Bill (b. 1793 - d. August 8, 1820)
MSA SC 5496-3346
Co-conspirator, insurrectionary slave plot, Frederick County, Maryland,
1814
Biography:
In every significant military conflict undertaken from the colonial period through the U.S. Civil War, slaveholders and other whites in their midst have worried that the distraction of battles in the field might render the homeplace vulnerable to attacks from within. They worried, that is, that their slaves might rise up against them. Such a mood naturally, then, accompanied the arrival of battles of the War of 1812 to Maryland soil during Summer 1814. As fighting drew nearer, many feared those held in slavery among them. In Frederick County, Maryland, this atmosphere led to the discovery of a "plot" against the white citizens by the black. It came to the attention of authorities that certain free black men, and several enslaved men as well, waited for the moment at which Frederick's militia units might be called away to defend the state against an invading British force. At the moment, armed apparently only with knives (no mention was made of guns), black slaves and free blacks would supposedly ransack the city and the vulnerable white residents there. The conspirators allegedly appointed a free black man, Bill, or "Captain Bill," to lead them.
Unusually glib for a matter of such grave portent as slaves rising up violently against their masters, the Frederick Town Herald reported, "matters of this kind are usually magnified at a distance; and even here on the spot, where the truth might be ascertained, we have already heard some marvellous stories."1 To form a proper response to the alleged plot ("if it deserves the name," quipped the Herald), and safeguard against any such future threats, whites gathered in two town meetings in Frederick City (Tuesday, August 16, and Thursday, August 18, 1814). Committees formed out of those meetings concluded that any threat had passed and no additional law enforcement were needed. In an effort to bring swift justice to the accused, however, county authorities petitioned the Governor and Legislature for a special arrangements to try the matter. Accordingly, Governor Levin Winder appointed a commission to try the men.
"Captain Bill" was a native of Frederick County, born in 1793. The indentured servant of Tobias Haller, Bill worked as a blacksmith. Among the other defendants were slaves Simon, Parman, Hez, Harry, Osswell, and Daniel. Along with Bill, free blacks Jacob Green and Elias Jones, joined the slaves. Apparently, Green alerted authorities of the plot, and for this received a nolle prosequi. Thus, in the wake of the Battle of Bladensburg and the Sacking of Washington, D.C., the eight men sat in the Frederick Jail awaiting trial.
A few weeks later, on September 13, 1814, the very morning that Francis Scott Key witnessed the beginning of the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in the Baltimore Harbor (an experience that would inspire him to pen the poem, "The Star Spangled Banner," later adopted as the U.S. National Anthem), the plotters' trial began in Scott's home county. After but three days the court convicted all seven defendants. Likely not wishing to harm the financial intersts of their owners, five of the six enslaved defendants were simply whipped and sent home. The two free black men, Bill and Elias Jones, and the enslaved man, Simon, however, received sentences of 6 years each in the Maryland Penitentiary. Their prison terms began September 16, 1814. Four days later, the Baltimore Patriot & Evening Advertiser printed Key's poem for the first time.
Thus, laughable as the Herald might have characterized the entire
matter, men went to prison, including free men. And, if the plot
were a figment of over-active collective imaginations, as the papers' editors
would have had its readers believe, then in their haste, white Frederick
Countians committed a great injustice against their black neighbors.
Perhaps many sensed this, for within a matter of weeks, Judge Abraham Shrine
of Frederick County, Ortho Lawrence (the prosecutor on the case), and a
number of respectable citizens wrote petitions for the pardon of Elias
Jones, which Governor Winder granted on December 14, 1814. Co-conspirators
Bill and the enslaved man Simon were not pardoned. In fact, both
died in prison before the expiration of their sentences, Bill on August
8, 1820, mere weeks before his release.
1 Frederick Town Herald, August 20, 1814.
Return to Bill's Introductory Page
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