia and other southern states as far south as Mississippi and Louisiana.
In 1860, the year after Dr. and Mrs. Mudd began farming, the Federal Census recorded 603,000 people living in Maryland, including 87,000 slaves and 84,000 free blacks. Maryland had the highest number of free blacks of any state. In the six counties of Southern Maryland, more than half the total population was black.
But free blacks were not really free. In reality, they were tightly controlled by the white community. The August 6, 1857 issue of the Port Tobacco Times reported that thirty-three unemployed Free Negroes were rounded up and sold to the highest bidder for the balance of the year. One of those rounded up threatened to complain to the “Port Tobacco authorities” and received “five stripes” for his presumption.
Slavery and Religion
The Mudd family was a Catholic family. But how could Catholics like the Mudds own slaves when the Catholic Church we know today strongly condemns slavery as intrinsically evil? The answer is that in Dr. Mudd’s time the Catholic Church not only condoned slavery, but also allowed priests and nuns to own slaves. For example, the Catholic Jesuit scholar Thomas Murphy reports that the Jesuits owned 272 slaves on six Maryland plantations. Father Leonard Edelen, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, Newtown, Maryland, and his assistant pastor, Father Aloysius Mudd, had eleven slaves.
Even Catholic nuns had slaves. Matilda Mudd was a nun with the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg, Maryland. Her religious name was Sister Joseph. When she died in 1823, she bequeathed her four slaves Adeline, Augustine, Hilary, and Alexius to her cousin Thomas M. Mudd. She instructed Thomas to set them free - the boys at age 25 and the girls at age 16 - with new clothes and twelve dollars.
In his book Carmel in America, Father Charles Warren Currier writes about the Carmelite nuns of Port Tobacco, Maryland, located about ten miles from where Dr. Mudd lived:
The first convent of religious women in the United States of America was founded in 1790, at a distance of about four miles from Port Tobacco, on the property formerly belonging to Mr. Baker Brooke. The place was henceforward called Mount Carmel... A portion of the property of the nuns, while they were at Mount Carmel, consisted of slaves. Many of the novices, on entering the community, brought their slaves with them. These were comfortably lodged in quarters outside the convent-enclosure and did the work of the farm. They were treated with great love and charity by the sisters, and were considered as children of the family. Their souls being regarded as a precious charge, for which the community was responsible to God, they were carefully instructed in their religious duties, and all their wants, both spiritual and temporal, faithfully attended to. On their part these poor creatures were devotedly attached to the community. Their number was about thirty, and twice a year the sisters would spin, weave and make up suits of clothing for them, besides spinning and weaving their own clothing.
Families like the Mudds undoubtedly reasoned that if the Church condoned slavery, and if it was all right for priests and nuns to own slaves, then it was all right for devout Catholic farmers to do the same. On the second floor of Henry Lowe Mudd’s home, in addition to the family bedrooms, was a chapel where the Mudd family prayed together and where visiting priests celebrated Mass.
Even Catholic nuns had slaves. Matilda Mudd was a nun with the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg, Maryland. Her religious name was Sister Joseph. When she died in 1823, she bequeathed her four slaves Adeline, Augustine, Hilary, and Alexius to her cousin Thomas M. Mudd. She instructed Thomas to set them free - the boys at age 25 and the girls at age 16 - with new clothes and twelve dollars.
In his book Carmel in America, Father Charles Warren Currier writes about the Carmelite nuns of Port Tobacco, Maryland, located about ten miles from where Dr. Mudd lived:
The first convent of religious women in the United States of America was founded in 1790, at a distance of about four miles from Port Tobacco, on the property formerly belonging to Mr. Baker Brooke. The place was henceforward called Mount Carmel... A portion of the property of the nuns, while they were at Mount Carmel, consisted of slaves. Many of the novices, on entering the community, brought their slaves with them. These were comfortably lodged in quarters outside the convent-enclosure and did the work of the farm. They were treated with great love and charity by the sisters, and were considered as children of the family. Their souls being regarded as a precious charge, for which the community was responsible to God, they were carefully instructed in their religious duties, and all their wants, both spiritual and temporal, faithfully attended to. On their part these poor creatures were devotedly attached to the community. Their number was about thirty, and twice a year the sisters would spin, weave and make up suits of clothing for them, besides spinning and weaving their own clothing.
Families like the Mudds undoubtedly reasoned that if the Church condoned slavery, and if it was all right for priests and nuns to own slaves, then it was all right for devout Catholic farmers to do the same. On the second floor of Henry Lowe Mudd’s home, in addition to the family bedrooms, was a chapel where the Mudd family prayed together and where visiting priests celebrated Mass.
Henry’s son Samuel became a devout Catholic. He subscribed to a Catholic journal called Brownson’s Quarterly Review. When the editor, Orestes A. Brownson, began to write during the Civil War that slavery should be abolished in order to preserve the Union, Dr. Mudd wrote to Mr. Brownson to cancel his subscription. Dr. Mudd's January 13, 1862 letter said in part:
...The present Civil War now raging was not brought about entirely by fear on the part of the South, that their property in Slaves was endangered, but more by an unwillingness to yield up rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.
