Lewis Swams (b. circa 1822 - d. 1862)
MSA SC 5496-047813
Enslaved in Berrys District, Montgomery County, Maryland
Biography:
Born around 1822, Lewis Swams was enslaved on Rose Hill, Deborah W. Canby's farm near Sandy Spring. In 1860, Canby's seven slaves were performing a wide variety of tasks such as harvesting oats, corn, wheat, and rye, and processing meat, butter, and wool.2
In March or April 1862, Swams helped Minty and her two children flee
their enslavement on Francis
M. Bowie's farm, approximately twenty to thirty miles west in Prince
George's County. Since Swams was married, it is possible that he was assisting
his own wife and children. On April 8th, the Baltimore Sun reported
that Prince George's County slaves were "running away in numbers," with
most of them fleeing to Washington, D.C. The article stated that groups
"of from five to fifty sometimes start together, and separate themselves
in small squads just before reaching the Eastern Branch Bridge, in order
to avoid suspicion on crossing."3
The imminent abolition of slavery in Washington D.C. acted as a magnet
for fugitive slaves, with the Senate bill passing on April 16, 1862.4
The escape attempt failed. On April 11th, Judge George Brent of the Prince George's County Circuit Court found Swams guilty of "assisting slaves to run away," sentencing him to twelve years in the Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore City. Two slaveholders, Isaac Scaggs of Prince George's County and Benjamin O. Mullikin of Anne Arundel County, set Swam's worth at three hundred and fifty dollars, which the court delivered to Deborah Canby.5 Ordinarily, a slave holder only received reimbursement if a slave had committed a second crime, since the state automatically sold the re-offender outside Maryland following release.6 However, the Maryland Penitentiary's records do not record Swams as a second offender.
Lewis Swams entered the Maryland Penitentiary on April 23rd. The prison listed him as "Lewis Swan, slave of Debora Canba," prisoner number 5682. The prisoner records described him as five feet eleven inches tall and illiterate, adding that he abstained completely from drink and attended church regularly.7 Swams' poor health exempted him a prison occupation, but the insanitary conditions and overcrowding alone often worsened the health of infirm inmates. On August 8, 1862, less than four months into his prison term, Swams died from dropsy. Although an ambiguous term, dropsy usually signified "an abnormal accumulation of fluid"8 resulting from a wide range of causes, including heart, kidney, and liver disease, malnutrition, and poorly treated wounds.9 Following Swams' death, the Penitentiary delivered one dollar to Canby on September 25, 1862.
Swams' twelve-year sentence reflected Maryland's attitude towards accomplices to slave flight. From 1830 to 1865, fifty-four
Marylanders entered the Penitentiary for assisting runaway slaves, with
twenty-four serving their full sentences. The average
sentence spanned seven and a half years, roughly half the length of Swams'
sentence. In fact, his sentence exceeded many of the terms imposed upon
first- and second-degree murderers, who received approximately ten years
or less in 1862.10
1. MARYLAND PENITENTIARY, (Prisoner Record), 1811-1869, [SE65-5]. Lewis Swan [sic], Prisoner Number 5682, Page 59.
2. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU,
(Census Record, MD), Date: 1860, Description: Agriculture, Location: 03/47/09/007,
MdHR Number: 50,300-7, MSA Citation: MSA S1184-7. D.W. Canby, 5th District,
Line 18.
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Deborah W. Canby, Slaves, 1860, Montgomery
County, Berrys District, Page 9, Line 11 [MSA SM61-239, M 7230-2].
3. "The Slaves in Prince George's County, MD." Baltimore Sun 8 April 1862: 1. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.
4. "Abolition of Slavery in the District." Baltimore Sun 17 April 1862: 4.
5. PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, CIRCUIT COURT, (Minutes), 04/1862, [C1267-21]. State of Maryland vs. Lewis Swams, April 11, 1862. Page 18.
6. Wallace Shugg. A Monument to Good Intentions: The Story of the Maryland Penitentiary, 1804 – 1995 (Baltimore, MD: Maryland Historical Society, 2000) 43.
7. MARYLAND PENITENTIARY, (Prisoner Record), 1811-1869, [SE65-5]. Lewis Swan [sic], Prisoner Number 5682, Page 59.
8. J. Worth Estes. "Dropsy." The Cambridge World History of Human Disease. Kenneth F. Kiple, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1993. Cambridge Histories Online. http://histories.cambridge.org.
9. “Edema.” Mosby's Medical,
Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary. Edition 5, 1998. Page 2, D64.
Health and Wellness Resource Center. Anne Arundel County Public Library.
http://find.galegroup.com.
Kathleen
D. Wright. "Edema." The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Jacqueline L. Longe,
ed. 3rd ed. 5 vols. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2006. http://find.galegroup.com.
10. MARYLAND PENITENTIARY,
(Prisoner Record), 1811-1869, [SE65-5]. Lewis Swan [sic], Page 59.
Researched and written by Rachel Frazier, 2011.
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