African American Slavery & the University of Maryland

african american slavery & the university of maryland By the Students of History 429 [ 2009 \ On the cover: By the late 19th century, the rutted, narrow, muddy Baltimore and Washington Turnpike (now Route 1) had probably changed little since enslaved black men and women traversed it prior to slavery’s official demise in November 1864. Knowing Our History: african american slavery & the university of maryland [ contents \ An Overview and Appreciation: History 429 ii History 429 Student Researchers iv Chapter 1: Introducing the Project Introduction 2 Methods 6 Chapter 2: The Development of Slavery Slavery and Race in the Modern World: 1200–1600 8 Slavery and Race in Mainland North America and the Chesapeake 9 Slavery and Race in Maryland and Prince George’s County 12 Prince George’s County and the Bladensburg-Vansville District 14 Chapter 3: The Maryland Agricultural College Charles Benedict Calvert: Founder 18 Benjamin Hallowell: Founder 22 The Founding of the Maryland Agricultural College 24 Adam Francis Plummer: Founder 27 Epilogue The Long Shadow of Slavery 31 Timeline 33 Acknowledgments 35 Endnotes 36 [ list of illustrations \ Charles Benedict Calvert Slave Account Book 1 Ross’s Tavern Runaway Slave Advertisement 12 Mary Berry Estate Public Sale Announcement 13 Graph: African American and White Population 15 1850 Slave Schedule—Bladensburg District 16 Manumission Document 17 Charles Benedict Calvert 19 Riversdale Mansion 20 Dual Family Tree of George Calvert 21 Benjamin Hallowell 23 The Maryland Agricultural College, 1888 25 William Sands 26 Adam Francis Plummer 28 Diary of Adam Francis Plummer 29 Dormitory Photo—Hiram Whittle 32 Elaine Johnson 32 ii [ an overview and appreciation \ History 429 It was no secret that slavery had some relationship say that “Knowing Our History” was one of the most to the founding of the Maryland Agricultural College, engaging and rewarding teaching experiences in my predecessor of the University of Maryland, as the 30 years at the university. university celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2006. Charles Benedict Calvert, the prime mover in the The students of History 429 took their charge seri- college’s creation, was a slaveholding planter, as were ously and attacked the question of slavery’s relation- many of the members of the state legislature that ship to the university with energy, enthusiasm and authorized the college’s establishment and the trust- intelligence. They quickly gained the assistance of ees who governed the new institution. Some of the many interested parties who shared their concerns first faculty members held slaves, and many of the and whom they thank in the report’s acknowledge- students came from slaveholding families. It could be ments. As they readily admit, their work was built no other way in Maryland, as slavery touched every on the work of others. Although the class took the aspect of life. Slaveholders, who controlled much long view of slavery’s history—beginning in the 11th of the state’s wealth, transformed that wealth into century Mediterranean and tracing the development political power, which, in turn, allowed them to shape of the slave-based plantation system across the the state’s culture. Atlantic into the Caribbean, onto mainland North America, and finally to Prince George’s County—I Nonetheless, many students, faculty and friends of think it’s safe to say most students were determined the university in 2006 were appalled to learn of its to find the smoking gun, the direct evidence that roots in the odious institution of chattel bondage. slaves cleared the land, constructed the buildings Some believed that information had been withheld and worked in the dining halls. from them in an effort to whitewash the university’s past. Others shared the embarrassment of Americans But the smoking gun was not to be had, although the who had but recently discovered that the entire lower students searched with great diligence in archives, end of Manhattan was underlaid by a slave cemetery, libraries and historical repositories on campus and or that President George Washington housed his off. In the process, however, they learned something slaves on the site of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, far more important: that the past can also be recon- or that the national Capitol in Washington was constructed from a deep knowledge of the context of structed in part by slaves. Still others saw no special events and a full appreciation of the circumstances of revelation in the “discovery” of the university’s slave the lives of men and women. Piecing together those past, but wanted a full accounting. Did slaves clear lives requires not only a close reading of the sources the land, build the buildings and feed the students at but also an imaginative reconstruction of a world that the newly established Maryland Agricultural College? is no more. History 429 thought its way back to mid- 19th century Maryland. In the controversy over slavery stirred by the 