Davy Jones (b. circa 1830 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-000436
Fled from slavery, Baltimore County, Maryland, 1846
Biography:
Davy Jones fled Hampton Plantation, near present-day Towson, Maryland, during March 1846. Fifteen years old, with handsome, ebony features, Jones left with a friend and fellow Hampton slave, John Kyle, on a Saturday, likely hoping to get a few days head start before they were missed (indeed, an advertisement for their capture and return first appeared in the Baltimore Sun the following Monday). Neither Jones nor Kyle appears in extant jail dockets for the State of Maryland, and surviving Hampton records make no mention of either man after 1846.
The black population in the vicinity of Hampton mirrored that of Baltimore County generally: the number of enslaved blacks decreased (1660 to 497) of the period 1830 to 1860 in near proportion to the increase in number of free blacks. Among slaveholding families, the Bosleys and the Worthingtons predominated Hampton’s south-central county region. Like all keepers of slaves, the Ridgely masters were doubtlessly concerned with issues of safety and control. Threat of flight loomed large. The combination of transition (from one owner to the next) and at least limited knowledge of the world beyond Hampton (most of John's slaves had been purchased from elsewhere in the state) made for a relatively restless slave quarter at the plantation. Some saw the transition as an opportunity or motivation to flee. John Ridgely’s reaction to runaway slaves is difficult to gauge. Did he consider the occurrences to be simply annoyances, an unfortunate by-product of keeping people enslaved? Or was it viewed as serious, potentially disruptive phenomena among his enslaved population? We may never know with certainty. However, in addition to evidence that Ridgely pursued runaways, he also apparently punished at least one fugitive recaptured, selling the man away. Ridgely’s property, Charles Brown fled during the Christmas Holiday, 1834. Though at large no more than a few days, John sold Charles on January 3, 1835 to a Tennessee-based buyer for $350.00, who in turn apparently sold him to notorious slave dealer J.S. Skinner.
During the 1840s several of John Ridgely’s enslaved blacks fled Hampton.
Eighteen year old “Daniel” fled in 1840 , have been with Ridgely only three
years. Another slave, “Henry” was also “gone” by 1840. Between 1844 and
1845, three more – Dick Matthews, John Patterson, and John Hawkins – are
presumed to have fled according to different plantation record sources.
For the last, Hawkins, who fled in February 1845, John Ridgely and his
agents (including son, Charles) were still pursuing him by the 1850s. In
fact, under the authority of the 1850 Federal Fugitive Slave Act, the Ridgelys
sought John
Hawkins in Pennsylvania. Jim Frisby ran in 1844, but was recovered
the following year. Thus, when Davy Jones and John Kyle ran
together in 1846, they did so against the backdrop a long-standing tradition
of resistance through flight.
Return to Davy Jones' Introductory Page
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