Description African Americans, both enslaved and free, were vital to the economy of the Eastern Shore of Maryland before the Civil War.
Jacqueline Simmons Hedberg uses local records, including those of her ancestors, to tell a tale of slave traders and abolitionists, kidnappers and freedmen, cruelty and courage..
Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman ran from masters on the Eastern Shore and devoted their lives to helping other enslaved people with their words and deeds.
After the Revolutionary War, others were freed by masters disturbed by the contradiction between liberty and slavery.
Some enslaved people, like Anthony Johnson, earned their Freedom and became successful farmers.
Maryland became a slave society in colonial days when tobacco ruled.
Description African Americans, both enslaved and free, were vital to the economy of the Eastern Shore of Maryland before the Civil War
