Henry Norton (b. ? - d.?)
MSA SC 5496-5935
Accomplice to slave flight, Prince George's County, Maryland, 1864
Biography:
Henry Norton was a slave of Thomas Brown of Prince George's County. He first had a requisition on him issued to the District of Columbia by Governor A.W. Bradford on January 5, 1864 along with five other people (three free blacks, William Brown, Leethe Brown, and John Kemp, and to other enslaved blacks, a second man named William Brown, and William Lee) who stood charged with enticing and assisting slaves to run away in or around Prince George's County. The Governor appointed Judson F. Richardson (Sheriff of Prince George's County) Agent to receive the 6 requisitioned persons. Norton was one of two slaves owned by Thomas Brown in the year 1860. On May 6, 1864, Norton was again requisitioned by Governor A.W. Bradford, this time to Virginia, for enticing slaves to run away (John Kemp was also requisitioned for enticing slaves to run away for the second time on the same date). The Governor wrote the Judge of the Supreme Court for the District of Columbia and said that it had been represented to him that Norton fled from Maryland to Virginia, and requested that Norton be apprehended and delivered to Sheriff Richardson of Prince George's County. The second charge of Henry Norton and John Kemp enticing slaves to run away may be evidence of a systematic network of assisting slaves in their flight. No record of Henry Norton was recorded in the Maryland Penitentiary Records, so more than likely he was never found.
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