Surratt Courier

[Steve]

(06-17-2019 05:43 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I cannot get the Owens statement to load, and I am at home and away from the Surratt research center where I can retrieve the Owens file and statement as well as the Rewards file. That said, I am still perplexed as to whether or not James Owens was "colored" or white. 99% of the time, there is a reference made in the actual text or "cld" written in the margin. Other statements on other black folks in the files seem to hold to this, but not the Owens one.

The word "citizen" in the Old Capitol records is also confusing if James were colored. I am not sure that citizenship came with freedom. That took the 14th Amendment, I think - even if born free.

Does anyone have access to the 1860 Federal Census for Charles County, Maryland? Newport or Allen's Fresh area? Is James listed, and if so, any indication of race?

I checked Charles County, Maryland and Prince George's County, Maryland (where Austin L. Adams was living) in the 1860 census and couldn't find a James Owens who matches the age of the informant. There is a James Owens who's five years older who's a farmer in Prince George's County but I don't think that's a match. So either Owens was a former slave or moved to the Newport area sometime during the war.