UNSOLVED MD - Benedict, 23 African Americans, Serenity Farm Slave Cemetery, 1790 - 1810

[Richard]

Forensic drawing of Unidentified Slave, from skull unearthed in a rural Maryland slave cemetery (circa 1790 - 1810)

Slave burial ground hidden from history for centuries
By SARAH FALLIN

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“Little did we know we were going to start on a two-year adventure,” Robinson said.

The research shows the burials occurred between 1780 and 1810 and African-American people of all ages were buried in the cemetery. Most of them were children. There was nothing in the graves for remembrances such as religious objects. However, one of the graves was vaulted and had the most complete skeleton. The bones in the vaulted grave didn’t show evidence of hard manual labor and were from a man age 25 to 29.

With further research of documents, some of the names of slaves who had been owned by the Smith family were found. A 1778 newspaper account details the escape of two slaves named Moses and Abraham. Moses was a 30-year-old shoemaker with an extra finger on each hand and an expert waterman. Abraham was dressed well. They made it across the bay in a canoe. Abraham and Moses were listed as the possessions of Charles Somerset Smith II when he died in 1780, which means they were eventually caught. Robinson said there are some clues in the graves that could link them to Moses and Abraham based on the newspaper account of their escape, but it’s not enough evidence to be sure...

LINKS:

Slave burial ground hidden from history for centuries

Baltimore County forensic artist helps give a face to African slave history

https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/archeobotany/Sites/18CH839.aspx

The Serenity Farm African American Burial Ground (Julie Schablitsky) | the Digital Archaeological Record

Serenity Farm Inc | Marylands Best

America's forgotten slave cemeteries

 

[Oakie]

I've been on that property several times (I mapped the soils there, for the USDA), but it was before the graves were found.

 

[Richard]

I've been on that property several times (I mapped the soils there, for the USDA), but it was before the graves were found.

This particular cemetery is located in an area which probably would not have been planted with crops, due to its rather small remote, and confined area, with a drop off and creek nearby.

It is also possible (in fact likely) that there is another, larger slave cemetery somewhere on the property. Note that this burial ground was only being used for a short period of time (1790 to 1810). And yet slaves worked plantations in that vicinity for decades before and after those dates.

It is important to recognize cemeteries like this one, and to realize that there are many, many more of them forgotten and lost to history.

 

[Oakie]

It is important to recognize cemeteries like this one, and to realize that there are many, many more of them forgotten and lost to history.

Before my career took me to Maryland, I worked on the coastal plain of South Carolina for 11 years. In the course of my work I found many lonely and abandoned slave cemeteries, usually marked only with ungraven local stones (ironstone, as that is the only stone found on the coastal plain). Sadly, it did not occur to me, at the time, to make some permanent record of the ones I found. I've no idea how many of those were remembered, how many forgotten.