James L. Bowers (b. 1810 - d. 1882)
MSA SC 5496-8991
Accomplice to slave flight, Kent County, Maryland, 1858
Biography:
James L. Bowers was born in Delaware, but lived in the Second District of Kent County, where he was a farmer. He was married to Rebecca R. Bowers, with whom he raised at least seven children. Bowers was known in the area for his anti-slavery position, and was believed by some to have assisted fugitive slave escapes. This attitude was likely derived from his membership in the Society of Friends, or Quakers, who had officially opposed the institution since the late 18th century. The 1850 Census shows that many of his neighbors were free black laborers and farmers.1 Newspaper accounts claim that he had been prosecuted in 1853 on the charge of aiding a slave of "Dr. Davidson of Queen Anne's County", though the records for that period are no longer available.2 The only witnesses against Bowers in that case were free and enslaved blacks, which led to the charges being dropped since blacks could not legally testify against a white man in Maryland. However, Eastern Shore whites rarely stopped at just one attempt at retribution when someone was suspected of abolitionist activities, especially during this time period.
Slave flight in the region was particularly heavy during the 1850's. Kent County slave holders claimed that "not less than sixty escaped in 1856, and a large number since."3 The planter class was unwilling to believe that their enslaved people could, or would, execute these escapes alone, so they often scapegoated the vulnerable Quaker and free African-American communities. This belief was not entirely unfounded, but slaves hardly had to be "enticed" to leave their lives of unpaid servitude. In 1858, another rash of escapes had occurred on the Shore, leaving many residents eager for someone to blame. This mirrored the situation in adjacent counties, such as Caroline, where Quaker Arthur W. Leverton and his black neighbor Daniel Hubbard had been chased out of the state early in the year.4
Late on the night of June 23, a man came to the house of Bowers asking for help as his carriage had broken down. Bowers agreed to help him, and then was ambushed by about thirty men, forced into a carriage and taken into the woods. There, he was tarred and feathered, then made to promise that he would leave the state in twenty-four hours.5 A pregnant Rebecca Bowers was repeatedly rebuffed, perhaps violently, when she attempted to secure her husband's safety. Many whites supported such actions as necessary to stem the continuous stream of fleeing slaves out of the vicinity. Slaveholder Judge Ezekial Forman Chambers asserted that:
"Of late years these escapes have been in gangs, as
many as eleven or more going off at once, and together with the best
horses
and carriages of their masters, and others, and under circumstances
which
show such concert of action and
such minute information as could only
be furnished by some one engaged in the business of planning and assisting
escapes. Before the tarring of Bowers a plan of escape was defeated
while in progress - Bowers was supposed to be connected
with this."6
The published accounts from the Planters' Advocate and Cecil Whig are quite clear concerning their opinions on the two incidents involving Bowers. The certainty of his guilt in the 1853 trial was continuously offered in a matter of fact way. Witnesses for the state were identified by name and referred to as "very intelligent" and "respectable", while the defense witnesses went unnamed and received no such compliments to their character. Bowers himself is alternately called a "perfidious scamp", "ultra abolitionist," and "evil doer."7 Allegedly, the would-be fugitives had implicated the local Quaker, perhaps coerced to do so by the authorities. Therefore, tarring and feathering was considered by some to be a deserving punishment for someone who dared to tamper with slave property.
The mob was not satisfied with punishing just Bowers. Immediately after that incident, they inflicted the same treatment upon a free black woman named Harriet Tillison, whom whites had suspected similarly for some time.8 This event also excited the growing rift between pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters in the community. Following Bowers' expulsion, supporters on either side of the issue clashed twice in Chestertown. Those individuals supporting Bowers drove some members of the mob who had assaulted Bowers out of town. Two of these men were Samuel Baker, the owner of one of the slaves Bowers was suspected of aiding, and Isaac Perkins.9 These episodes, in addition to pervasive slave flight, led to a county-wide meeting of slaveholders, which was officiated by Judge Chambers, James B. Ricaud, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and James A . Pearce, a U.S. Senator for Maryland.10 It was during this convention that the Judge expressed his virulently anti-abolitionist views, with Bowers being the main target of the rhetoric. At the same time, the violent actions of pro-slavery citizens were consistently defended. These "peaceable persons" were justified since "no legal remedy could be had for an evil severely condemned by the laws."11 With the blessing of the region's most powerful and influential figures behind them, such individuals were emboldened to continue to handle suspected abolitionists extra-judicially.
Bowers returned to Kent County in October, in order to file a lawsuit against several of his attackers. In fact, the abolitionist newspaper Liberator, gave the Maryland man his own editorial column to describe the events. Stopping at his sister's house a few days before the court proceedings were scheduled, Bowers was again accosted by a violent mob. He went on to list the names of over thirty members of the group, remarking that "some, if not all of these were armed with guns or pistols." Rather than face the possibility of a deadly assault, James Bowers agreed to be escorted to the Middletown, Delaware railroad depot by three of the men. From there he went on to Philadelphia, where the newspaper published his account.12 Interestingly, Bowers claims to "have never been a member of any abolition society," despite being an avowed Quaker, and that he was not guilty of assisting slaves to escape. This claim is in stark contrast to those at the slaveholders' meeting who labeled him an "evil", "ultra abolitionist," whose very presence required legislative modifications.13
Despite all of the persecution and violence directed towards him, James L. Bowers did ultimately return to live in Kent County, buying property near Worton in 1865.14 In the interim, his family was staying in Camden, New Jersey.15 He likely decided that Maryland was finally safe for an anti-slavery man since the institution had been abolished and the Civil War had ended. His was the rare case where an accused accomplice to slave flight did not wither in the face of tremendous pressure from the surrounding community. Bowers not only attempted to challenge his attackers in court, but also had the bravery to return to the same area that had previously expelled him. He and his family appear in Kent County in the Federal Census for 1870 and 1880.16 The elderly Quaker continued to reside in the area, making a living as a farmer, until his death in 1882.17
Footnotes -
1. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census. "James L. Bowers", Kent County, District 2, pp. 74 - 75.
2. "Meeting at Chestertown," The Cecil Whig, 24 July 1858.
3. Ibid.4. "American Slavery." Friends' Intelligencer, Vol. XV, No 2, pp. 24-25 (March 27, 1858).
5. Barbara Jeanne Fields. Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the 19th Century. (New York: Yale University Press, 1985), 63-67.
6. "Meeting";
"Slaveholders Protecting Themselves," The
Planters Advocate, 21 July 1858.
7. Ibid.
8. "Lynch Law in Maryland," The Cecil Whig, 03 July 1858.
9. Fields, pp. 64-65.
10. Ibid.
11. "Meeting".
12. "Mob Law in Maryland," The Liberator, 19 November, 1858.
13. "Meeting".
14. KENT COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records) Book JKH 5, 1865-1866, pp. 23 - 24.
Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census. Kent County, District 3, p. 58.
15. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census. Camden, New Jersey, South Ward, p. 88.
16. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census. Kent County, District 3, p. 58.
Ancestry.com. 1880 United States Federal Census. Kent County, Worton, p. 3.
17. Delaware Death Records, 1811 - 1933.
Researched and Written by David Armenti, 2012.
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