Harriet Turner (b. circa 1828 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-15190
Fled from Slavery, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, 1849
Biography:
Harriet Turner was a slave of Colonel John Tilghman. She was one of more than sixty slaves dispersed between the Poplar Grove plantation, in Queen Anne's County, and Tilghman's Talbot County farm. She may have been the same as the twenty-year-old slave Harriet who appeared in an 1848 property list in Tilghman's personal papers.1 In 1849, Harriet Turner escaped from Colonel Tilghman with the help of London Gould, a free black.2 Unfortunately, the escape failed and her accomplice was sentenced to nearly six years for his role. On November 11, the day after Gould entered the Maryland Penitentiary, Turner was pardoned to be sold out of state. In fact, the record states that John Tilghman recommended and intended to execute this punishment himself, whereas the sheriff would typically handle such matters.3 However, there is no definitive record of the actual transaction in county court or land records.
Though Colonel Tilghman had previously dealt directly with the southern market for slaves through his agent Spencer Grayson, this relationship had dissolved more than ten years prior to Harriet's escape attempt.4 It is quite possible that Tilghman sold Turner to prominent Baltimore slave dealer, Joseph S. Donovan. The Kirkwood ship manifest from November 29, 1849 includes an 18 year old "Hariett Turner." Donovan conducted a lucrative trade between Baltimore and New Orleans during the 1840's. Many thousands of African-Americans were forcibly subjected to this journey during the antebellum period. Turner's possible captor was known to have agents on the Eastern Shore, including John Bradshaw who operated a hotel in Cambridge.5 Again, neither local records nor Tilghman's personal papers reveal the details of Harriet's fate after the trial.
Footnotes -
1. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY
COURT (Criminal Docket) [MSA C1384-114]. State vs. London Gould. November
1849.
1.
James Wood Poplar Grove Collection, MSA SC 5807, Series 13, p. 387.
2. MARYLAND PENITENTIARY
(Prisoner Record) Dates: 1811, 1826-1850, SE65 [MSA SE65-4]. London Gould,
prisoner number 4284.
1.
"Sentenced."
Baltimore Sun 16 November 1849: 1.
3. SECRETARY OF STATE (Pardon Record) [MSA S1108-2 ], Harriet Turner, November 3, 1849, Page 66.
4. James Wood Poplar Grove Collection, Series 13, pp. 170-190.
5. Ralph Clayton, Cash For Blood: The Baltimore to New Orleans Domestic Slave Trade. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc. 2002, pp. 103-109, 415.
Researched and written by David Armenti, 2011.
Return
to Harriet Turner's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|