Rev. Levi D. Travers (b. November 21, 1828 – d. May
26, 1907)
MSA SC 5496-51327
Slave Owner, Dorchester County, Maryland
Biography:
Levi D. Traverse was a slave owner and wealthy farmer in Dorchester County, Maryland. He was born in Taylors Island, Maryland to Levi D. Travers (b. June 3, 1798 – d. February 4, 1844) and Prudence Spedden Travers (b. February 9, 1804 – d. July 14, 1844). Travers came from a distinguished Dorchester County family. His father, Levi D. Travers, had been a county Justice. Travers’ grandfather, Robert Brannock Spedden, served as a sailor during the Revolutionary War.1, 2
Levi married his cousin Eliza Jane Travers (February 14, 1829-September 21, 1902) on December 3, 1849 despite the objections of her father and his uncle, William D. Travers.3 According to Aaron Cornish, a former slave, William D. was so angered by the marriage that he refused to let Levi near his house. In addition, in spite of having no other blood heirs except for his wife and daughter, William D. swore that his nephew would not inherit any of his estate.4
Nevertheless, Levi was a wealthy man. At his father's death in 1844, he inherited more than 290 acres of land as well as a portion of the total estate.5 Although Levi's name does not appear on the federal census slave schedules, his real estate was valued at $7,000 on the 1850 federal census.6 However, by 1852, extant records document his slave ownership. The 1852 Dorchester County assessment details the extent of his land and chattel. In addition to his 527 acres of land, Levi was also assessed for eight slaves: Stephen (30 years old), Harry (40 years old), Sophia (10 years old), Moses (3 years old), Till (6 years old), Henry (5 years old), Ardilla (22 years old), and an unnamed child (2 months old). Whether by purchase or by natural increase, Levi continued adding to his slaveholdings. He was assessed for Cator (5 years old) in 1854, Joe (no age recorded) in 1856, and Anna (2 years old), Tom (5 years old), Leah (3 years old), and Sarah (2 years old) in 1858.7
Levi also acquired slaves and other property from his late father-in-law’s estate. He may have merely been the trustee of his wife's inheritance rather than the legal owner of the properites. Decades later, Eliza's will directed the disposition of properties with the same names as land that Levi was assessed for during the 1850s and 1860s.8 Nevertheless, his role as administrator and de facto inheritor was not without controversy. Aaron Cornish, a former slave of William D. Travers, firmly believed that his master had made a will which freed all of his slaves at his death. According to Cornish, William D. Travers was also adamant that Levi would not inherit his property. However, when William D. Travers died in May 1857, no will could be found, and Cornish suggested that Levi may have destroyed it. Cornish also hinted that William D. Travers' widow planned to contest the division of property.9 Although Levi may have illegitimately acquired control of his father-in-law's property, it was also common for slave holders to falsely promise their slaves that they would be manumitted at the testators' death. Such a promise helped insure slaves' loyalty and compliance.
Levi administered the division of his late uncle's estate. The inventory of William D. Travers' vast wealth totaled eight pages, including lists of human property, farm implements, livestock furniture, food stores, and household goods worth over $12,000.10 The widow, Eliza Travers, received her one-third dower while Levi received the rest of the estate as administrator. In 1858, Levi was assessed for ten slaves from Willaim D. Travers' estate. They were Aaron Cornish (28 years), Ceaser (35 years), Dick (49 years), Sarah (6 years), Rachel (10 years), Mary (13 years), Rose (27 years), Sam (12 years), Mary (12 years), Sarah (2 years). By 1861, Levi's slave ownership also included Charles and Easter.11, 12
Depite his voracious acquistion of human property, Levi manumitted one of his slaves, the forty-five year old Henry Cornish, on June 22, 1857.13 In 1856, Travers donated $5 to the Maryland State Colonization Society, whose mission was to help free blacks emigrate to Liberia.14 Many Maryland slaveholders supported the Colonization Society because they believed that colonization would remove free blacks as a threat to the institution of slavery within Maryland.15 However, Travers did not require emigration to Liberia as a condition of Henry's freedom.
