Isaac Gibson (b. 1810 -
d. )
MSA SC 5496-003371
Accomplice to Slave Flight, Caroline County, Maryland, 1851
Biography:
The 1830's and 1840's were a turbulent time for enslaved African-Americans and their owners in Maryland. As blacks ran away at increasingly higher rates, the planter class grew anxious and sought to assign blame for their chattel's restlessness. They rarely acknowledged the desire for freedom or their own mistreatment as motivations, instead pointing to external forces. Free blacks were often the target of such sentiments, and regardless of their former reputation in the community, could be held accountable with little to no evidence of their guilt. Isaac Gibson was one of many Eastern Shore blacks to become a victim of this paranoid climate, and the limited legal rights of his caste.
Gibson was born in Talbot County in 1810, and spent much of his early life as a slave to Joshua Clarke, whose property lied in the Kings' Creek section of the county. He was manumitted through Clarke's 1827 will, which stipulated that "my negro man Isaac shall be free after the term of one year from my decease."1 However, there is no record of his manumission or certificate of freedom in Talbot or Caroline County.2 Nevertheless, he had established himself in the latter jurisdiction by at least 1840. In 1850 he was living with his wife Ann, as well as five children: Ellen, Lydia, Margaret, Sarah, and Isaac.3 By the time of his alleged crime, he was working as a laborer on the property of Bayard Davis in Whitleysburg, Caroline County. It was at this location in early 1851 that Isaac Gibson was apprehended by county sheriff, Edward L. Young, charged with "aiding and abetting a certain negro man John Stokes the slave of David Knotts in running away."4 The crime was supposed to have occurred on September 1, 1849, more than a year and a half earlier.
Gibson maintained his innocence from the time of his arrest to the conclusion of the court proceedings. According to Davis' account of the event, neither he nor the sheriff took the charges seriously. The latter allegedly said of David Knotts, "you know Mr. Davis what a prejudiced old soul he is ... there is no such thing as to change him from his opinion be it ever so wrong."5 Despite these misgivings Gibson was convicted in March, 1851, and sentenced to the Maryland Penitentiary until May, 1854.6 His conviction was based largely on the testimony Charles and Frances Burgess, fellow free African-Americans of the immediate community. Later petitions would purport that the couple had "notoriously bad character" and an admitted hostility toward the defendant. This factor was even introduced through the testimony of several white witnesses in the trial, but to no avail. Gibson's defense team, composed of James L. Bartol and Joseph E. Rochester, motioned for a new trial but was denied.7
As of February 1852, white Caroline County citizens, including at least 4 jurors and the prosecutor from the original trial, began to lobby Governor E. Louis Lowe for Isaac Gibson's pardon.8 His supporters cited the extreme prejudice of the witnesses as well as the exemplary behavior of the defendant before and during the trial. James L. Bartol also suggested that the community's excited interest in the case was "little favourable to a dispassionate and impartial verdict."9 In other words, this was a time when Eastern Shore whites were all to willing to punish and scapegoat free blacks for their supposed encouragement of slave flight, despite an apparent lack of evidence. The original petition was received by the governor on March 29, 1852. The pardon was granted on August 31, and Isaac Gibson left the penitentiary on September 3, 1852, having served nearly half of his sentence.10 Isaac Gibson and his family continued to live in Caroline County until at least 1868, when he is noted in the land records as a trustee of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Denton.11 While he had no official will or estate papers, the Federal Census indicates that he accumulated no inheritable wealth and was only ever employed as a farmhand.12
The effort to free the prisoner
was spearheaded by
his former employer, Bayard
Davis, whose wife Matilda had written a lengthy petition on
his behalf.
It is worth noting that Davis was hardly a proponent of
African-Americans'
rights. He had previously had a legal dispute with another free black
employee,
George White, whom he threatened to kill over a minor infraction.13
Furthemore,
their letter made a point of stating that "we are no abolitionists, if
there was more that had good masters we should have better darkeys."14
In
many ways, the Davis's exemplified the attitude of whites in Caroline
County.
Despite his seemingly untarnished reputation in the community, Isaac
Gibson,
like most free blacks, was seen as a distinct threat to the continued
existence
of slavery and white dominance at large. The testimony of an admitted
enemy
and the hunch of an old, prejudiced slaveholder were enough to convict
Gibson. Davis likely had a personal affinity for his employee, but
would
have no issue condemning another free or enslaved African-American for
similar crimes. Isaac Gibson similarly represented the tenuous position
of free blacks in a slaveholding society. No amount of hard work or
good
character could immunize such individuals from the suspicion and sheer
hatred that many Eastern Shore whites arbritrarily displayed during
this
period.
Footnotes -
1. TALBOT COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS (Wills), 1821-1832, JP, 8, pp. 352-353.5. Ibid.
Researched and Written by David Armenti, 2011.
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