Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)
John Fields
MSA SC 3520-18372
Lynched in Queenstown, Queen Anne's County, on April 24, 1863
Biography:
John Fields was an enslaved African American man who was lynched in Queenstown around April 24, 1863 for the crime of "criminal intimacy with a white girl."1 He was enslaved to James Stevens in Kent Island and would have been 28 years old at the time of his death.2 According to the newspapers, Fields formed an intimate relationship with the seventeen year-old daughter of a white farmer near Queenstown.3 This woman was likely Josephine Sherwood, a resident of Queenstown who was seventeen years old around 1863.4 She was the daughter of Benjamin Sherwood, a farmer, and she had a brother and sister according to the census.5 Furthermore, the most compelling piece of evidence is her indictment in the Queen Anne's County Criminal Court in May 1863 for "for giving birth to a negro or mulatto child sometime April 1863."6 However, it cannot be guaranteed that Josephine Sherwood was the woman who had a relationship with John Fields.
The farmer's daughter became pregnant and was questioned by her father, leading to her having "confessed her guilt" and, according to the Baltimore Sun, "laid the charge to the negro."7 James Stevens was contacted by the father and investigated Fields's guilt.8 Newspapers claimed that Fields gave an admission of guilt to Stevens when being investigated. This condemned John Fields, who was quickly hanged at the farm of Robert J. Wilson near Queenstown.9
The crime of "criminal intimacy" is unique among Maryland lynchings as the words outrage or rape were never discussed. Criminal intimacy and seduction were the terms stated within the newspaper.10 This may mean that the crime was a consenting relationship between Fields and the young women. The whereabouts and life of Josephine Sherwood and her child are not known after the 1860s as she is no longer present on the census underneath the same name.
Biography written by 2022 summer intern Matthew Novick.
Footnotes -
1. "Previous Lynching," Cecil Whig, May 16, 1891.
3. "A White Girl Seduced By A Slave," Baltimore Sun, April 27, 1863.
4. Ancestry.com, 1860, United States Federal Census, Queen Anne's County, District 5, p. 11, and 12.
5. Ibid
6. Maryland State Archives, Queen Anne's County Circuit Court (Criminal Docket), November Term 1863, C1385-26, entry #25.
7. "A White Girl Seduced By A Slave," Baltimore Sun, April 27, 1863.
8. "A White Girl Seduced By A Slave," Baltimore Sun, April 27, 1863.
9. "Previous Lynching," Cecil Whig, May 16, 1891.
10. "A White Girl Seduced By A Slave," Baltimore Sun, April 27, 1863.
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