Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Isaac Mason (b. 1822 - d. )
MSA SC 5496-24683
Fled from Slavery, Kent County, 1840's 

Biography:

Isaac Mason was born on May 14, 1822,  in Kent County, Maryland, in a town called George Town Cross Oats [Roads], which is now the town of Galena, just south of the Sassafras River. As in most cases of slavery, the birth of a child was bitter sweet because "It was also the time that my mistress bacame the owner of one more slave and so much richer by my birth." Isaac Mason's mother, Sophia Thompson, was a house servant for and the property of Hannah Woodland. Isaac's father, Ezekiel Thompson, was a free man of color and an overseer on one of the Woodland farms in Kent County.1

Hannah Perkins Woodland was married to Isaac Woodland (Samuel Wallis of Kent County), both of families who were natives of Scotland. (Mason, p.10). Isaac Woodland, according to Isaac Mason, was a sea captain lost at sea before Mason ever met him. Isaac Woodland owned two farms, which Hannah Woodland took control of after his death.2 Hannah and Isaac Woodland had four daughters and one son. The son, Samuel, became rich, owned two farms, and over one hundred slaves. Isaac Mason refers to him as a "lifetime tyrant."3  In 1817, daughter Margaret B. Woodland married Hugh Wallis, a wealthy land owner and slaveholder, of a prominent Kent County family in 1817.4 

As a child, Isaac Mason was actually called Will by his master and several times in his autobiography, The Life of Isaac Mason as a Slave, he refers to his alias name Will. At the age of five or six, he worked in the household of Hannah Woodland, serving as her personal servant. He remained at her side until he was 15-years-old, when Hannah Woodland died from paralysis.5 Hannah Woodland's inventory and last will and testament confirm that "Mr. H. Wallace", son-in-law Hugh Wallis of Morgan's Creek Neck, stepped in to manage the affairs at her death. Isaac is listed as "Bill", 13-years-old at the time of the recording, when he was valued at $200. 37-year-old Sophia is listed as "infirm" on the inventory, echoing Mason's contention she was "in very ill health" at the time that his father Zekial purchased her and Isaac's sister for $600. He stated that his mother had four sons and one daughter, who were probably those listed along with him from ages 3 to 11 at the time. Ezekial Thompson is listed as purchasing Sophia for $75, along with what appear to be two other free blacks purchasing their spouses.6 In a list of additional sales from 1839 (two years after Hannah Woodland's death), Ezekiel Thomson bought a 3-year-old negro girl named Ellen, who is likely Isaac's younger sister. Also, on this list, Bill (Isaac Mason) was sold to James Mansfield, Jr. for $250.7

The Woodland farm was sold to Isaac Taylor. Richard Graham Grimes, Isaac Mason's grandfather, beyond the age of labor, was freed and given an old bay horse and an old cart, though no home or shelter to begin his life as a free man.8 Isaac Mason was rented out, like many of the other Woodland slaves, for his service to Dr. Hyde to pay off a $25 debt. After a confrontation with Mrs. Hyde on his last day of servitude, ending with Isaac Mason beaten and Mrs. Hyde thrown to the ground, Isaac Mason ran to his mother's house and then to his grandfather's house, where he was instructed to go to Hugh Wallis's farm in Morgan's Creek Neck since his service to Dr. Hyde was done.9 He went with his grandfather to Millington to sell some of his corn, then headed to Chestertown, where he met his new master, Hugh Wallis. Isaac Mason assured Hugh Wallis that he would be a good slave and he was assigned to work as a house servant for the Wallis family in Chestertown. Hugh's wife (most likely Hannah Brooks Wright, niece of Hannah Perkins Woodland) was extremely cruel to Isaac Mason and demanded for him to be beaten mercilessly for no apparent reason. Hugh Wallis acquiecsed though eventually refused to continue beating the servant solely for his wife's own gratification.10 This mercy seems rather uncharacteristic given the rest of Hugh Wallis's history.

