The slave in seventeenth century Maryland had certain rights later denied. The slave appears
to have been treated like a servant except that the duration of the servitude extended for life. Both
servants and slaves were sharply restricted: they needed passes to travel or to trade and their masters
could inflict whippings rather freely; but they could petition the Courts for prosecution of their
masters and for freedom. Despite the penalties, the legislature recognized that slaves could be
legally married, at least with free white women or white men, and perhaps with other negroes as
well. On the other hand, the statute of 1692 for the first time gave special legal treatment to free
negroes, subj ecting them to slavery if they marry a white woman. Racial distinctions were made part
of the statutory law, and the distinctly subordinate stature of the free negro became fixed. The
institution of slavery, originally justified by paganism and preserved by economics, finally affected
everyone of the race, whether slave or free.

IV.      The Free Black in Seventeenth Century Maryland

The number of free blacks or mulattos in the colony during the seventeenth century was
always small. A few early black settlers, like DeSousa, Babtista, Hagleton and Upton, came as
indentured servants rather than slaves. Ralph Trunckett, another African who came to Maryland
from England, also successfully petitioned for his freedom in 1693.133

Some mulattos were born free under the miscegenation statutes although their fathers were
slaves. The 1664 statute recognized that the mulatto child of a free white woman married prior to
the date of the enactment became free after 30 years service; the statute of 1681 granted freedom to
the issue born of a union between a white woman and a slave; and the 1692 statute provided freedom
for the child after a 21 year period of service if the parents were married and after 31 years if they
were not. Jeffrey Lisle and Richard Caven brought suits based on allegations under this law, but
both fled before a verdict was reached.134

A third source of free negroes was immigration from sister colonies. For example, Anthony
Johnson came to Maryland in the 1660s from the eastern shore of Virginia. He had been a land-
owner there with a slave of his own, but some of his property had been destroyed by fire and the soil
may have become exhausted.135 Johnson and his family travelled up to the Maryland portion of the
eastern shore with a Virginia neighbor who claimed to have transported them in order to acquire
headlights. But Anthony quickly claimed land for his own. He and his family are mentioned
sporadically in the records. His son, John, was a planter who on one occasion testified in a dispute
over land boundaries between two whites. John was also a witness to two deeds sworn by a white
man.136 A few other free negroes on the eastern shore of Maryland are mentioned in various
records.137

There are four instances of recorded manumissions around 1700, but the practice does not
seem to be common.138 Oral and unrecorded manumissions of mulatto children by their white fathers
may also have existed.

The legal status of the free black during this time is shrouded in mystery. No laws
distinguished his status until the anti-miscegenation law of 1692 and Johnson, at least, suffered no

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