Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Cato (b. ? - d. 1745)
MSA SC 5496-51569
Slave in Talbot County, Maryland

Biography:

    Negro Cato grew up as a slave in St. Peter's Parrish, Talbot County, Maryland.1  He was owned by Nicholas Lowe, a prominent figure within the county.2  According to court records, Cato was involved in a murder case that occurred on June 3, 1745.3  The case states that Cato was accused of murdering his overseer, Augustine Nowland, by stabbing him to death.4 

    It was found by the court that Cato had a “certain knife of the value of one shilling current money of Maryland which he the same Cato then and there had and held Drawn in his right hand, him the same Augustine in and upon the left part of the Belly.”5  The description of the murder continues by stating that Cato “did Sticke, thrust, and Stabb giving him the said Augustine then and there with the knife afsd. On the left part of his Belly a Mortal Wound of the Breadth of Two Inches and of the Depth of four Inches.”6  The description of this murder shows the brutality in which it had happened.  This alleged murder might show that Cato hated his overseer and thus brutally murdered him by any means necessary.

    The court ruled that Cato was guilty and his death warrant was placed on July 20, 1745.7  Six days later, on July 26, he was hanged.8  The commission described his death as such: he was to “be carried to the place of Execution and there have his Right Hand cut off and then be hanged by the Neck till he be Dead after which to be cut down and have his Head Severed from his Body, his Body Divided into four Quarters and Head and Quarters set up in the most Publick Places in the said County be.”9  By law, quartering was practiced only on "Negroe[s], and other Slave[s]" that committed "any Petit-Treason, or Murder, or wilfully burning of Dwelling-Houses."10  It was a gruesome death, and in the colonial period, these type of displays were meant to dissuade others from performing the same acts.  

    The case was referenced in the June 14, 1745 issue of the Maryland Gazette as a “Negro-Man” in Talbot County being sentenced to death for stabbing and murdering his overseer with a knife.11  By publishing the results of cases within newspapers, it enabled slave owners to increase their awareness of potential slave crimes or insurrections being plotted.  
Endnotes:

1. TALBOT COUNTY COURT (Judgment Record). Negro Cato. 1745-1746. June Court 1745. Liber JL 9. MdHR Number 9067. MSA C1875-44. Folio 11, 12.

2. Ibid., 12.

3. Ibid., 11-14.

4. Ibid., 12.

5. Ibid., 12.

6. Ibid.

7. GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL (Commission Record) 1726-1786. July 20, 1745. Folio 85. MdHR Number 4010-1. MSA S1080-1.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. ARCHIVES OF MARYLAND ONLINE, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1727-1729, Vol. 36, Ch. IV, pg. 454-455.

11. "Annapolis." Maryland Gazette. 1745 June 14.
Researched and Written by Tanner Sparks, 2012.

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