Minty Caden (b. circa 1787 - d. circa ?)
MSA SC 5496-002509
Escaped from Calvert County, Maryland, 1814
Biography:
Minty was an enslaved woman who went by the surnames Gurry and Caden, was born in Maryland around 1787. Minty first married Joe Gurry who was enslaved by Thomas Ireland. The couple would eventually have a fallout and part ways. Minty went on to form an intimacy with another woman by the name of Phillis Caden who was owned by David Avis. Minty and Phyllis joined the Methodist church and claimed their relationship a sisterhood. Minty Gurry adopted Phylis Caden's surname. 1
In July 1814, Minty escaped from Susannah Rawlings' farm in Calvert County, along with the slaves Peter Rawlings and Alexander Covington.2 Another Calvert County resident, George Ireland, testified to seeing Minty "in the British service a washing," perhaps meaning that she was working as a washerwoman for the troops.3
Minty eventually settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with thousands of other black refugees who had fled to the British during the War of 1812. The Halifax List, which recorded black immigrants arriving between 1815 and 1818, listed her name as "Menty Caden" and her age as twenty-eight.4
1. Claim of Susannah Rawlings, Calvert County, Case No. 569, Case Files. Ca. 1814-28, entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
2. Claim of Susannah and Juliet Rawlings, Calvert County, Case No. 569, Case Files. Ca. 1814-28, entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
3. Claim of Susannah Rawlings.
4. "Halifax List." African
Nova Scotians: in the Age of Slavery and Abolition. Nova Scotia Archives
and Records Management. http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/.
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