...A majority of the people of the North believe Slavery to be Sinful, thereby they attempt to force down our throats, their religious Conviction, which is Anti-Catholic and uncharitable.
...The people of the North are Puritanical, long faced or Methodistic and hypocritical—they deal in Sympathetic language to hide their deception—their actions are Pharisaical, covert, stealthy, and cowardly. They are law abiding so long as it bears them out in their selfish interest, and praisers and scatterers and followers of the Bible so long as it does not conflict with their passions. They make good cow drivers, pickpockets and gamblers.
...You know full well, that slavery being a State institution recognized by every administration and confirmed by many acts of Congress, can only be abrogated by State will.
...Christ, our Saviour found slavery at his coming and yet he made no command against its practice. Therefore I think it is a great presumption in man to supply the omissions which God in his infinity thought proper to make.
Other Christian denominations were torn over the slavery question. The Methodist Church, which Dr. Mudd criticized above, opposed slavery at the national level, but local Methodist congregations such as the one in Charles County were pro-slavery. The Quakers were the only religious denomination that uniformly opposed slavery wherever it was found.
...The present Civil War now raging was not brought about entirely by fear on the part of the South, that their property in Slaves was endangered, but more by an unwillingness to yield up rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.
...A majority of the people of the North believe Slavery to be Sinful, thereby they attempt to force down our throats, their religious Conviction, which is Anti-Catholic and uncharitable.
...The people of the North are Puritanical, long faced or Methodistic and hypocritical—they deal in Sympathetic language to hide their deception—their actions are Pharisaical, covert, stealthy, and cowardly. They are law abiding so long as it bears them out in their selfish interest, and praisers and scatterers and followers of the Bible so long as it does not conflict with their passions. They make good cow drivers, pickpockets and gamblers.
...You know full well, that slavery being a State institution recognized by every administration and confirmed by many acts of Congress, can only be abrogated by State will.
...Christ, our Saviour found slavery at his coming and yet he made no command against its practice. Therefore I think it is a great presumption in man to supply the omissions which God in his infinity thought proper to make.
Other Christian denominations were torn over the slavery question. The Methodist Church, which Dr. Mudd criticized above, opposed slavery at the national level, but local Methodist congregations such as the one in Charles County were pro-slavery. The Quakers were the only religious denomination that uniformly opposed slavery wherever it was found.
Why The Slaves Sang
Many slave-owners believed their slaves were happy, and had a hard time understanding why their slaves took every opportunity to run away. Nettie Mudd wrote of the supposed happiness of the slaves at Henry Lowe Mudd’s plantation:
Here on his father’s estate may have been seen more than a hundred slaves, who made the evening merry with song, and with banjo, and with violin accompaniment. Scattered over various sections of the farm may also have been seen the quarters of these humble folk, who were always treated with the kindest consideration by their master and mistress, and who would say of these white friends, after they had passed from earth, “God bless my old Marse and Miss; I hope dey is in heaven.”
Frederick Douglass, who had been a Maryland slave, explained why slaves sang:
I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing among slaves as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.
Here on his father’s estate may have been seen more than a hundred slaves, who made the evening merry with song, and with banjo, and with violin accompaniment. Scattered over various sections of the farm may also have been seen the quarters of these humble folk, who were always treated with the kindest consideration by their master and mistress, and who would say of these white friends, after they had passed from earth, “God bless my old Marse and Miss; I hope dey is in heaven.”
Frederick Douglass, who had been a Maryland slave, explained why slaves sang:
I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing among slaves as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.
How Slaves Grew Tobacco
Charles Ball, a Maryland slave, described how slaves grew tobacco:
The operation is to be commenced in the month of February, by clearing a piece of new land, and burning the timber cut from it, on the ground, so as to form a coat of ashes over the whole space, if possible. This ground is then dug up with a hoe, and the sticks and roots are to be carefully removed from it. In this bed the tobacco seeds are sown, about the beginning of March, not in hills or in rows, but by broadcast, as in sowing turnips.
The seeds do not spring soon, but generally the young plants appear early in April. If the weather, at the time the tobacco comes up, as it is called, is yet frosty, a covering of pine tops, or red cedar branches, is thickly spread over the whole patch...
... In the months of March and April the people are busily employed in plowing the fields in which the tobacco is to be planted in May. Immediately after the corn is planted, every one, man, woman and child, able to work with a hoe, or carry a tobacco plant, is engaged in working up the whole plantation, already ploughed a second time, into hills about four feet apart, laid out in regular rows across the field, by the course of the furrows. These hills are formed into squares or diamonds, at equal distances both ways, and into these are transplanted the tobacco plants from the beds in which the seeds were sown.
