East New Market
Notable People and Families
Samuel Green
Samuel Green was born into slavery in the East New Market area of Maryland around May 1801. He worked as a farm slave in the fields near Indian Creek just west of the town.
[Newspaper articles tend to be more accurate when reporting age than Census records. 21 June 1862 New York Herald-Tribune - "He is 62 years of age"; 7 March 1877 Baltimore American - "He was seventy-six years old at the time of his death"; Census data is often provided by another person, especially for certain types of households. The Census records from 1850 to 1870 would indicate his year of birth was between 1801 and 1812. A sketch in the Underground Railroad, William Still indicates that Samuel Green's family lived near Indian Creek. Green's general area of residence is confirmed by Census records. 28 August 1858 Easton Gazette - Green lived "in the community in which he was born."]
Before 1829 while Green was enslaved, he married an enslaved woman named Catherine. She was also known as Kitty. In 1855 a certificate was issued that showed Kitty Green was free. She was described as a "negro woman, age about 49 years, 4 foot 9 3/4 inches high, of a chestnut complexion with several scars on her right arm near the elbow, supposed to have been caused by a burn." On 4 February 1842, two deeds are recorded. In the first deed, Samuel Green purchased his wife Kitty from Ezekiel Richardson. In the second deed Samuel Green manumits his wife, and thus gives her freedom. There is evidence that Green may have informally purchased his wife before the deeds were recorded. Both Samuel and Kitty are listed as free in the 1840 Census.
[The 1862 article in the New York Herald-Tribune states that "While a slave, he had married a slave-woman, the property of a kind master, who, after her husband had so handsomely worked out his freedom, sold him his wife for 25 cents! Mr. Green says, 'My wife was worth more, but I was willing to take her for that!'" Dorchester County deeds dated 4 February 1842 record the Bill of Sale and Record of Manumission for Kitty Green. The Certificate of Freedom dated 1855 confirms the manumission. The 1840 Census lists Samuel Green and his family as free colored.]
In the 1830 Census almost all households listed are headed by a white person or free colored person. However, in the 1830 Census, Kitty Green is listed as a slave and the head of a household. Kitty's household contained only slaves: 1 slave male under 10, 1 slave female under 10, 1 slave female 10-24, 1 slave female 55-100, total persons 4. Later Census records and her Certificate of Freedom indicate she was born around 1806 in Dorchester County. Kitty was likely about 24 years old during the 1830 Census. A household headed by a slave in the Census is unusual. A male slave of the appropriate age to be Samuel Green is not listed for her census entry. Henry Nicols had two male slaves aged 24 to 36 listed in his household. Therefore, Samuel probably lived in a separate house from his family in 1830.
[See the Census records for the Green family. The Certificate of Freedom dated 1855 states Kitty Green's age is 49 years.]
In 1832 Samuel Green was owned by Henry Nicols. When Henry Nicols died in 1832, he stated in his Last Will and Testament: "It is my will and desire that my negro man Sam Green, be sold for a term of five years and my negro man Daniel for a term of ten years, and to have the liberty to choose Masters, and after the expiration of said terms I do hereby manumit and set them free." Samuel Green was able to buy his own freedom one year later.
[In the 1862 New York Herald-Tribune article, Green states he "worked extra hours and earned enough money in one year to buy his freedom".]
Samuel Green's surname was Green before 1830 as his wife Kitty is listed as Kitty Green in the 1830 Census. It is possible that Green's surname was derived from the family of Henry Nicols' third wife, Margaret Green. On 29 April 1831 Henry Nicols married Margaret Ann Adelaide Green in Dorchester County. Margaret Green Nicols was a niece to Nathaniel E. Green, who was the executor of Henry Nicols Will. It is possible that Henry Nicols gained ownership of Samuel Green through marrying Margaret Ann Adelaide Green. Margaret was the daughter of Levin Ball Green (d. 1818) and the granddaughter of John Green (d. 1809).
[See Dorchester County marriages. Also see the Levin B. Green family page.]