Later that year, Aaron Cornish, decided upon a course of self-emanicpation. On October 24, 1857, a group of twenty-eight slaves fled in a mass escape from neighboring plantations in Dorchester County. Among the group was Aaron and seven members of his family who were owned by Jane Cator. The Cornish family was comprised of Aaron’s wife, Daffney Cornish, and six of their eight children, Edward James, George, Perry Lake, Solomon, Joseph, and a two week old infant. With Jane Cator's permission, Daffney and her children under the age of ten years old had lived with Aaron on the Travers' property. However, Aaron was obligated to support his family through over-work by hiring himself out. When they escaped, the Cornishes were forced to leave behind their two oldest boys. Since the teenagers had been hired out to another master, the Cornishes were unable to inform them of the escape.16, 17
In addition to Levi D. Travers and Jane Cator, Samuel Pattison and Willis Brannock also lost slaves in the mass escape. Pattison, who owned fifteen of the fugitives, learned that the group was headed to Wilmington, Delaware and followed close behind. However, the runaways had been warned that their captors were in pursuit and therefore stayed clear of Wilmington. Although Pattison, Brannock, and Reuben E. Phillips placed a joint adverstisement offering a reward for the escapees, Travers placed his own advertisement with a $300 reward for Aaron.18, 19
Although the runaways split up to avoid detection, they faced many other obstacles. Poorly provisioned and clothed, the freedom seekers battled unseasonably severe rainstorms. On October 31, part of the group was attacked by several Irishmen with clubs. One of the fugitives insured their escape by shooting one of the Irishmen in the head. A fourteen year old boy, likely one of the Cornish children, was separated from the rest and it is unclear if he rejoined his family.20 According to William Still, an Underground Railroad conductor in Philadelphia, the party arrived safely to the Philadelphia area. It was at this time that Aaron Cornish told Still about life in servitude, the characters of his former masters, and the mysterious way that Levi D. Travers had inherited his uncle's estate.Cornish described Levi Travers as a "bad young man; rattle-brained; with the appearance of not having good sense,--not enough to manage the great amount of property (he had been left wealthy) in his possession." Beyond the promise of freedom, Cornish held no more affection for William D. Travers, who had sold Aaron's brother and others down South. Though William Travers was held in high esteem in his community, his slaves knew him "as a man of violent temper, severe on his slaves, drinking hard, etc."21
The flight of the twenty-eight fugitives is significant both for the large number of slaves who ran away and for the fact that family groups with small children escaped together. They likely received information from Harriet Tubman, a native of the area, to aid their escape. Following this and a rash of other slave escapes, Dorchester County whites feared that northern abolitionists and free blacks were conspiring to destroy the institution of slavery in their region. As a result, community leaders passed resolutions resticting the personal liberties of free and enslaved blacks. Nevertheless, slaves in Dorchester County continued to run away to freedom.22
Soon after losing several of his chattel, Travers became embroiled in the growing debate about slaveholding among his ecclesiatic brethren in the Methodist Epicopal Church. Fellow reverend, and former Maryland resident John Dixon Long took to publicizing such ownership in northern newspapers, as a means to shame certain church representatives. In March of 1858, Travers wrote a letter to the Philadelphia Evening Journal that was "intended as a defence of myself and the slaveholders of the M.E. Church" against the charges of "this modern abolitionist." When the editor imposed a fee of $45 to publish it, Levi instead forwarded the letter to the Cambridge Eagle, which readily endorsed his efforts. This was also reprinted in Border Methodism and Border Slavery, an 1859 book by another abolitionist M.E. pastor named James M. McCarter, who outlined much of the debate.
