102   Green's  prison  term   and  circumstances  were   known  nationwide and it encouraged other slaves  to  escape  and influenced whites  to help  slaves to  "steal  themselves"  from their masters.     Whites who helped slaves also felt the wrath of slaveholders and slave sympathizers.     One  of many  recorded  incidents  occurred  in June, 1858, ....
...when a Kent County white man named James Bowers, was tarred  and  feathered  for his  anti-slavery  feelings  and  for circumstantial  allegations  of helping  slaves  escape,  along  with a  free black woman  also accused of encouraging  escapes  with even less evidence.     A subsequent riot over the incident and public  outcry  in  support  of the victim,  James  Bowers,  brought the issue too close to home for the slaveholders,  who closed ranks  against  anti-slavery   sentiment  and  called   for  action against  those  who  publicly  spoke  out  against  slavery."103
Despite the  fervent work of the Quakers  and other abolitionists  (black and white),  within  and without  the  state,  the
increasing  number of free blacks  who worked to abolish  the  system,
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and the  large number of slaves  "who  stole themselves",  slavery in Maryland just prior to the Civil War, showed little or no signs of decline.     Slaveholders  and  their  supporters  continued to  exert  a