In 1852 Samuel Green is listed in the Tax Records for the East New Market District 2. He owned 1 bed & furniture $10, 1 gig $5, 1 horse $30, and 5 hogs $10. He did not own real estate. Since Green did not own land, other sources must be used to pinpoint where he lived during his lifetime. The 28 August 1858 Easton Gazette article states that Samuel Green lived "in the community in which he was born." Still's book & journal states that Sam Green Jr. ran away from "Indian Creek". The 1858 article in the Easton Gazette states that Samuel Green's house stands near the road leading from Cambridge to the State of Delaware.
1801-1830 Enslaved by Green, Nicols, LeCompte, or another family
1831 Enslaved by Henry Nicols
1832-1857 "Lived in the community
in which he was born" 1840 and 1850
Census show him in the area around Indian Creek.
1857-1862 In Baltimore Penitentiary
1862-1865 London, Ontario, Canada with travels through NY & Mass.
1865-1873 Dorchester County 1870 Census shows him around Indian Creek.
1873-1877 Baltimore - Death Certificate states he was in Baltimore 4 years.
On July 27, 28, and 29, 1852, the Convention of Free Colored People of Maryland was held in Baltimore. Samuel Green served as one of the six delegates representing Dorchester County. The meeting was convened "to take into consideration the present condition and future prospects of the colored race." The main topic was the emigration to Liberia, or elsewhere. It appears that Green and others from the Dorchester delegation opposed emigration. "Several of the delegates from Dorchester county and other places, were not present, having gone home in consequence of the disturbances on Monday afternoon." It appears that Samuel Green was one of the delegates who went home.
[See the 1852 article in the Baltimore Sun.]
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The Liberator (Boston) 15 August 1862 - My son had worked for a hard task-master seven years, and one day he asked him for some money, and he gave him ten cents. He came to me, and said, "Father, I must fly for freedom"; and he found his way to Canada. I was suspected of helping him off, and other slaves, who ran away about the same time, and my house was searched, and a copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," a map of the county, and a picture of a hotel at Niagara Falls were found. I was convicted and sent to the Penitentiary for ten years. A strong petition was got up, and sent to Governor Hicks, praying for my pardon. The question was asked what he was going to do about it. He replied, "I know Green. So far as moral character goes, he is an honest man; but if I pardon him, I shall be called an abolitionist and mobbed." Governor Bradford released me, after I had been in prison five years.
[Add - Helping Harriet Tubman, his son's freedom, the 1857 arrest, the pleas for pardon, the 1862 pardon, the tour up north, back to Dorchester County after the Civil War, etc.]
The 1870 Census lists the elder Samuel Green between Arthur G. Moore and Arthur Saxton. As evidenced by the 1877 map shown below there are five or six structures for J.A. Saxton, A. Moore, and A. G. Moore. The structures identified are all centered around what is now known as Hicksburg Road and Rt. 16. Samuel Green likely lived in one of these structures.
Samuel and Kitty Green had two children, Samuel and Sarah. The two slaves age under 10 in the 1830 Census listing for Kitty Green were possibly the children of Samuel and Kitty. The older female slave could have been a mother to Samuel or to Kitty. Samuel and Kitty Green's children were born while Kitty was a slave. Therefore both children remained slaves even after Samuel bought his and Kitty's freedom. The children become the property of Dr. James Muse around 1847.
[The 1862 New York Herald Tribune article states Samuel and Kitty "had two children - son and daughter - both slaves of one master." Page 99 of Journal C of Station No. 2, William Still, 1853-54 states that the name of Sam Green Jr.'s sister is Sarah. The name is also found on a Bill of Sale for Kitty Green]
- Samuel Green Jr. was born in the East New Market area near
Indian Creek probably in the early part of 1830.
[Page 99 of Journal C of Station No. 2, William Still, 1853-54 states Sam Jr. was 24 years old on 28 August 1858. The 1871 Canadian Census states he was 40 years old. A entry on an 1842 Bill of Sale may indicated he was 15 months younger than his sister or may indicate his sister was 15 months younger.]
Samuel, Jr. successfully escaped to Canada in 1854. He married Louisa Grey in Canada. Louisa was born around 1804, the daughter of Isaac Grey (1804-1888) and Maria Weadon. The Gray family were members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Otterville. Samuel and Louisa Green had at least three children Vesta, Oliver, and James. They lived in Ancaster township according to the 1871 Canadian Census. Samuel Green Jr. died on 20 April 1875 in Ancaster, Wentworth, Ontario. His death certificate states he was born in Maryland and died at age 45. James Green was living with his uncle and aunt, Benjamin and Harriett Grey during the 1881 Census in Canada.
