Charles Ross (b. 1836 - d.?)
MSA SC 5496-51294
Fled from slavery, Caroline County, 1859

Biography:

    Charles Ross was about 23 years old when he fled from Caroline County, Maryland in 1859. The young man claimed to have actually been free-born, but wrongfully held in slavery by a man named Rodgers.¹ No such individual appears in the 1850 Census, but many forms of servitude went unrecorded due to questionable legality.² Free blacks in Maryland were increasingly being targeted during the 1850's, as whites blamed them for the flight of slaves, as well as for other crimes and societal ills. Freemen had to obtain permits to move within and outside the state, could be kidnapped by slavecatchers, or sold into slavery by the courts for petty offenses.^3,4 Thereby Eastern Shore African-Americans often found themselves in situations that strongly resembled slavery despite being technically "free." Ross may have been subject to one of these gross abuses, though he is not present in the criminal or indenture records of the county.⁵

    Charles might have been inclined to stay in Maryland were he afforded the same freedoms as a white laborer, but the paranoid climate of the time severely limited opportunities for such blacks. Therefore he fled through Delaware into Philadelphia, which had become a hub of abolitionism and Underground Railroad activity.⁶ Ross received assistance from sympathetic agents in that city, who briefly recorded his experience, and may have then shepherded him up to the northern states or Canada. However, there is little documentation to suggest what happened to Charles Ross after 1859, though he likely changed his identity to avoid detection. It was noted that Ross "had fully weighed the matter of his freedom and appeared firmly set against slavery."⁷ This was certainly reflected in his bold choice to flee slavery in Maryland to pursue an improved existence to the north.

Researched and Written by David Armenti, 2011.

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