150th anniversary celebration, the History Department Simply put, the Maryland Agricultural College saw a teachable moment. With the encouragement of was founded in response to a profound crisis university President C. D. Mote, Jr., Herbert Brewer, in Maryland society, a crisis that was shaking an advanced graduate student, and I organized Maryland’s economy as its agricultural base faltered History 429, “Knowing Our History: Slavery and the under the pressure of the greater productivity of University of Maryland,” an undergraduate course western lands, changes in technology and the reor- whose purpose was to explore, document and define ganization of labor. Not only were many Maryland the historic connections between African American farmers losing their place, but their sons and daugh- slavery and the Maryland Agricultural College. Now, ters also were leaving home, some for the West and as the students’ report goes to press, I am pleased to some for cities like nearby Annapolis, Baltimore and iii Washington. The decline and depopulation created a But, as the students came to understand, the silence deep sense of loss that was exacerbated by the larger could not deny the undeniable. Political necessities national debate over slavery. That debate would soon may have forced both Calvert and Hallowell to avoid explode in civil war. the direct discussion of slavery, but slavery’s omni- presence—as a source of wealth, status and labor— Charles Calvert felt the crisis as a planter whose made it clear that slaves were no silent partner in wealth rested on agriculture, and also as a politician the establishment of the Maryland Agricultural appreciative of the challenges facing his class and his College. The crisis created by their presence drove community. Fashioning himself an improving farmer, the decision to establish the college, and the wealth he spoke and wrote about ways to elevate Maryland their labor produced made the college possible. In agriculture through new techniques of farm man- making the case for those connections, the students agement, the introduction of blooded stock and of History 429 make their greatest contribution more productive crops and the creation of a cohort toward an understanding of the university’s rela- of educated farmers. He found a kindred spirit in tionship with slavery. Benjamin Hallowell, a self-taught scientist with long experience as an educator in Maryland and Virginia, Representing the slaves’ founding presence, the whom Calvert and the board of trustees appointed students discovered one Adam Francis Plummer, a the college’s first president. But while Hallowell favorite slave of Charles Calvert and also, through shared Calvert’s interest in agricultural reform, his the convoluted ways in which whites and blacks views on slavery differed radically. A member of the mixed in a slave society, a Calvert kinsman as well. Society of Friends, Hallowell believed in his denomi- For the students, Plummer—who was literate, kept a nation’s long-standing opposition to slavery. He and journal, played a large role on the Calvert estate and his family were deeply involved in the antislavery himself had deep roots in Maryland society—became movement; his hometown of Sandy Spring was a a person who could represent the mass of otherwise station on the Underground Railroad and two distant anonymous black men and women whose labor cousins commanded black regiments—the famed helped create the Maryland Agricultural College but Massachusetts 54th and 55th—during the Civil War. whose voices remained mute in the historical record. Hallowell accepted the college’s presidency, but only Here, too, the students of History 429 expand the upon condition that no slave labor would be used at understanding of the university’s beginnings. the new campus. In its origins, the students concluded, the Maryland Calvert and Hallowell sought to create an institution Agricultural College—and, by descent, the University that, then as now, addressed the state’s most pressing of Maryland—had three founders: a slaveholder, an problems. Circumstances, however, confined what abolitionist and the slaves themselves. Appreciating they could do and say. For one thing, though they the connections that brought these three together is both spoke frequently about the various measures of the work of this report, authored and edited by the agricultural improvement, they dared not address the students of History 429, who have come not only to central element in the extant system of agriculture: know their history, but also to make it. slave labor. It was perhaps that which led Hallowell to resign within a month of his appointment, although the evidence points elsewhere. Slavery was the elephant in the room, which everyone recognized Ira Berlin but no one could acknowledge. College Park, August 2009 iv [ history 429 student researchers \ Caroline Anderson is a junior double-majoring in Jessica Dwyer-Moss is a senior double-majoring government and politics and U.S.

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