[“A Safe Haven: The Story of the Black Settlers of Oxford County” by Joyce Pettigrew, Ontario, CA]
- Sarah Green was born in East New Market area possibly on 12 October 1831. As a result of Samuel's escape, Muse sold Sarah to an owner in Missouri, separating her from her family.
Samuel Green died on 28 February 1877 at age 75 or 76. The cause of death was inflammation of the kidneys. He had been sick two weeks. At the time of his death he lived in Baltimore, Maryland at No. 11 Paris Alley. He was a member of the Orchard Street Church. The Baltimore Sun ran a story about his death. In the article, his wife was named as Eliza. Samuel Green had either remarried or Catherine "Kitty" Green was also known as Eliza.
KCL - I also tracked Kitty Green through Baltimore city directories into the 1880s. In 1883 she is listed (as Catherine) at the same address - 11 Wilmer alley - as the widow of Sam. She shows up again in 1886 as Kitty, living at L[ittle] Monument. Then she doesn't appear in the directory again. I suspect if the Orchard Street Church has records they may have information about Sam and Kitty.
.....
[working in some of following with other information.]
Unlike many blacks of the time period, Green received an education. He
worked as a lay minister in the local Methodist Episcopal church, and
became a prominent man in the growing free black community. He may have
taught his children some basic reading and writing skills, as evidenced
by letters Samuel, Jr. sent from his new home in Canada. However, these
letters would prove to be a detriment to his father. One
letter, written
in 1854, named two slaves Samuel, Jr. wished would join him up North.
Both of these men escaped to Canada by 1857. During the winter of
1856-1857, Samuel visited his son in Canada. Upon his return to
Maryland, he began making plans for he and Kitty to relocate there.
Suspicion regarding Samuel Green and any role he may have had in aiding
slaves began to build in the community. Upon his return from Canada, the
sheriff conducted a search of Green's home. Among the items found were
Samuel, Jr.'s letters, a map and other items pertaining to his trip, and
at least one volume of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Samuel Green was arrested on
April 4, 1857, and charged with "knowingly having in his possession a
certain abolition pamphlet called 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' of an
inflammatory character and calculated to create discontent amongst the
colored population of this State" and "knowingly having in his
possession certain abolition papers and pictorial representation of an
inflammatory character calculated to create discontent amongst the
colored population of this State." Green was later acquitted of the
second charge. After a two week trial, Green was found guilty of the
first charge. Under Acts of 1841, Chapter 272, Green was guilty of a
felony and sentenced to the minimum ten years at the Maryland
Penitentiary.
Word of Green's case soon spread throughout the country, and many could
not believe that the events had actually occurred. Support for Green
began to build and letters arrived at Governor Thomas Watkins Ligon's
door in favor of pardon.
Letters from Dorchester County slave holders
also arrived, stating that Green should remain behind bars, and that he
was to blame for many slave runaways in the area. The barrage of
petitions continued while Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks, a native of
Dorchester County, took office. Hicks, a firm believer in the right of
citizens to own slaves, had a strong distaste for abolitionists, and
declared that Green would remain in jail as long as he was Governor.
Hicks kept his promise. Hicks' successor, Augustus W. Bradford, granted
Green a conditional pardon in March 1962, stating that Green had to
leave the State within sixty days. Samuel and Kitty left to join their
son in Canada.
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Rev. Green's son was identified in William Still's book as having left Indian Creek.
Choptank Indian Lot owners in 1850 with plat map.
PICTURES OF SLAVERY IN CHURCH AND STATE;
INCLUDING PERSONAL REMINISCENCES, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, ANECDOTES, ETC.
ETC.
WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE VIEWS OF JOHN WESLEY AND RICHARD WATSON
ON SLAVERY.
BY REV. JOHN DIXON LONG, A Superannuated Minister of the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
SECOND EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 1857.
A PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL BELONGING TO THE M. E. CHURCH IN A MARYLAND PENITENTIARY.
