Slavery: Pre-Civil War Era
In 1803, between the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory from France. The new territory doubled the size of the country. It included all or parts of the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Colorado and Montana.
The Louisiana Purchase came on the heels of the invention of the cotton gin which freed slaves from the work of manually separating cotton seeds from the cotton. Slaves could now spend more time working in the cotton fields, resulting in much greater profits for the slave owners.
The cotton plantations that sprang up in the Lower South and in the new Louisiana territories needed thousands more slaves to plant and harvest the cotton. Luckily for the cotton farmers who needed laborers, a slave surplus had developed in the states of the Upper South, including Maryland. Upper South slave owners were glad to have a market for their surplus slaves, but they were unhappy that competition from lower-cost African slaves was keeping the price down.
The solution came from an unlikely alliance of abolitionists and politically powerful Upper South slave owners. Abolitionists wanted an end to the African trade as a step towards complete abolition. Upper South slave owners wanted an end to the African trade so they could get more money for their surplus slaves. The alliance resulted in passage of a law banning the import of African slaves, effective January 1, 1808. The African slave trade was ended, but a newly powerful domestic slave trade was born.
Lower South cotton growers’ demand for slaves was a bonanza for Maryland slave-owners. Between 1830 and 1860, more than 18,000 surplus Maryland slaves were sold to the Lower South. The price of slaves tracked the price of cotton. There were ups and downs in the price of both, but from the end of the African slave trade in 1808 until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, the price for a prime male slave in the New Orleans slave market rose from about $500 to more than $1,800 (about $35,000 today). Wealthy cotton growers could easily afford the high prices.
The surplus of slaves in the Upper South had several causes. One was the natural increase in the number of slaves. Slave owners encouraged slave women to have as many children as possible since any child born to a slave woman was the property of the slave owner. Slave women were valued for their breeding ability, exactly the same as livestock. Slave children increased in value as they grew older. They could be sold at any age for a good profit, or left to descendants as a valuable inheritance.
Another cause of surplus Upper South slaves was the switch from tobacco to wheat and other cereal crops. Cereal crops required workers at harvest, not year-round like tobacco. It was cheaper to hire harvest workers than to maintain a permanent slave work force. As a result, many farmers in the northern, western, and eastern parts of Maryland freed their surplus slaves, or sold them through slave traders to the southern cotton plantations.
There were also surplus slaves in Southern Maryland, but not because the farmers there switched to other crops. Rather, it was because many Southern Maryland tobacco farmers had abandoned farming and left the state. Tobacco leached nutrients from the soil, and after three or four crops was no longer productive. Traditionally, tobacco farmers had simply abandoned worn out fields and cleared new land for new tobacco crops. But undeveloped new land in Southern Maryland was becoming scarce, and farmers began to emigrate west to the untouched lands of the Louisiana territory. Emigrating farmers took some of their slaves with them, and sold the rest.
According to U.S. Federal Census figures, almost half the white population of Charles County departed between 1790 and 1860, declining from 10,124 to 5,796.
Charles County, Md., U.S. Federal Census, 1790 - 1860
|
Year
1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 |
Whites
10,124 9,043 7,398 6,514 6,789 6,022 5,665 5,796 |
Slaves
10,085 9,558 11,435 9,419 10,129 9,182 9,584 9,653 |
Free Blacks
404 571 412 567 851 819 913 1,068 |
Henry Lowe Mudd (1798-1877)
While others abandoned their farms and left the state, Henry Lowe Mudd (1798-1877), the second of Alexius Mudd’s three children, stayed put. He and his wife Sarah were Dr. Samuel A. Mudd’s parents.
Henry was a shrewd businessman. Where others saw failure, he saw opportunity. As others abandoned their land, Henry bought it. He bought St. Catherine’s and Mudds Double Trouble consisting of 308 acres, Hayes Secret consisting of 329 acres, parts of Reeds Swamp containing 75 acres, and Jordan, containing 145 acres.
Henry was also a very good farmer. Tobacco remained his main crop, but he also began to grow wheat and other grain crops. He applied fertilizers, rotated crops, and used better plowing techniques. He introduced mechanization, using Linton’s Iron Geared Threshing Machine to harvest his wheat crop. All of these techniques combined to renew soil that had previously been considered worn out.
