Ben Snowden (b. 1809 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-24660
Fled from slavery, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 1828
Biography:
On 5 June 1828, a runaway advertisement was placed in the Maryland
Gazette for two runaways named Jim Wootten and Ben Snowden. The subscriber
of the advertisment was Sommerville Pinkney, administrator for the late
Johnathan Pinkney. Sommerville Pinkney believed Wootten and Snowden fled
from the Pinkney farm near Annapolis in the company of a mulatto man named
Henry Wallace, property of Julianna Brice. Snowden was listed as "about 19
years old, five feet 8 inches high, very black, and walks a little lame,"
a reward was listed for twenty-five dollars per slave if taken within Maryland
and fifty dollars per slave if taken outside of Maryland. Though it is unclear
if the slaves were ever captured, the same advertisement ran again on the
first day of January in 1829, implicating that the three men were still at
large. Additionally, a search in the 1850 US Census for the Third District
of Anne Arundel County returned a listing for a free black man named Benjamin
Snowden at the age of 45.
After comparing the ages given for Snowden in both documents: the runaway
advertisment estimated date of birth = 1809 and the census record estimated
date of birth = 1805. Nearly all slaves of the Antebellum Era have no record
of their birth, so there is an argument for the four year difference between
the Ben Snowden's in these documents. But one should also note that the
owner Pinkney is listed in the Annapolis District of Anne Arundel County
in the 1830 Census. It seems unlikely the fugitive Ben Snowden of 1828 would
settle in the nearby Thrid District in 1850 listed as freeman Benjamin Snowden,
especially before emancipation. Only futhrer research would reveal if the
two Snowden's are actually the same person or whether the records are simply
a historical coincidence.
Return to Ben Snowden's Introductory Page
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