Rev. Travers vehemently defends slaveholders of the Philadelphia Conference from the "bitter spirit of fanaticism," exhibited by Rev. Long. He goes on to cite the Bible's lack of condemnation of slavery, while ironically admitting that "The M.E. Church has ever regarded slavery to be an evil." Specifically, Travers defended himself for offering a reward for the aforementioned freedom seeker, Aaron Cornish. He admitted to owning roughly twenty slaves, but claimed that there servitude was a blessing that led them "to become enlightened." According to Rev. Travers these individuals would then transfer their religous teaching back to Africa, making it "a great Christian nation." This explains why he had recently donated money to the Maryland Colonization Society, which consistently echoed similar sentiments. Still, Travers made his opinion of African-Americans very clear by saying "they are an inferior and degenerate race of human beings, and are not entitled, in our own land, to the freedom which we enjoy." He further chastised Long and other northern abolitionists for meddling in southern affairs, while praising the good work of his fellow colonizationists.23
Despite the alleged slander of his name and church, Levi D. Travers remained prosperous into the next decade. In 1860, his personal wealth was valued at $40,000 and his real estate holdings at $15,000. Adding to his riches were twenty-one slaves who lived in four slave houses.24 Travers maintained his vast slaveholdings until the abolition of slavery in Maryland on November 1, 1864. Like other former Maryland slave owners, Travers hoped to be compensated for the value of these emancipated slaves as a reward for their loyalty to the Union during the Civil War. Therefore, the Maryland General Assembly ordered that counties record a list of slave owners and their slaves at the time of abolitoin. On June 7, 1867, Travers claimed the ownership of twenty-three people: Joseph Kire (age 35 years), Stephen King (age 42 years), Charles Warfield (age 60 years), Richard Cornish (age 64 years), Levin Cornish (age 52 years), Ceaser Cornish (age 48 years), William Johns (age 22 years), Samuel Cornish (age 11 years), Joseph Plater (age 6 years), Samuel Keene (age 3 years), Thomas Hooper (age 18 years), James Rawleigh (age 14 years), Joseph Kire (Jim years) (age 10 years), John Keene (age 6 months), Ester Warfield (age 55 years), Ardilla Kire (age 31 years), Matilda Rawleigh (age 17 years), Annie Kire (age 8 years), Mary Keene (age 26 years), Rose Ann Cornish (age 40 years), Leah Hooper (age 10 years), Sarah Hooper (age 9 years), and George Rawleigh (age 1 year).25
After slavery ended, Travers remained a wealthy and influential member of the Dorchester community. In 1870, his worth included real estate valued at $36,500 and personal wealth of $20,000.26 Travers was a member of the Orphans’ Court of Dorchester County, serving from 1867-1871, with former slave holder Samuel Pattison, and again from 1871 to 1875. Travers later headed the Dorchester County Public School Commission as its president from 1878-1882.27 Levi and Eliza had three children, Levi D. (b. circa 1853), Mary (b. 1859), and Augusta W (b. circa 1866).28
2. Jones, Elias. History of Dorchester County, Maryland. (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Company Press, 1902), 429-433.
3. BALTIMORE COUNTY COURT (Marriage Licenses) 1777-1851 CM174, Reel WK 1397-1398-3.
5. DORCHESTER COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Wills), 1688-1976, CM460, Levi D. Travers, 1844, THH 1, folio 184-185.
6. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Levy Travers, 1850, District 3, p. 357 , Lines 17.
7. DORCHESTER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (Assessment Record) 1852, Election District 4, p. 131-131a. 01/04/05/016
9. DORCHESTER COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Wills), 1688-1976, CM460, Eliza J. Travers, 1902, JWF 2, folios 355-360.
11. DORCHESTER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (Assessment Record) 1852, Election District 4, p. 117-117a. 01/04/05/016
12. DORCHESTER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (Assessment Record) 1852, Election District 4, p. 121-121a. 01/04/05/016
13. DORCHESTER COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Chattel Records) 1851-1957 CM427.
15. Guy, Anita Aidt. Maryland's Persistent Pursuit to End Slavery, 1850-1864. (New York: Garland Publishing, 1997), p. 251.
16. Still, p. 100.
17. Larson, Kate Clifford. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. (New York: Ballantine Book, 2005), p. 145.
18. $3,100 Reward, Baltimore Sun, October 28, 1857.
19. Levi D. Travers' runaway ad for Aaron and Daffney Cornish. from Still, William. Underground Rail Road: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, etc. Philadelphia, PA: Porter & Coales, Publishers, 1872.
20. Larson, p. 146-148.
22. Larson, Kate Clifford. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. (New York: Ballantine Book, 2005), p. 148-149.
24. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Levi Travers, 1860. Dorchester County, District 4, Page, 158, Lines 29.
25. DORCHESTER COUNTY COMMISSIONER OF SLAVE STATISTICS (Slave Statistics) for Levi D. Travers, 1867-1868 C738, p. 24-25.
26. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Levi Travers, 1870. Dorchester County, District 4, Page, 16, Lines 29.
27. Jones, 441, 444.
28. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Levi Travers, 1870. Dorchester County, District 4, Page, 16, Lines 29-33.
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