Lydia Johns (b. 1836 - d. )
MSA SC 5496-8604
Fled from slavery, Kent County, 1858
Biography:
Lydia Ann Johns was only 22 years old when she escaped from slavery in Maryland. She had been owned by Michael Newbold, a "backsliding member of the Society of Friends," whose farm lied near Millington in Kent County.1 Newbold had enslaved 6 African Americans in 1850, two of whom were young females aged 11 and 14.2 A Quaker slaveholder was highly unusual during this period, as most members had condemned the practice or been expelled for having human property. Lydia's fellow fugitive Asbury Irwin claimed that Michael Newbold had moved to Maryland from New Jersey in the 1830's, and soon after he "bought slaves ... got to drinking and racing horses, and was very bad - treated all hands bad."3
Newbold had originally come from Mount Holly, New Jersey, a state that had effectively extinguished the institution by that time. Ironically, that area had become a common destination for enslaved blacks from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Lydia, Asbury, and Ephraim Ennis made it at least as far as Philadelphia, where they relayed their story to black abolitionist William Still. While she provided very little about her time in captivity, Johns did reveal that she had left behind a husband. She does not specify whether the man was free or enslaved. Still seems to be quite disturbed by Newbold's religious background, the Quakers having been commonly marked by their "large sympathy for the slave and the fleeing bondman."4 In fact, Maryland Friends such as Arthur W. Leverton had been persecuted for their anti-slavery beliefs during the 1850's.5 Unfortunately, the narrative does not reveal where the group was forwarded from Philadelphia.
No record of Lydia's experience has
been found, after the brief visit with Still. Johns most likely changed
some or all of her name in order to avoid recapture. She may have ended
up in one of the growing fugitive communities in Ontario, New York, or
New England, where many Eastern Shore fugitives were able to
reunite.
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