In Baltimore, the local racist police helicopter is known as "The vessel of hate," so it was only fitting that I was able to grab this clip of them flying in the same area where the First Enslaved People were brought to the Mount Clare Property by
Dr. Charles Carroll to work at the Iron Works in the late 1730s, records show the names of Abram, Charles, Guy, Timbole, Jingo, Harry, James, Christmas, Ned, Will, Pugg, and Lucy. They were likely primarily purchased in Williamsburg, Virginia, as Dr. Carroll was told he could get a cheap price for enslaved people there.
Where Did Enslaved Workers at Mount Clare Come From?
Some early enslaved laborers at the nearby Iron Works appear to have been from West Africa and brought to Maryland through the Atlantic slave trade. They may have come to Maryland from nearby ports, including Alexandria, Annapolis, or Baltimore. For example, a man named Caesar ran away from the Iron Works and was noted for not being able to speak much English, suggesting he was not from the Chesapeake area, and French, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandinka, Wolof, or another West African language may have been his native language.
By the time Charles Carroll, the Barrister, inherited Mount Clare, most enslaved laborers arrived in Maryland from the United States domestic trade rather than the international slave trade, and those who arrived at Mount Clare after that were likely acquired from areas within the Chesapeake region.
Working in the House
About 37 to 39 enslaved people ran the house. Contrary to popular perception, work in the house was not necessarily safer than work in the fields. For example, Frederick Douglass, who was enslaved on Maryland's Eastern shore, recalled an enslaved girl who worked in the house was beaten to the point where she was killed by her enslaver when she fell asleep while watching her mistress's infant, which had woken and begun crying. They had to work often under constant and close supervision of their enslavers. Unlike field workers, their work days did not end at sundown.