Sophia (b. circa 1838 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-050567
Escaped from Germantown, Clarksburg District, Montgomery County,
Maryland, 1860
Biography:
In the summer of 1860, the slave Sophia escaped with her two children from the Waring family's farm, "Norway," near Germantown.1 Her owner, the wealthy but mentally incompetent Anna Maria Waring, resided at the farm with her brother, Henry B. Waring, and his wife, Rachel Clopper. Sophia was one of five other slaves belonging to Anna Waring (also spelled Warring), including two men ages forty-five and twenty-six, a thirty-five-year-old woman, and two children—a nine-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl.2
The month of Sophia's flight is unknown, but the 1860 slave census for the Clarksburg District, taken on June 12th, recorded the twenty-two-year-old Sophia as already a fugitive from the state. Sophia had run away after learning that she was being sold, although the identity of her purchaser remains unknown.
Her escape attempt failed, and Sophia and her children were captured and jailed in Washington, D.C. On July 25, 1860, Lemuel S. Clements submitted a petition to the Montgomery County Court stating his "fear in regard to the safe retention of said negroe."3 As a slaveholder who had conducted business with the Waring family for the last two decades,4 Clements served as Anna's "committee," or trustee. His petition claimed that Sophia had "without any reason or cause known... placed herself in the Washington jail." His petition to the Montgomery County Court described Sophia's children as approximately eight and ten years old, which roughly corresponds to the ages of the two children in the 1860 slave census. Clements sold Sophia and her children for the total amount of $1,700 to an undisclosed buyer. According to John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, the profits from the sale "were used to care for her mistress, who, according to court records, suffered 'great imbecility of mind.'"5
On February 4, 1861, Lemuel Clements submitted another petition6 to the Montgomery County Circuit Court, this time for compensation for the funds that he had spent in capturing the fugitive slaves. A total of $32.97 covered the costs of newspaper advertisements and jail fees.
Sophia was not the first slave to have fled from the Waring family.
For instance, in 1815 and 1816, the slaves Kitty and Sophia (respectively)
fled from the farm of Anna Waring's father, Colonel Henry Waring.7
Then, in 1839 and 1842, Anna Maria's mother advertised for the capture
of the slaves Joseph Offutt and David.8
1. "Old Waring Homestead Burned." 14 April 1896 Baltimore Sun: 2. Baltimore Historical Archive. This article identifies the name of the Waring farm as "Norway."
2. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) Anna M. Waring, Slaves, 1860, Montgomery County, Clarksburg District, Page 3, Line 19 [MSA SM61-239, M 7230-2].
3. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, CIRCUIT COURT, (Equity Papers), 1858-1859, Warring vs. Warring, [MSA T415-22].
4. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber BS 12, Folio 338, 1843-1845, [MSA CE 148-38]. Henry B. Waring to Lemuel Clements.
5. John Franklin Hope and Loren Schweninger. Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999) 53.
6. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, CIRCUIT COURT, (Equity Papers), 1858-1859, Warring vs. Warring, [MSA T415-22].
7. "50 Dollars Reward."
1815 April 27 Maryland Gazette and Political Intelligencer. Maryland
State Archives.
"Twenty
Dollars Reward." 19 September 1816
Daily National Intelligencer.
Maryland State Archives.
8. "One Hundred Dollars
Reward." 28 October 1839 Daily National Intelligencer. Maryland
State Archives.
"One Hundred
Dollars Reward." 11 April 1842 Daily National Intelligencer. Maryland
State Archives.
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