Nancy Campbell (Camel)
MSA SC 5496-24669
Slave, Washington County, Maryland
Biography:
Nancy Campbell was born a slave on a large farm belonging to Andrew Miller in Washington County, MD. Nancy Campbell is first introduced by a Certificate of Manumission issued by Isaac Nesbitt, Clerk of the Court for Washington County in June of 1859. Andrew Miller issued the freedom of Nancy Campbell on June 14, 1859 and she is described as being 42 years of age, 5 foot 1 1/2 inches tall, of dark complexion and "without any percipitable marks upon her person." In the 1860 census for Washington County, Nancy Campbell (spelled Mary) is found living and working on the farm of William Roulette, a neighbor of Andrew Miller, as a freed house servant. It was on this farm that Nancy Campbell and the Roulette family witnessed, firsthand, the most deadly single day battle in the history of the United States.
The Battle of Antietam Creek (or the Battle of Sharpsburg according to the Confederacy) would claim the lives of over 23,000 soldiers, including the injured, captive, or missing. The Roulette farm lies juxtaposed to Andrew Miller, Antietam Creek, and is separated from D. Piper's land by Hog Trough Road. Hog Trough Road became known locally as the Sunken Road due to its water build up and the constant travel lanes that forced the land down. These farms became the major field where most of the fighting took place. Campbell and the Roulette family chose not to abandon their home and took shelter behind barrels in their covered cellar, listening to the bombardments as they happened. The Confederate Army held onto the Sunken Road and the Roulette farm for most of the days fighting, until the Union army pushed them back. Sunken Road had a new nickname, Bloody Land for obvious reasons. By 1pm on the afternoon of September 17, 1862, over 5,000 soldiers would die in the battle, and the Roulette farm would be the final resting place for over 700 of them.
Nancy Campbell stayed with the Roulette Family until
her death in September of 1892. Although listed as a house servant
during those years, Nancy lived as a freed woman and chose to stay with
the family until her last days. In Campbell's last will and testament,
she left what little money she held to the children of Andrew Miller and
William Roulette. Nancy also gave money to 2 churches in Sharpsburg,
MD, and named William Roulette's youngest son, Benjamin Franklin Roulette,
executor of her estate. Nancy Campbell died with $867.04, and minus
her debts, and money allotted for the churches, Miller and Roulett children,
she gave everything she had to the families that loved and cared for her,
and treated her as kin, rather than a possession.
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