Isaac Mason, soon after, was sent to work as a farm hand on a sixty acre farm belonging to Mr. Mansfield, a cabinetmaker, just one mile from Chestertown. The land was of poor quality and not very fertile, but after Isaac and an older hand worked there for five years, the yield increased dramatically from five bushels of corn per acre to thirty bushels per acre. In addition to this duties as a farm hand, Isaac assisted Mr. Mansfield with his undertaking duties.11 Isaac drove the hearse carrying the dead to the grave. Mr. Mansfield had great confidence in Isaac and never beat or punished him. Mr. Mansfield even took Isaac with him to Baltimore to sell some corn on the sloop George Washington. Isaac was free to explore the city, though he was later severely beaten for attempting to pass two white men on the sidewalk.12

Back in Kent County, Isaac Mason's luck continued to worsen as he had another unfortunate encounter with the Wallis family. At the Mansfield home, Mrs. Mansfield gave birth to a new child and one of the Hugh Wallis's daughters came to help with the housekeeping duties. Upon seeing Isaac Mason feed his meal of rotten meat to the dog, to avoid to the inedible food himself, Miss Wallis had Isaac punished claiming that it was insulting for a slave to waste food that was given to him. Mr. Mansfield returned home and confronted Isaac about the rotten meat incident and began beating him with a stick. Isaac refused to go to the cellar as he was told and he fought back against Mr. Mansfield. As Mr. Mansfield called for his gun, Isaac dodged bullets that grazed his scalp, ear, and hat and ran away from what he once thought was a peaceful home. Isaac Mason was able to find shelter in a mulberry thicket, and remained there through the night.  The next morning, a Sunday, Mason commented that he was conflicted about his master. Mr. Mansfield served as a local preacher for the colored church, of which Mason was a member. Mason could not go to church while on his escape because Mansfield would most definitely be there. Mason had a "sacred relationship with the man who has just attempted to take my life."13 While the name of the church was not mentioned, it is possible that this local colored church was Jane's Church on the outskirts of town, as Mansfield lived just one mile outside of town. At the request of Mr. Mansfield, Isaac returned to the farm assuming that all had been forgiven and he was given another job the following day. He was sent with a note and an errand to "Mr. W." Unaware of the what message the note contained, Isaac dutifully traveled to Hugh Wallis's farm, crossing a small creek (likely Morgan Creek), and then inquired at the mansion for the master. Upon reading the note, Hugh Wallis told Isaac to shake up some of the nearby straw. When Isaac asked for the turkeys that he was told to gather for Mr. Mansfield, he was beaten severely with a pitchfork. Apparently, the note contained word of Isaac's imprudence to Mr. Wallis's daughter due to the rotten meat.14

After several encounters and miraculous escapes from beatings from his "mortal enemy" Hugh Wallis, Isaac Mason was about to face the worst circumstances yet. Hugh Wallis told Mr. Mansfield that Isaac was to be sold to him in exchange for a slave named Joshua and $300.15 Mansfield's son informed Isaac of the plan to sell him to Uncle Hugh Wallis, who had a nephew/son in New Orleans who was deeply engaged in the slave trade. His supply of slaves came once a year from Kent County, Maryland.16 Upon hearing this news, Isaac planned his escape from slavery. He arranged an escape for himself and two others (the slave he was to be exchanged for, named George, and another of Mansfield's slaves named Joshua) with the assistance of Joe Brown, a colored man who lived in George Town Cross Oats [Roads]. Based on a previous agreement between Isaac and Joe Brown, the three fugitives arrived at Joe Brown's house, only to find Joe "dead drunk" on the floor. At a loss of what to do, they fled to Isaac's mother's house a half mile away and waited for Joe to regain consciousness. The next day Joe led them towards Delaware, skillfully avoiding any cruel whites waiting to capture any runaway slaves and sell them for some extra cash. They hid away beneath a tree to avoid a passing fox hunt, feeling very much like foxes themselves at the moment.17

On January 4, 1847, James Mansfield published an ad in the Kent News for two runaways: Bill Thompson and Josh Woodland. This ad was for Isaac Mason (referred to as Bill, by his masters, and with his parent's last name Thompson) and Mansfield's other slave Joshua who Mansfield had inherited from his father's estate two years earlier. The runaway ad offered a $200 reward to "any person or persons who will arrest them and put them in prison, so that I can get them again." Isaac Mason was described as "5 feet 9 or 10 inches high, dark complected, swaggers very much when he walks, had on when he left a casinet coat and pantaloons and a glazel cap." Joshua was "about 5 feet 6 or 7 inches high, a mulatto, the fore finger of one of his hands is off at the first joint, had on when he left a casinet roundabout and pantaloons." This ad also confirms that Mr. Mansfield was, indeed, James Mansfield, who owned several farms south of Chestertown.18

