Clem Proctor (b. circa 1813 - d.?)
MSA SC 5496-050615
Part of large slave flight from Poolesville area, Montgomery County,
Maryland, 1831
Biography:
In September 1831, Clem Proctor fled his enslavement on William Vinson's farm along with five others: Collin Brooks, Joe Carroll, Tobias Martin, and the brothers George Swine and Sandy Swine. Vinson's son William B. Vinson advertised in the Daily National Intelligencer for the slaves' capture.1 He described Proctor as "18 years old, about 6 feet high, dark complexion, stammers very much when speaking, [and] he plays on the fiddle."2 Vinson added that all six wore clothing typical "this season for plantation hands." Vinson's farm stood in the Medleys District of Montgomery County. The escape directly followed the Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia in August 1831.3 They likely joined a larger group heading for Pennsylvania, including Beverly Davis, Davy, Daniel Jackson, and Peter Reader.
The escape attempt apparently failed, for in 1840, William Vinson bequeathed
the slaves "Sandy, George, Clem, Henry, and Rachel" to his son William
in his will.4
1. "150
Dollars Reward." Daily National Intelligencer 14 September 1831:
3.
"300
Dollars Reward." Daily National Intelligencer 14 September 1831:
3.
2. "300 Dollars Reward." Daily National Intelligencer 14 September 1831: 3.
3. Albert Bushnell Hart. Slavery and Abolition: 1831 to 1841 (New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1906) 218.
4. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, REGISTER
OF WILLS, (Wills, Original), 1833-1839, [MSA C1142-13]. Box 11, Folder
12. William Vinson, February 10, 1836. Probated June 23, 1840.
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