Michael Newbold (b. 1794 - d. 1875)
MSA SC 5496-34207
Property Owner, Kent County , Maryland
Biography:
Originally from Mount Holly, New Jersey, Michael Newbold moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the 1830's. His former slaves described the gradual, moral deterioration that occurred due to his move. One claimed that he was a "Hickory Quaker," likely referring to the Hicksite sect, which ironically had pushed much of the early abolitionist sentiments within that religious community. According to Asbury Irwin, Newbold "became a regular slave-holder, got to drinking and racing horses, and ... treated all hands bad," not five years into his residence in Maryland. This treatment had caused not only his enslaved workers to escape, but also his wife, who allegedly joined her relatives in Philadelphia due to the transformation.1
As of the 1840 census in which he is first recorded in Maryland, Newbold owned 6 slaves and also employed almost as many free African-Americans on his property.2 He had the same amount in 1850.3 Local records do not reveal how Newbold acquired his field hands, or how they were valued. Though the holdings were only listed in Queen Anne's County, perhaps his primary residence, the slaves fled from farmer's Kent County property outside of Millington.4 Asbury Irwin relayed a troubling story to abolitionist William Still when the group of fugitives reached Philadelphia. He claimed that three years earlier, "I was knocked dead with an axe by my master; the blood run out of my head as if it had been poured out of a tumbler."5 Ephraim Ennis also complained of Newbold's treatment, while 22 year old Lydia Ann Johns lamented having to leave her husband in Maryland.6 The three freedom seekers likely maintained their liberty somewhere in the northern states, as the aging planter did not appear to make efforts to retrieve them.
Still would say that there was even more to Irwin's description of his servitude that was "too shocking to morality and damaging to humanity" to be included in the narrative. He seemed particularly disturbed by Newbold's religious affiliation, probably because many of his close associates and others in the abolitionist community were Quakers. Still characterized Michael Newbold as "a backsliding member of the Society of Friends - a renegade Quaker." He further explained the pivotal role that such individuals played in the efforts of freedom seekers, providing monetary aid and safehouses throughout the region.7 It is possible that Newbold eventually realized the immorality of slaveholding, or the economic pitfalls may have caught up with him.
In 1860, he
manumitted three slaves "Fanny Broadway, John, Annie."8 The document does not reveal any ethical or economic motive; Newbold
likely freed
them because of his move back to Burlington County, New Jersey. In fact
he had already migrated by that time, having left his slaves "in the
possession of Thomas W. Mummey in Queen Anne's County." The latter two
enslaved blacks were Fanny Broadway's children. Newbold applied gradual
manumission to all three, who would be freed in 1869, 1885, and 1883
respectively.9 The Quaker and former slaveholder would live out his days in New Jersey.10 In 1875, Michael Newbold was laid to rest in St. James the Less Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.11
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