Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

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Joseph Boley (b. ? - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-3395
Accomplice to slave flight, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 1863

Biography:

Joseph Boley was a free Black man sentenced in Anne Arundel county on November 10, 1863 to two six year terms in the Maryland Penitentiary for enticing and persuading his wife, Elizabeth Boley, as well as Mary Ann Boley, Nancy Ann Boley, Susannah Boley and Marlena Boley, all slaves of Joseph Benson, to run away.  In 1860, Joseph Boley was listed in the census as a free man living with Joseph Benson, the owner of the Boley family slaves, the very slaves whom Joseph Boley later tried to help escape.  On November 10, 1863, in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, Boley was presented, arraigned and sentenced to twelve years in the Maryland Penitentiary.  Joseph Boley lived in Anne Arundel County near a man named Joshua Hawkins, who wrote a petition for the pardon of Boley.  In the Anne Arundel County Slave Statistics of 1864, all of the Boley slaves listed under Joseph Benson are listed as slaves “for life."  Joseph Boley was pardoned on July 29, 1865 by A.W. Bradford.

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