Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Ralph Jackson (b. circa 1796 - d. after 1823)
MSA SC 5496-014966
War of 1812 Escaped Slave, St. Mary's County, Maryland

Biography:

Born around 1796, Ralph Jackson was enslaved on John K. Jackson's farm on Cedar Point in Saint Mary's County.1 In the spring of 1813, the farm included John K. Jackson's four slaves, as well as those of his wife. Mary Jackson owned twelve slaves that year, including Ralph.2

In August 1813, Ralph escaped to British forces on the Potomac River. He was later joined by John Jackson's slave Joseph,3 on board the frigate San Domingo under the command of Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren.4 Warren's forces could not sail past Cedar Point at the Patuxent River's mouth, "in consequence of the Shoals between Cedar & Maryland Points," although the British still carried out raids in the area.5

Ralph Jackson served with the Third Company of the Colonial Marines during the remainder of the War of 1812. He later settled in the company's village in Trinidad, on land that the British had promised the black recruits. British records listed Ralph as from "Jackson's Creek." He had left Trinidad by 1823.6
 


Footnotes

1.     Definitive List of Slaves and Property/, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828/ *ARC Identifier 1174162 / MLR Number PI 177 192,* National Archives at College Park.
        U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) John K. Jackson, 1810, St. Mary's County, Page 23b, last line [MSA SM61-56, M 2061-3].

2.     ST. MARY'S COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE TAX, (Assessment Record, Slaves), 1813 [MSA C1544-32]. John K. Jackson, April 6, 1813.
        ST. MARY'S COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE TAX, (Assessment Record, Slaves), 1813 [MSA C1544-32]. Mary Jackson, March 17, 1813.

3.     Claim of John K. Jackson, Saint Mary's County, Case No. 835, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.
3.     Definitive List of Slaves and Property/, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828/ *ARC Identifier 1174162 / MLR Number PI 177 192,* National Archives at College Park.
3.     John McNish Weiss, The Merikens: Free Black American Settlers in Trinidad 1815-1816 (London, UK: McNish & Weiss, 2002) 33.

4.     David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997) 225.
        Robert Malcomson, Historical Dictionary of the War of 1812 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006) 447.

5.     William S. Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History. Vol. 2 (Washington, D.C.: Naval History Center, 1992) 369.

6.     Weiss 33.
 

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