Stephen Coursey
MSA SC 5496-51080
War of 1812 Refugee, St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1814
Biography:
Stephen Coursey was one of the forty-eight refugees that John R. Plater claimed escaped from Sotterley Plantation in St. Mary's County, Maryland, during the War of 1812. At age 37, Stephen escaped from Sotterley on July 22, 1814, by boarding the H.M.S. Severn, captained by Joseph Nourse, while the vessel was in the Patuxent River. Stephen was joined on the Severn by forty-four other refugees from Sotterley including his wife Susannah Coursey and their four children Mathew Coursey, Peggy Coursey, James Coursey, and Ester Coursey.1 The next day, Captain Nourse reported on the incident in a letter to Admiral Cockburn as he commented "Last night 39 men, women, and children came from Colonel Plater's".2
The ship musters for the Severn indicate that the Courseys only spent two days on the Severn before being discharged to the H.M.S. Aetna on July 24, 1814. The Severn ship musters also list another refugee, Nancy Coursey, as boarding the Severn on July 22 in the Patuxent and then being discharged onshore three days later on July 25.3 John R. Plater did not mention any slaves with the name "Nancy" in his reparations claim, and it is not clear if the Nancy Coursey listed in the Severn's ship musters has any relationship to the Coursey family that escaped from Sotterley. After leaving the Severn, the Coursey family then spent three days on the Aetna until they were discharged to the H.M.S. Albion on July 27.4 The Courseys then spent a few weeks on the Albion before finally being discharged to the H.M.S. Jasseur on August 12.5
The Jasseur was likely the vessel that transported the Courseys from the Chesapeake to their new home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ship logs for the Jasseur indicate that on Saturday August 13 the ship received 290 Black men, women, and children to take to Halifax. A few weeks later on Friday September 2, the ship logs report laying anchor at Halifax Harbor, and then discharging the refugees on shore.6 A Nova Scotian newspaper reported that on September 1, 1814 the H.M. Brig Jasseur had arrived in Halifax after a 10 day voyage from the Chesapeake, and that it had brought a few hundred Black refugees, some of whom had died during the journey.7 Within the confines of the British Empire, the Coursey family could safely maintain their freedom in their new home over a thousand miles away from Sotterley.
The Coursey family retained their freedom after the war and are listed in the official census taken of the new Black refugees in Halifax.8 The Coursey family's appearance on the Halifax list did not escape the attention of John R. Plater, who referenced the census in his 1827 reparations claim, writing about Stephen Coursey "In the Halifax List he is stated to be named Stepy, which was a common vulgar abridgement in use among the servants, thus I presume it to be the same slave."9 John R. Plater knew the Coursey family and several other Sotterley refugees had made it to Canada, but despite this knowledge he could not reclaim them as his property since they had settled outside of the United States.
On November 2, 1815, Stephen Coursey along with John R. Plater’s other slaves John Seale and Lewis Munroe settled on land in the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbor conveyed to them by Henry H. Cogswell. An 1815 census taken of the refugees that settled on Cogswell's land lists Stephen Coursey as having under his care one woman, Susannah Coursey, and four children: Mathew, James, Peggy, and Ester Coursey.10 In 1817, the Nova Scotia legislature reimburst Cogswell £20 for the 1,000 acres of land that he gave to the refugee families.11 By comparison, Colonel George Plater IV's heirs George Plater V and his sister Anne Plater together possessed 7,606 acres of land in 1812, which included the Sotterley estate.12 Although no longer enslaved, the refugee families still encountered setbacks during their first months on Cogswell's land. A letter from Cogswell to the governor of Nova Scotia indicates that by December 24, 1815, the families still had not received any supplies of clothing. Despite their limited supply of clothing, the refugee families survived the harsh Nova Scotian winter, and an 1816 census indicates that Stephen Coursey had the same number of people under his care as in 1815.13
Stephen Coursey continued to live near the Northwest Arm for at least another decade. A map of the Halifax area drafted by John Elliott Woolford between 1817 and 1818 shows the Northwest Harbor as being within a few miles of the Beech Hill community, which is labeled as "to high for any carriage". The map also labels the area between Beech Hill and Halifax Harbor as "rocky and barren" suggesting the land was poor for agriculture and the area's residents likely struggled to subsist off it.14 Many refugees from the Chesapeake region settled in Beech Hill, including Stephen Coursey. In 1827, he along with 18 other residents of Beech Hill petitioned the Nova Scotia House of Assembly to improve the road leading from their community to the harbor at the Northwest Arm. The residents wanted to improve the road so they could transport their goods to market, and provide for their families. The petition suggests that most of the refugees, including Stephen Coursey, were either illiterate or could not write because they left their marks and not their signatures on the petition.15
1. Claim of John Rousby Plater, St. Mary’s County, Case #310, Case Files Ca. 1814-28, 3.5 ft. entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
2. Stanley Quick Research Collection, MSA SC5969, 4-1170.
3. "Severn Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/5430.
4. "Aetna Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/4878.
5. "Albion Ship Musters" UKNA: ADM 37/5005.
6. Stanley Quick Research Collection, MSA SC5969, 1-1-0300.
7. NSARM Acadian Recorder 3 September 1814 p.3 (microfilm no. 5193)
8. National Archives and Records Administration NSARM (Washington DC) RG 76 Entry 185 GB 1814 no. 51 G.B. 6 (microfilm copy only available at NSARM, microfilm no. 13577)
9. Claim of John Rousby Plater, St. Mary’s County, Case #310, Case Files Ca. 1814-28, 3.5 ft. entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
10. Commissioner of Public Records
NSARM RG 1 vol. 420 no. 93 (microfilm no. 15464)
11. Commissioner of Public Records NSARM RG 1 vol. 421 no. 81
12. St. Mary's County Commissioners of the Tax (Assessment Record) 1812 MSA CM900-6
13. Commissioner of Public Records NSARM RG 1 vol. 420 no. 93 (microfilm no. 15464)
14. NSARM Map Collection: 15.1
15. Nova Scotia House of Assembly — Assembly petitions series NSARM RG 5 series P vol. 92 no. 83
researched and written by Charles Weisenberger
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