John Hawkins (b. 1824 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-5933
Fled from slavery, Baltimore County, Maryland, 1852
Biography:
John Hawkins, a slave of John Ridgely of Hampton, ran away from
Hampton plantation in February of 1845. Hawkins, who stood about
5'9" inches,1 was twenty-one years old when he ran away.
Believed to have fled the state, Hawkins was said to have had a "thin and
sharp face" and he had scars on his neck from a dog bite. Nelson
Cooper, the manager of Hampton Plantation, (as well as a neighbor and acquaintance
of the Ridgely family), testified in the United States District Court that
he had actually seen Hawkins the day before that very night that he ran
away. In the 1850 census, Deborah Hawkins, a sixty-five year old
free Black woman, and possibly the mother of John Hawkins, was listed in
Nelson Cooper's household. On September 6, 1852, a Fugitive slave
petition was filed in the United States District Court for the region of
Maryland by Charles Ridgeley, the agent and attorney of John Ridgely and
his wife, Eliza, of Hampton. The petition claimed that John Hawkins
was a slave of John Ridgely and that he ran away, fleeing out of the state
of Maryland. The petition said that Hawkins was to be a slave for
life, and therefore owed John Ridgely work. This petition was brought
up under the Act of Congress entitled "An Act to ammend and supplementary
to the act entitled an Act respecting fugitives from justice and persons
escaping from the service of their master" approved February 12, 1793.
1. U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Petition of Charles Ridgely in the Fugitive Slave Petition Book, 02/1845 - 09/18/1850, Archival Research Catalog
Identifier: 278891, Level of Description: Item from Record Group 21: RECORDS OF DISTRICT COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1685 - 1991,
Location: NARA's Mid Atlantic Region (Philadelphia), Philadelphia, PA.
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