This transplantation must be done when the earth is wet with rain, and it is best to do it, if possible, just before, or at the time the rain falls, as cabbages are transplanted in a kitchen garden; but as the planting of a field of one or two hundred acres with tobacco, is not the work of an hour, as soon as it is deemed certain that there will be a sufficient fall of rain to answer the purpose of planting out tobacco, all hands are called to the tobacco field.
And no matter how fast it may rain, or how violent the storm may be, the removal of the plants from the bed, and fixing them in the hills where they are to grow in the field, goes on until the crop is planted out, or the rain ceases, and the sun begins to shine.
Nothing but the darkness of night and the short respite required for the scanty meal of the slaves, produces any cessation in the labor of tobacco planting, until the work is done, or the rain ceases and the clouds disappear.
... Sometimes the tobacco worm appears among the plants ...every slave that is able to kill a tobacco worm is kept in the field from morning until night. Those who are able to work with hoes are engaged in weeding the tobacco, and at the same time destroying all the worms they find. The children do nothing but search for and destroy the worms.
... In the month of August, the tobacco crop is laid by, as it is termed; which means that they cease working in the fields, for the purpose of destroying the weeds and grass; the plants having now become so large, as not to be injured by the under vegetation. Still, however, the worms continue their ravages, and it is necessary to employ all hands in destroying them.
In this month also the tobacco is to be topped, if it has not been done before. When the plants have reached the height of two or three feet, according to the goodness of the soil, and the vigor of the growth, the top is to be cut off to prevent it from going to seed.
After the tobacco is fully grown, which in some plants happens early in August, it is to be carefully watched, to see when it is ripe, or fit for cutting. ...It does not all arrive at maturity at the same time; and although some plants ripen early in August, others are not ripe before the middle of September. When the plants are cut down, they are laid on the ground for a short time, then taken up, and the stalks split open to facilitate the drying of the leaves. In this condition it is removed to the drying house, and there hung up under sheds, until it is fully dry. From thence, it is removed into the tobacco house, and laid up in bulk, ready for stripping and manufacturing.
The operation is to be commenced in the month of February, by clearing a piece of new land, and burning the timber cut from it, on the ground, so as to form a coat of ashes over the whole space, if possible. This ground is then dug up with a hoe, and the sticks and roots are to be carefully removed from it. In this bed the tobacco seeds are sown, about the beginning of March, not in hills or in rows, but by broadcast, as in sowing turnips.
The seeds do not spring soon, but generally the young plants appear early in April. If the weather, at the time the tobacco comes up, as it is called, is yet frosty, a covering of pine tops, or red cedar branches, is thickly spread over the whole patch...
... In the months of March and April the people are busily employed in plowing the fields in which the tobacco is to be planted in May. Immediately after the corn is planted, every one, man, woman and child, able to work with a hoe, or carry a tobacco plant, is engaged in working up the whole plantation, already ploughed a second time, into hills about four feet apart, laid out in regular rows across the field, by the course of the furrows. These hills are formed into squares or diamonds, at equal distances both ways, and into these are transplanted the tobacco plants from the beds in which the seeds were sown.
This transplantation must be done when the earth is wet with rain, and it is best to do it, if possible, just before, or at the time the rain falls, as cabbages are transplanted in a kitchen garden; but as the planting of a field of one or two hundred acres with tobacco, is not the work of an hour, as soon as it is deemed certain that there will be a sufficient fall of rain to answer the purpose of planting out tobacco, all hands are called to the tobacco field.
And no matter how fast it may rain, or how violent the storm may be, the removal of the plants from the bed, and fixing them in the hills where they are to grow in the field, goes on until the crop is planted out, or the rain ceases, and the sun begins to shine.
Nothing but the darkness of night and the short respite required for the scanty meal of the slaves, produces any cessation in the labor of tobacco planting, until the work is done, or the rain ceases and the clouds disappear.
... Sometimes the tobacco worm appears among the plants ...every slave that is able to kill a tobacco worm is kept in the field from morning until night. Those who are able to work with hoes are engaged in weeding the tobacco, and at the same time destroying all the worms they find. The children do nothing but search for and destroy the worms.
... In the month of August, the tobacco crop is laid by, as it is termed; which means that they cease working in the fields, for the purpose of destroying the weeds and grass; the plants having now become so large, as not to be injured by the under vegetation. Still, however, the worms continue their ravages, and it is necessary to employ all hands in destroying them.
In this month also the tobacco is to be topped, if it has not been done before. When the plants have reached the height of two or three feet, according to the goodness of the soil, and the vigor of the growth, the top is to be cut off to prevent it from going to seed.
After the tobacco is fully grown, which in some plants happens early in August, it is to be carefully watched, to see when it is ripe, or fit for cutting. ...It does not all arrive at maturity at the same time; and although some plants ripen early in August, others are not ripe before the middle of September. When the plants are cut down, they are laid on the ground for a short time, then taken up, and the stalks split open to facilitate the drying of the leaves. In this condition it is removed to the drying house, and there hung up under sheds, until it is fully dry. From thence, it is removed into the tobacco house, and laid up in bulk, ready for stripping and manufacturing.
