Josephine Webb (b. 1841 - d. 1867)
MSA SC 5496-002965
Poisoned her owner, Caroline County, Maryland, 1855
Biography:
Not all enslaved African-Americans chose flight as their method of resistance. Particularly females, and others working in the home, found creative ways to inconvenience and even harm abusive owners. On July 7, 1855, Josephine Webb resorted to extraordinary measures in dealing with mistreatment from her mistress, Elizabeth "Betsy" Baynard. The girl attempted to poison her owner with arsenic, but instead ended up killing Baynard's cousin, Mary Reid.1 Webb was only 14 at the time of the incident.
It is unclear how how the young slave came into the possession of the family. None of Betsy's 8 slaves listed in the 1850 records fit the description of Josephine, who would have been 9 or 10 at the time.2 Nor did wills, guardian accounts, indentures or accounts of sale record the nature of her acquisition. The girl was likely passed through the vast network of Eastern Shore Baynards, many of whom owned slaves in the area for generations. Josephine Webb was laboring as a house servant in July, 1855, when she was "corrected" for an unknown infraction.3 Perhaps this reprimand was particularly severe or was the culmination of prior events, because the girl allegedly declared that she would "make a change there before long."4 A few days later on Saturday the 7th, Webb volunteered to cook dinner. She discreetly added arsenic to coffee that she served to the two women. It was reported that Webb had extracted the substance from a clock, possibly a strategy that was familiar within the larger slave community. Reid and Baynard both became sick soon after. The former died the next morning despite the best efforts by Dr. Henry Roussett who had been summoned by the family. According to the Baltimore Sun, Webb was even forced by her mistress to drink the coffee in order to show her innocence, or simply to punish her for the crime.5
The trial began on October 4, 1855 at the Caroline County court in Denton. Webb pled not guilty to the murder charges.6 At the time of the arrest, the girl had claimed that another servant had compelled her to commit the act.7 However, there is scant record of the nature of her defense, though no witnesses were called on her behalf. Dr. Roussett would testify to the positive presence of arsenic in the coffee, although there was no post-mortem autopsy.8 On the basis of his and Elizabeth Baynard's testimonies, Josephine Webb was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 18 years at the Maryland Penitentiary.9 When committed to that institution, she was still just 14 years old. The Prisoner Record also notes that she had "left eye injured and scars on mouth and neck" at her arrival, possibly resulting from the incident and subsequent apprehension.10 There is little more to report about Webb's short life. We only know that the young girl would not complete her sentence, as she likely succombed to the unsanitary and unsafe conditions of the penitentiary. The record indicates that Josephine Webb died on January 10, 1867 with no definitive cause of death mentioned.11
Footnotes -
1. "A Case of Poisoning," Baltimore Sun, 13 July, 1855.
2. Ancestry.com, 1850 United States Federal Census, Slave Schedule, Caroline County, Maryland, p. 5.
3. "Distressing Homicide," Baltimore Sun, 18 July, 1855.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
7. "Distressing."
8. Ibid.
10. MARYLAND PENITENTIARY (Prisoner Record), 1811-1869, October 1855 (#4943).
11. Ibid.
Researched and Written by David Armenti, 2011.
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