Benjamin Fuller
MSA SC 5496-51034
Biography:
Benjamin Fuller was an enslaved man who lived and worked at Mulberry Fields, a plantation owned by William Clarke Somerville of St. Mary's County, MD. Ben was married to Maria Fuller who was owned by Robert L. Young, a minor who also lived in St. Mary's County. Ben and Maria Fuller were the parents of two young sons, Stephen and Thomas. In 1814, Ben Fuller and five other slaves from Mulberry Fields escaped to the British Ships. In addition to the slaves that fled from Mulberry Fields, Ben's wife Maria and their two children also went aboard the British Ships. Ben Fuller and his family were carried to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the British vessels dropped many of the former Chesapeake slave population.
Following the end of the war Ben's owner, William C.
Somerville, filed a claim for compensation for the loss of his enslaved
people. Somerville was compensated $280 for each of his slaves that
escaped, while Ben Fuller was able to live as a free man. Freedom in
Nova Scotia was not always promising to Ben and his family. The
Fuller's had to adjust to a new and cold climate. They were also
subject to rely on rations that were handed out for sustenance.
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