Susannah Coursey
MSA SC 5496-51081
War of 1812 Refugee, St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1814
Biography:
Susannah Coursey was one of the forty-eight refugees that escaped from Sotterley Plantation in St. Mary's County, Maryland, during the War of 1812. John R. Plater listed Susannah in his 1821 reparations claim,1 but she was likely the property of his nephew George Plater V. George Plater V inherited Sotterley in 1802 after the deaths of his father Colonel George Plater IV and mother Elizabeth Plater. At the time, however, George Plater V was only five years old and incapable of managing the plantation. Responsibilty for managing Sotterley thus fell to George Plater V's guardian and uncle, John R. Plater (the brother of Colonel George Plater IV).2 A twenty-seven year old female slave named Susannah appears in an 1807 inventory of the deceased Colonel George Plater IV's estate.3 Over two years after the refugees' escape from Sotterley, an 1816 administration account for the late Colonel Plater's estate lists a slave named Susanna as being taken away by the British troops during the late war. The account does not provide an age, but it does value her at $200.4 Regardless of who had a legal claim to own Susannah, she had no interest in being anyone's property.
Susannah 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. Susannah was joined on the Severn by forty-four other refugees from Sotterley including her husband Stephen Coursey and their four children Mathew Coursey, Peggy Coursey, James Coursey, and Ester Coursey.5 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 off Colonel Plater's".6 The ship musters for the Severn indicate that the Courseys only spent two days on the frigate before being discharged to the H.M.S. Aetna on July 24, 1814.7 Suannah and her family then spent three days on the Aetna before being discharged to the H.M.S. Albion on July 27.8 They then spent a few weeks on the Albion until they were finally discharged to the H.M.S. Jasseur on August 12.9
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 discharging the refugees on shore.10 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.11 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 in Nova Scotia and are listed in the official census taken of the new Black refugees in Halifax.12 The Halifax list identifies Susannah as 32 years old, but both John R. Plater and Joseph Nourse claimed she was 40 at the time of her escape.13 Whatever her age, Susannah and her family managed to establish a new home in Nova Scotia. On November 2, 1815, the Coursey family settled on land in the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbor conveyed to them by Henry H. Cogswell. They were joined on the property by the Munroe and Seale families who also escaped from Sotterley. The 1815 census taken of the refugee families settled on Cogswell's land shows Stephen Coursey with his wife (Susannah) and their four children (Mathew, James, Ester, and Peggy). Despite the acquisition, the refugees likely struggled 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 munitions of clothing. Fortunately, the refugees overcame their limited supply of clothing, and managed to survive the harsh Nova Scotian winter. Another census taken on October 5, 1816 indicates that Stephen Coursey had the same number of people under his care as in 1815.14
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. Himmelheber, Peter "Sotterley Plantation During the War of 1812" Chronicles of St. Mary’s, vol. 51 no. 4 (Winter , 2003): 90-91.
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