Tom Carver
MSA SC 5496-51711
Petitioned for Freedom, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 1794

Biography:

Tom Carver was a slave in the late 18th century. In 1794 Carver challenged his bondage by Samuel Lloyd Chew and submitted a freedom petition to the General Court of the Western Shore. The case was the first of four related freedom petitions concerning a decades long illegal enslavement surrounding Wye Island. His attorney was Gabrial Duvall.

A 1681 Maryland law stipulated that "all Children borne of such ffreeborne women, soe manymitted & ffree as aforesaid shall bee ffree as the women soe married"; this legal discrepancy between mulattos borne of free mothers with slave fathers and mulattos borne of free fathers and slave mothers established a precedence that freedom passes through the maternal line no matter how many generations removed.¹ Carver claimed his great-grandmother, known was "Indian Mary" or "Indian Moll," was free and therefore his bondgage was illegal. This case study utilizes court transcripts of Carver's suit used as evidence in the 1812 petition of Robert Moody, his first cousin once removed, against Richard Jones. The original records exist in the General Court of the Western Shore Judgment Record, JG 25 p. 73-94, October term 1794.

Tom Carver v. Samuel Lloyd Chew

Samuel Lloyd Chew was a wealthy and well connected Annapolitian with blood and marital connections to the Paca and Dulaney families. According to the 1790 federal census, Chew owned 41 slaves.² The case of Carver v. Chew relied on the testimony of Queen Anne's and Talbot Counties residents, especially those familiar with Wye Island, but also crossed the Chesapeake into Annapolis and Herring Bay. Over thirty persons, many of whom worked for or lived near Philemon Lloyd Chew (typically called Philemon Lloyd) and his plantation on Wye Island for years if not decades, responded to questions regarding an Indian servant named Moll or Mary.³ Most claimed to have never heard of any servant entitled to freedom. 

Former Maryland Governor William Paca, who acquired half of Wye Island through marriage to his first wife, Mary Lloyd Chew Paca, claimed no knowledge nor record from Philemon Lloyd's estate papers indicating that Tom's mother Margaret was descended from a free woman.⁴ One deponent named Ann Maria Chew knew Margaret was a servant in Mary Lloyd Chew's stepfather's household in Annapolis but claimed the Dulaney's sent her away to Wye Island for misconduct.⁵ The widow Elizabeth Chew stated that a slave named Margaret was pregnant when her deceased husband (also named Samuel) acquired Margaret from Wye Island.⁶ The widow Elizabeth Chew went on to testify that Tom was Margaret's son and claimed "Margaret was a free woman, free as any body."⁷ She verified this fact with Samuel Chew's sister, and thus Samuel Lloyd's aunt, Mary Hepburn of Upper Marlborough. Hepburn told her that "Margaret certainly is a free woman and no slave [because] her mother [Rachel] was the daughter of an Indian woman a native of this country" and brought up in the family of Philemon Lloyd Chew on Wye Island.⁸

It is unclear whether Carver won his freedom. The court transcripts and docket indicate that both Carver and Chew's counsels entered the testimony of Elizabeth Chew into evidence but the petition was dismissed at the request of Carver's counsel, Gabrial Duvall.⁹ It is possible their attorneys reached a separate agreement to manumit Carver on the condition they drop the petition. By drafting an agreement out of court Chew would have better shielded his relatives and associates from similar lawsuits connected to Indian Mary.      

For a family tree of the eighteen slaves who claimed descent from Indian Mary click the "Images" link in Carver's introductory page.

2. Ancestry.com, United States Federal Census, 1790, Anne Arundel County

3. COURT OF APPEALS (Judgments, Eastern Shore) S380-28 No. 19 Richard Jones vs. Robert Moody Jun. 1813, p. 11-33, 01/63/09/013  [MSA SC 4239-1-5]

4. Ibid., p. 34

5. Ibid., p. 17

6. Ibid., p. 22

7. Ibid., p. 35

8. Ibid., p. 35-36

9. GENERAL COURT OF THE WESTERN SHORE (Docket) Petitions no. 101, 01/18/02/009 [MSA S492-23]
    GENERAL COURT OF THE WESTERN SHORE (Minutes) Vide Minutes, 01/18/02/009 [MSA S492-23]

 
Return to Tom Carver's Introductory Page

 
 
 

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