Reuben Elliott Phillips (b. circa 1806 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51324
Slave Owner, Dorchester County, Maryland
Biography:
Reuben Elliott Phillips was a wealthy farmer and slave holder in Town Point, Dorchester County, Maryland. His land holdings included a 228-acre farm called Ross Purchase in Town Point Neck.1 He married Elizabeth E. Cator (b. circa 1814) on June 10, 1839, and was step-father to her daughter, Hannah E. Jane Cator (b. circa 1837).2, 3 His step-daughter, frequently recorded as Jane Cator, was wealthy in her own right, with a personal estate valued at $1,200 in 1860. It is likely that Phillips helped manage her property. Reuben and Elizabeth Phillips probably started a new family together as the1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses record several young children with the same last name living with them: John (b. circa 1840), Mary (b. circa 1841), William, (b. circa 1844), Reuben E. (b. circa 1846), Harrold (b. circa 1852), Henrietta (b. circa 1849), Rose (b. circa 1854), and Ella (b. circa 1857).4, 5, 6
In 1850, Reuben Phillips (sometimes recorded as Elliott Phillips on the federal census) owned ten slaves.7 By the time of the 1852 Dorchester County tax assessment, Phillips held eleven slaves, most of them children. They were Jim (age 4), Alexander (age 9), Henry (age 10), Marshall (age 13), Jacob (age 26), Leah (age 1), Lina ( age 6), Oley (age 2), Ananda (age 19), Mary (age 20), and Eliza (age 20).
Several of Reuben Phillips' and Jane Cator's slaves fled in at least two escape attempts. On October 24, 1857, a group of twenty-eight slaves fled in a mass escape from neighboring plantations in Dorchester County.8 Phillips and Jane Cator owned at least seven of the group, Daffney Cornish and her six children, including Edward, George, Perry, Solomon, Joseph and an infant. Joining his family on their flight to freedom was Daffney's husband, Aaron Cornish, a slave owned by Rev. Levi Traverse. The Cornishes were forced to leave behind two of their children, who had been hired out to another master.9
Probably on behalf of his step-daughter, Jane, Reuben Phillips and fellow slave holders, Samuel Pattison and Willis Brannock (spelled V. Branwick), placed a joint advertisement offering a reward of $3,100 for the capture of the fugitives.10 Pattison learned that the group was headed to Wilmington, Delaware and followed close behind. However, the runaways had been warned that their captors were in pursuit and therefore stayed clear of Wilmington. Although the group split up to avoid detection, they faced many other obstacles. Poorly provisioned and clothed, the group battled severe rainstorms. On October 31, part of the group was attacked by several Irishmen with clubs. One of the fugitives insured their escape by shooting one of the Irishmen in the head. A fourteen year old boy, likely one of the Cornish's children, was separated from the rest and it is unclear if he rejoined his family.11
William Still, an Underground Railroad conductor in Philadelphia, recorded the party's safe arrival to the Philadelphia area.12 However, it is unclear if the Cornish family was later recaptured since some of their names appear in the 1867-1868 Dorchester County slave statistices. Former Maryland slave owners hoped to be compensated for the value of emancipated slaves as a reward for their loyalty to the Union during the Civil War. In each Maryland county, slave owners thus recorded the slaves that they had owned when slavery was abolished in Maryland on November 1, 1864. Acting as her agent, Reuben Phillips, recorded the ownership of seven slaves for Mrs. H.E.J. Spilman (Jane Cator's married name). Dafney, Solomon, George, Edwin, and Lake Cornish appear in the slave statistics, as well as Nicholina (Lena) Cornish and her son, George.13 It is also possible that the Cornishes were not recaptured but that Reuben Phillips and Jane Cator Spilman recorded false information in order to recoup the value of her fugitive slaves.
Nevertheless, the October 24, 1857 flight is significant both for the large number of slaves who ran away and for the fact that family groups with small children escaped together. They likely received information from Harriet Tubman, a native of the area, to aid their escape. Following this and a rash of other slave escapes, Dorchester County whites feared that northern abolitionists and free blacks were conspiring to destroy the institution of slavery. As a result, community leaders passed resolutions resticting the personal liberties of free and enslaved blacks. Vigilante groups also assaulted or attempted to lynch individuals suspected of aiding runaways. Nevertheless, slaves in Dorchester County continued to run away to freedom.14
A group of eight slaves, including several of Phillips', attempted to flee in August 1858. The group was betrayed by a free black, Jesse Perry, who helped set an ambush for them near Greensborough in Carolina County. The eight fugitives and Hugh Hazlett, the group's white accomplice, were transferred back to Cambridge in Dorchester County where a large crowd awaited their steamer at the wharf. Fearing a lynching, the sheriff ordered that the steamer disembark the captives at another location.15
Despite the escapes, Phillips maintained a consistent number of slaves. In 1858 and 1859, he owned at least five slaves: Hester (age 2), Jacob, Ananda, Marshall, and Mary.16 The 1860 federal census slave schedules list him as the owner of ten slaves.17 These may include the nine enslaved people that Phillips recorded in Dorchester County's slave statistics in 1868. At the time that slavery was abolished in Maryland on November 1, 1864, Phillips had owned Marshall Dutton (male, age 32), Henry Light (male, age 24), Alexander "Elich" Light (male, age 22), Jim Nickles (male, age 18), Anthony Light (male, age 11), Ollie Light (female, age 18), Lina Jenkins (female, age 17), Leah Light (female, age 15), Hester Traverse (female, age 9).18
By 1870, the Phillips had moved to or maintained a house in Baltimore. Still comfortably wealthy, Phillips' personal estate was worth $1,000, and the family employed two black domestic servants, Sarah Light and Hester Travers.19
1. DORCHESTER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (Assessment Record) for Reuben E. Phillips 1852-1910 C687, Election District 7, p. 162. 01/04/05/019
2. DORCHESTER COUNTY COURT (Marriage Licenses) CM447, 1780-1841.
3. Larson, Kate Clifford. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. (New York: Ballantine Book, 2005), p. 348 n84.
4. U.S. Census (U.S. Census, MD) for Elliott Phillips, 1850 Dorchester County, District 1, Page 36, Lines 40-42. Page 37, Lines 1-5.
5. U.S. Census (U.S. Census, MD) for Elliott Phillips,1860 Dorchester County, District 7, Page 371, Lines 5-13.
6. U.S. Census (U.S. Census, MD) for R.E. Phillips, 1870 Dorchester County, District 7, Page 56, Lines 4-11.
7. U.S. Census (Slave Schedules, MD) for Elliott Phillips, 1850. Dorchester County, District 1, p. 25, Lines 33-41.
8. "More Runaways," Easton Star, 4 November 1857.
9. Larson, p. 145.
10. $3,100 Reward, Baltimore Sun, 28 October 1857.
11. Larson, p. 146-148.
14. Larson, p. 144-148.
15. Larson, p. 150.
16. DORCHESTER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (Assessment Record) for Reuben E. Phillips 1852-1910 C687, Election District 7, p. 162.
17. U.S. Census (Slave Schedules) for Elliott Phillips, 1860. Dorchester County, District 7, p. 45, Lines 27-36.
19. U.S. Census Records (U.S. Census) for R.E. Phillips, 1870 Dorchester
County, District 7, Page 56, Lines 4-11.
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