SAMUEL GREEN, a free colored man of Dorchester County, Maryland, was sentenced to ten years' confinement in the Maryland State prison, at the spring term of the County Court of the present year 1857, held in Cambridge, Md. What was the crime imputed to this man, born on American soil--a man of good moral character--a local preacher in the M. E. Church, as I have been informed--a husband and a father? Simply this--a copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was found in his possession. It was not proved that he had read it to the colored people. He had recently paid a visit to his son residing in Canada. Previous to his arrest, several slaves had escaped to the land of the free. The slave-holders of Dorchester County thirsted for an object upon which to vent their rage; hence poor Green's arrest and conviction. He has fallen a living sacrifice to the fiendish despotism of the Cotton Aristocracy of the North and South. Dorchester County is almost exclusively a Methodist County. If the members of
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the M. E. Church of Dorchester had been liberty-loving, slavery-hating Methodists, no judge or jury would have dared to consign their brother in Christ to ten years' incarceration in a State prison, separated from wife and children, for having a book in his possession which might have been found on the shelves of the very Judge that pronounced the sentence. To the best of my recollection, I never saw a jury at any County Court on the Eastern Shore of Maryland that was not partially composed of members of the M. E. Church. The Judge who pronounced the sentence was, when I was a boy, a member of the New-school Presbyterian Church in Snow Hill, Md.; and, I presume, he is still a member of that church. He ought to have resigned his seat rather than have pronounced such a sentence. The Methodists of Maryland could have poor Green pardoned in six months, should they desire it. May the prayers of all the good go up to the Throne of Grace for this oppressed brother! I blush for my native State when I think of her bloody code of laws--a code that would disgrace a savage tribe. I blush for the Methodists, the Presbyterians,
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the Episcopalians, and the Baptists of Maryland, who, united, could wipe off from the statute book the black laws that tarnish her fair fame. Maryland denies the humanity of one hundred thousand slaves, and oppresses seventy-five thousand free negroes. May the Omnipotent speed the hour when American slavery shall be blasted by the thunders of His power, amidst the shoutings and hallelujahs of a redeemed race!
For more information see Samuel Green (Freedman)
Sam Jr. from bulldog / blondo
On Monday I visited the U. of Western Ontario. On Tuesday I visited Salford and the Oxford County Archives in search of Sam junior. Joyce Pettigrew told me of a Louisa Grey (Gray) who married a man named Green at the time my man was there. Louisa was listed in the 1861 census as married, with a three year old daughter Vesta, and an infant son. No mention of Sam.
On Wednesday 11 April I visited the Raleigh Township Centennial Museum at North Buxton. They had a wonderful index created by the late Arlie Robbins and her volunteers of every black listed in the Canadian censuses. There was a Samuel Green listed in the 1871 census near Hamilton, Ontario (Wentworth County, Ancaster Township). A look at the reference listed his wife Louisa, 13 year old daughter Vesta, 7 year old Oliver and James D. age 2. I had found Green junior who was now a forty year old barber and who was listed as Anglican while the family remained Methodist Episcopal.
James Green
15 HD 135 - 2 September 1799 - James B. Sulivane and Robert Sulivane
to negro James Green - We hereby certify that Doctor Daniel Sulivane,
deceased of the State of Maryland, Eastern Shore, Dorchester County by
liberated the bearer James Green in the year Seventeen hundred and
ninety three. We further say that the above mentioned James Green
has hitherto conducted himself while a slave to his master in the most
orderly behaved manner, and since his liberation to our knowledge with
honesty and decency.
Witness our hands this 2nd day August Seventeen hundred and ninety nine
- James B. Sulivane & Robert Sulivane, Administrators of Daniel Sulivane,
deceased.
Maryland Herald and Eastern Shore Intelligencer - 5 November 1799 -
Reward -
D. Smith, Dorchester County, offers reward for negro woman, Cloe, age
about 40 and her daughters, Milly, age about 12 and Rosetta, age about
9, her husband James Green, age 40, passed in Dorchester County as a
freeman; he has pass to work for himself from Dr. James Sulivane and
Robert Sulivane, son of the deceased, living in New Market