Robert Dennis
(b. 1751- d. 1824)
MSA SC 5496-51917
Biography:
Robert Dennis, esq. was a landowner in Dorchester County, Maryland. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates as a representative of Dorchester County from 1806 to 1809.1 Robert Dennis married Sarah Waters in 1786.2
In 1794, Robert Dennis recorded a manumission for his slave Negro James, a man known as Lame James. This document stipulated that James would be free after paying Dennis the hefty sum of sixty dollars.3 In 1813, Robert Dennis manumitted a woman named Earley, who was married to George Shippard.4
In 1820, Dennis was living with his wife, two young white women who may have been their daughters, and forty seven slaves. His household totalled fifty one people.5 In October of 1820, his wife, Sarah, died at the age of 63.6
In 1824, Robert Dennis, esq. passed away at 73 after enduring an illness of six months.7 He is buried in the Dennis Family Cemetery. His death may have raised concerns for his slaves, who could have feared their families would be broken up and sold at the inclination of the new owner or to settle the estate's debts. Around Easter of 1824, nine of Dennis' slaves escaped en masse. Levin and his wife, Patience, ran away with their two daughters, five-year-old Anne Maria and two-year-old Sophia. Accompanying the family were David, Joe, Zadock, George, and Elijah. The executor of Dennis' will, Clement Stanford, posted several advertisements for the return of the slaves. On November 13, 1824, Stanford had the same advertisement posted in newspapers in Maryland and the states to the north where the runaways were probably headed; including the "Patriot, Baltimore; Star, Easton, Md. - Emporium, Trenton, N.J. and National Gazette, Philadelphia." Stanford offered a reward of $750 dollars "to any person or persons, who may apprehend said negroes and secure them in jail or otherwise, so that the subscriber gets them again, or 75 dollars for each one secured."8 The group seems to have succesfully eluded capture for months, in January 1, 1825, Stanford increased the reward amount to $1000 for the return of all of the fugitives. Individually, he would pay "100 dollars for each man, or 50 for the woman and each of the children."9 It was typical to place a higher value on male slaves in runaway advertisements. The advertisement with the new $1000 reward only appeared once in the Cambridge Chronicle although it was supposed to run six times in the newspaper. It is unknown whether the ad was pulled because Stanford failed to pay for the future advertisements or because the slaves had been recaptured.Footnotes:
1. Archives of Maryland. Historical List, House of Delegates, Dorchester County (1790-1974).
6. "Died." Baltimore Patriot. October 24, 1820.
7. "Died." Baltimore Patriot. April 9, 1824.
8. "$750 Reward." Cambridge Chronicle. November 13, 1824.
9."One Thousand Dollars Reward." Cambridge Chronicle. January 1, 1825.
Researched and written by Emily Huebner, 2014.
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