Cornelius Wildman
MSA SC 5496-50987
War of 1812 Refugee, St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1814
Biography
Cornelius Wildman is one of the forty-nine slaves in John R. Plater's reparations claim for the War of 1812. In his reparations claim, John R. Plater identifies Cornelius as twenty-five years old and values him at $550. Unlike the other slaves in the reparations claim, Cornelius did not escape from Sotterley Plantation, which is located along the Patuxent River on the eastern coast of St. Mary's County, Maryland. Instead, the reparations claim indicates that Cornelius escaped from one of John R. Plater's other properties located along the Potomac River on the western coast of the county near Breton's Bay. Cornelius is also distinctive from the other slaves in that he escaped in the fall of 1814 (after most activity in the Chesapeake theater had ended) and that he receives considerably more attention in the reparations claim.
In the claim, five deponents discuss Cornelius' escape: Joseph Mattingly, Thomas Gough, Elizabeth Dellehny, Sarah Martin, and her daughter Janet Abell. They all state that Cornelius escaped in either September or October of 1814, and that he was accompanied by another slave Mathew Reeder, who belonged to Cornelius Manning; Cornelius Manning, however, did not file a reparations claim. Sarah Martin and Janet Abell were the wife and daughter respectively of Norman Martin, who during the Summer of 1814 was working and living on John R. Plater's property as an overseer. In their depositions, they both claim that the British had fired on Cornelius Manning's property several days before the two slaves escaped, and that Cornelius Wildman had the opportunity to interview the British officers and sailors before escaping to them. The mother and daughter also allege that Cornelius left behind a wife who always claimed her husband had been taken away by the British fleet. All of the deponents claim that neither Cornelius Wildman or Mathew Reeder were ever heard of again after they escaped.
Although the fate of the two men remains unclear, it is unlikely that they enlisted with the Colonial Marines or settled in Nova Scotia because of the timing of their escape. They may have instead used the British fleet as a means for acquiring freedom elsewhere in the United States.
Return to Cornelius Wildman's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|