Food for Thought

[L Verge]

(08-18-2019 03:27 PM)bob_summers Wrote:  

(08-18-2019 01:00 PM)L Verge Wrote:  [quote='Anita' pid='78317' dateline='1566091609']
[quote='L Verge' pid='78315' dateline='1566086869']
[quote='Anita' pid='78314' dateline='1566080245']

I did skim the section on Dr. Mudd from the online source you gave, and made another discovery. Many of the former slaves who testified in defense of Dr. Mudd make mention of not coming to live on the farm until just before or after Christmas of 1864. I don't know to whom they had been previously enslaved, but when they got to the Mudds, they would have been given their freedom under the new Maryland state consitution that went into effect on November 1, 1864.

If they had not resided on the farm previous to that, they were not qualified to testify as to Dr. Sam's treatment of his slaves -- and surely, he would have been careful not to mistreat those who had their new-found freedom. Bob, am I making a correct assumption here?

Laurie: I think I can answer where Dr. & Mrs. Mudd's slaves came from. If their last name was Washington, they came from Jeremiah Dyer's farm where Sara grew up. Otherwise, they came from Sam's father's farm. They were gifted, not purchased. Sam and Sara Mudd had no money to purchase slaves.

By my count, Sam and Sara had nine slaves. I have seen other references to eleven slaves, but I could only ever verify nine. Two of their nine slaves, Elzee Eglent (who testified that Dr. Mudd once shot him in the leg), and Richard Washington ran away to Washington in 1863. Four of the remaining seven slaves, Melvina Washington, Mary Simms, Milo Simms, and Rachel Spencer left the Mudd farm shortly after emancipation. The last three slaves, Lettie Hall, Louisa Christie, and Frank Washington remained on the farm for many years.

After emancipation, Frank's wife Betty Washington joined him at the Mudd farm. She had been a slave of Adelaide Middleton before emancipation. House servant Julia Ann Bloyce and carpenter Baptist Washington also began working at the Mudd farm.

Jeremiah Dyer sold his farm in the middle of the Civil War, in 1863, and went into the dry goods business in Baltimore. His sister Elizabeth Ann "Betty" Dyer then moved from the Dyer farm to the Mudd farm, taking her slave Frank Washington with her. Although Frank Washington was technically Betty Dyer's slave, once he moved to the Mudd farm and worked there as a field hand for Dr. Mudd, I have always counted him as one of Dr. Mudd's slaves. When emancipation came, Frank was free to go, but chose to stay at the Mudd farm as a paid farm hand.

Thanks for the information, Bob. Were the Mudds able to pay them for their services, or did Henry Lowe Mudd and Jeremiah Dyer help out? What about when Dr. Sam was in prison?