Henry also continued to use slave labor. In 1820 he had nine slaves. In 1830 he had fourteen slaves. The Federal census for 1840 doesn’t list any slaves for Henry Mudd, but this appears to be because the census tabulation for Henry and his immediate neighbors was incomplete.
Prosperity returned to Charles County during the 1840s and 1850s as a result of higher tobacco prices. Prices for tobacco fluctuated of course, but the general trend was upward. Those who benefited the most were those like Henry Lowe Mudd who adopted soil renewal practices and grew a wider variety of crops, including wheat. The growing cities of Washington and Baltimore, as well as the usual export markets, provided a steady demand and good prices for Southern Maryland farm products.
Times were good again, and Southern Maryland farmers needed more slaves to take advantage of the opportunity. Henry Mudd’s inventory of slaves continued to increase. He had 41 slaves in 1850, and 61 in 1860. The number of slaves owned by all Mudd family members in Charles County increased to 82 in 1850, and to 145 in 1860.
The demand for slaves increased the cost of slaves, but the prosperous Southern Maryland slave-owners could afford them. After all, regardless of the price paid, the resale value of a slave continued apace. The Port Tobacco Times of August 19, 1858, reported that a 17 year-old slave brought $1,115, a 15 year-old slave $1,010, and an eight or nine year-old slave $725. The total $2,840 for these three slaves would be equal to about $60,000 today.
In her 1906 book, The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, Nettie Mudd says there were more than a hundred slaves on her grandfather Henry Lowe Mudd’s large tobacco plantation. The 1860 U.S. Slave Census lists 61 slaves. Since slave owners often rented out surplus slaves to other farmers, it is very possible that Henry Lowe Mudd owned more than the 61 slaves present when the census was taken. Whatever the exact number, Dr. Mudd’s father was quite well off. The 1860 Federal Census valued his real estate at $8,000 and his personal estate at $40,000, equivalent to about one million dollars today.
Henry was a shrewd businessman. Where others saw failure, he saw opportunity. As others abandoned their land, Henry bought it. He bought St. Catherine’s and Mudds Double Trouble consisting of 308 acres, Hayes Secret consisting of 329 acres, parts of Reeds Swamp containing 75 acres, and Jordan, containing 145 acres.
Henry was also a very good farmer. Tobacco remained his main crop, but he also began to grow wheat and other grain crops. He applied fertilizers, rotated crops, and used better plowing techniques. He introduced mechanization, using Linton’s Iron Geared Threshing Machine to harvest his wheat crop. All of these techniques combined to renew soil that had previously been considered worn out.
Henry also continued to use slave labor. In 1820 he had nine slaves. In 1830 he had fourteen slaves. The Federal census for 1840 doesn’t list any slaves for Henry Mudd, but this appears to be because the census tabulation for Henry and his immediate neighbors was incomplete.
Prosperity returned to Charles County during the 1840s and 1850s as a result of higher tobacco prices. Prices for tobacco fluctuated of course, but the general trend was upward. Those who benefited the most were those like Henry Lowe Mudd who adopted soil renewal practices and grew a wider variety of crops, including wheat. The growing cities of Washington and Baltimore, as well as the usual export markets, provided a steady demand and good prices for Southern Maryland farm products.
Times were good again, and Southern Maryland farmers needed more slaves to take advantage of the opportunity. Henry Mudd’s inventory of slaves continued to increase. He had 41 slaves in 1850, and 61 in 1860. The number of slaves owned by all Mudd family members in Charles County increased to 82 in 1850, and to 145 in 1860.
The demand for slaves increased the cost of slaves, but the prosperous Southern Maryland slave-owners could afford them. After all, regardless of the price paid, the resale value of a slave continued apace. The Port Tobacco Times of August 19, 1858, reported that a 17 year-old slave brought $1,115, a 15 year-old slave $1,010, and an eight or nine year-old slave $725. The total $2,840 for these three slaves would be equal to about $60,000 today.
In her 1906 book, The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, Nettie Mudd says there were more than a hundred slaves on her grandfather Henry Lowe Mudd’s large tobacco plantation. The 1860 U.S. Slave Census lists 61 slaves. Since slave owners often rented out surplus slaves to other farmers, it is very possible that Henry Lowe Mudd owned more than the 61 slaves present when the census was taken. Whatever the exact number, Dr. Mudd’s father was quite well off. The 1860 Federal Census valued his real estate at $8,000 and his personal estate at $40,000, equivalent to about one million dollars today.
