Pritchett Meredith (b.
circa 1800 - d. 1869)
MSA SC 5496-51304
Property Owner, Dorchester County
Biography:
Pritchett Meredith was a fairly prominent farmer, living near Cambridge in Dorchester County. By 1850, he had amassed a considerable amount of property, which officially included 14 African-American slaves.1 At least two of these enslaved individuals would flee in March of 1857, as part of an unprecedented exodus from the Eastern Shore. Denard Hughes and Tom Elliott were members of what came to be known as the "Dover Eight," whose daring escape from the region became legendary among abolitionists and slave holders alike.
After making off from Meredith's farm on about March 8, the group headed through Delaware on their way to free soil. However, they were betrayed by a free black man who was supposed to direct them further along the Underground Railroad. The fugitives were forced to break out of the Dover jail, with the local sheriff unloading his pistol as they fled.2 Around the same time, Meredith had placed an advertisement in the Baltimore Sun, offering $600 for the two young men. He guessed that they might be headed in the direction of Wilmington, DE, where Elliott's uncle Moses Pinket, lived.3 It is unclear whether they had actually planned to utilize that connection, or if Meredith made any other effort to retrieve the men. When they reached Philadelphia, the group recounted their story to abolitionist William Still. Hughes would claim that "his master was considered the hardest man around," and that Meredith's wife Sarah "drank hard," and was "very stormy."4 Both men ultimately settled in Ontario, Canada, where they were close associates of Harriett Tubman, thereby becoming minor leaders in the area's fugitive community.
Meredith apparently did not suffer too much from the loss as his holdings gradually increased in the subsequent years. By 1860, he had doubled his human chattel to at least 16 black slaves.5 Another of these bondsmen, John Wesley Hughes, was nearly able to execute a bold escape in 1861. A possible relation to the former Meredith slave Denard Hughes, John boarded the steamship Kent on Christmas Day, en route to Baltimore. Unfortunately, the vessel's clerk closely inspected his travel pass and determined that it was forged. Hughes had almost made it safely to Baltimore, but was sent back to Cambridge the same day. Due in part to Meredith's testimony, a local free mulatto named William Hill was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his purported role in the scheme.6 Hughes apparently remained with Meredith until the abolition of slavery, as he appears in the Dorchestery County Slave Statistics, released in 1868.7
Meredith's finances, like many Maryland slaveholders, probably were damaged by the abolition of slavery in November of 1864. He did manumit and enlist two of his slaves, Jesse and Hanable Hayes, in the United States Colored Troops toward the end of the Civil War.8 For this service, Meredith was paid $100 by the state government for each man. These men are also listed in Meredith's 1868 slave statistics. Strangely, there is actually a second list under his name that has seven other enslaved individuals, including the fugitives Thomas Elliott and Denard Hughes.9 It is possible that these blacks had all run away from Meredith, and he hoped to receive some compensation for his loss. However, there is little else revealed about the fate or experience of those African-Americans that he held in bondage. His will, registered in 1864 before emancipation occurred in Maryland, made no mention of manumission or other provisions for those individuals. Pritchett Meredith died in 1869, and was laid to rest in Dorchester County10
Footnotes -
1. Ancestry.com.
1850 United States Federal Census, Slave Schedule, Dorchester County,
MD,
District 1, p. 16.
2. Harriet
Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, "Pritchett Meredith Farm."
William
Still. Underground Rail Road: A Record of Facts, Authentic
Narratives,
Letters, etc. Philadelphia, PA: Porter & Coales,
Publishers, 1872,
pp.
72-74.
3. "$600
Reward," Baltimore Sun, 13 March 1857.
4. Still, p. 73.
5. Ancestry.com.
1860 United States Federal Census, Slave Schedule, Dorchester County,
MD,
District 7, p. 7 - p.
8.
6. DORCHESTER
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Court Papers) 1861-1863, Criminal Judgements,
April Term 1862, "William Hill,
free Negro".
7. DORCHESTER COUNTY COMMISSIONER OF SLAVE STATISTICS (Slave Statistics) 1867-1868. (p. 2).
8. COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY (Bounty Rolls) 1864-1880.
10. DORCHESTER COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Wills) 1861-1871, Book E.W.L 1, p. 458.
Researched and Written by David Armenti, 2011.
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