On a Tuesday morning, Isaac Mason with his fellow fugitives, guide Joe Brown and Perry Augustus (a guide who joined them from Wilmington), crossed the Maryland-Delaware state line "out of slavery into freedom."19 After two days of rest in New Garden, Delaware, the fugitives set out to complete their journey to Philadelphia.20 Throughout their journey, they met several generous farmers, both colored and white, who offered them labor to help them earn moeny for the remainder of their trip north.21

Out of Maryland, Isaac Mason had great hopes. In 1849, he went to live with Mr. Joshua Pusey, a farmer, who offered Isaac "fifty cents a day, a house to live and two acres of planting land for my own use." Isaac was grateful for such a house and land because he was planning to get married and "Wanted a comfortable home for my bride and self...I was building airy castles in my imagination."22 His dreams, however, were put on hold when his neighbor, also a runaway slave named Tom Mitchell, was stolen away from his family and home by three slave holders who had driven up from Kent County. The threat of these "drovers" forced Isaac to uproot and continue on to Philadelphia. He eventually went back to Chester County, Pennsylvania to marry his wife in 1849 and then he and his wife returned back to Philadelphia, where Isaac found work in housekeeping.23

Isaac's past, however, continued to follow him. Shortly after the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act, Isaac Mason, while doing some brickwork, saw one of Hugh Wallis's sons, perhaps Hugh Maxwell, who had moved to Louisiana and was involved in the slave trade, searching for runaway slaves.24 Reminded of his "darkest days of slavery" with the Wallises, Isaac fled further north to Boston, where he left his wife in the care of another colored family. He continued on to Montreal and Toronto, looking for work and a home, and then eventually made his way back to Worcester, Massachusetts to rejoin his family and his ailing wife.25

In 1859, Isaac Mason heard of a movement to get colored people to emigrate from the United States to Haiti, where they would provided with sixteen days worth of provisions. He boarded the Pearl (a schooner) at the Liverpool wharf in Boston, Massachusetts on May 14, 1860, bound for Haiti. Despite a severe storm with impressive gales, Isaac Mason successfully made it to Haiti. He was determined to find out whether the movement for emigration was "good or evil." He quickly concluded it was evil and that "out of the five thousand who emigrated there under the Redpath scheme, two-thirds fell victim to disease and death."26 He returned to Worcester, Massachusetts where he spread the word of Mr.Redpath's scheme and that emigration to Haiti was nothing but a "premature graveyard for the race."27 

Isaac Mason lived in Worcester, Massachusetts and it was there that "I should dwell until the end of my days."28

Footnotes - 

1. Isaac Mason, The Life of Isaac Mason as a Slave, Worcester, Mass. (1893), p.9.
2. Ibid, 10.
3. Ibid, 10.
4. Kent County Court (Marriage Licenses), 1796-1886, Hugh Wallis to Margaret B. Woodland, Nov. 10, 1817, MSA C1081-2. ; Guy Wallis, The Wallis Family of Kent County, (Bristol, VT, 2011), Call no. 450 W Wallis , L20110154, Maryland State Archives, p.47.
5. Isaac Mason, 13.
6. Kent County Register of Wills (Inventories) 1833-1839, Book 22, pp. 491-493.; 518(sales).; Kent County Register of Wills (Chattel Records) 1837-1845, Hugh Wallis exe. of Hannah P. Woodland to Ezekiel Thompson ,  JNG  Liber 3, Folio 17, MSA C1035-17.
7. Kent County Register of Wills (Inventories), 1842-1846, MSA CM657-29, Book 23, p.1.
8. Isaac Mason, 13.
9. Ibid, 17.
10. Lucille A. Wallis, Samuel Wallis of Kent County, Maryland Book 1, Part 1, (Baltimore, MD, 1992), 450 W Wallis REF, Hall of Records #28328-1, Maryland State Archives, p. 202. ; Isaac Mason, 21.
11. Isaac Mason, 21.
12. Ibid, 23.
13. Ibid, 25-28.
14. Ibid, 29.
15. Ibid, 34.
16. Ibid, 35.
17. Ibid, 39.
18. "$200 Reward," The Kent News, January 9, 1847, p.3, MSA SC 2901, SCM 2350-0012.
19. Mason, 44.
20. Ibid, 46.
21. Ibid, 49.
22. Ibid, 50.
23. Ibid, 51.
24. Ibid, 51.
25. Ibid, 62-66.
26. Ibid, 73.
27. Ibid, 73-74.
28. Ibid, 74.
Return to Isaac Mason's Introductory Page

Researched and written by Kathy Thornton, 2012.
 
 


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