What's in a Name? Freetown

Freetown is an area in Howard County, not far from Guilford and along the original Guilford Road, that has been associated with an area where former enslaved men and women settled.  Since enslavers paid taxes on their “property” sometimes they would free those they enslaved through the process of manumission particularly after their deaths.  This way their families, or estate executors, avoided paying that tax.  Sometimes manumissions were truly for the benefit of the enslaved as their time of servitude may have ended or a slave-owner would grant freedom for a different reason.  An important note is that a Certificate of Freedom is proof that a person was "free" and not a documentation of manumission.

The term Freetown in Howard County first appeared in newspaper articles in the 1880s, as the capitol of Sierra Leone, Freetown, was in the news quite a bit in those days.  Freetown was a local name for an area of Simpsonville that was part of 150 acres of land that Nicholas Worthington, son of John, set aside for just 17 of those he enslaved to live upon. 1

Nicholas Worthington

Nicholas Worthington (1770-1845), son of John Worthington the Elder, was a wealthy landowner inheriting lands from both his father, and his brother, Thomas.  Nicholas Worthington was also an investor and businessman, a Justice of the Peace, and a founding Commissioner of the Patapsco Bank of Maryland in 1835 along with, among others, Thomas B. Dorsey, Charles Carroll of Homewood, and Charles W. Dorsey who was named executor of his estate in Mr. Worthington’s 1845 will. 1

In his will he left the majority of his rather large estate to the children of Mary Anne Clarke, husband of William Clarke.  It was widely assumed in the news reports that Mary Anne Clarke was his daughter, William his son-in-law, and he left his estate to his grandchildren.  However, there is no evidence he was married or had children so his relationship to Mary Anne Clarke is a bit of a mystery. 

What isn’t a mystery is that Nicholas Worthington provided for those he enslaved through manumission and for some, a life estate for specifically named people meaning they could live on the land for as long as they lived but they would not own the land.   The will mentioned the “150 acres of land, being part of the tract of land called “Worthington’s Improvement” or of “Athol Enlarged”…so as to include the swelling house built on the said one hundred fifty acres of land by negro Nan”, and provided that the land had a “sufficiency of water and an adequate supply of timber”, it was actually built solely on Worthington’s Improvement.2

Nicholas Worthington of John died on November 13, 1845 and between his will and inventory it appears he manumitted about 47 of those he had enslaved.  While 17 of them were manumitted and provided for with life estates, they did not own the land and could not pass it down to their children.  Of the 47 formerly enslaved, he provided cash to 31 of them ranging from $30 for most of them up to $2000 for one in particular.  Sixteen of them received no cash or land on which to live.  News of the will establishing freedom through manumission for those he enslaved spread across the country and even to London. Headlines included “Emancipation by Will” and “Noble Example” lauding the freeing of those he enslaved.3, 4 

The "Freedom Tax"

Estate taxes during that time were 2.5% of the value of the estate, and in this case would amount to about $7,000 of the estate’s worth which was up to $250,000.5

Manumission of those enslaved upon one’s death could also avoid paying taxes on them.  With at least 47 people enslaved and to be set free, the tax would have been added to the overall estate tax.  The manumissions were valued in the estate inventory at $15,433 6 yielding an additional tax of $386.  This amount hardly seems worth arguing about but the executor of the will “denied that the gift of freedom to a negro slave” should be taxable as a legacy to an estate. The Howard County Orphans Court agreed and did not impose the tax.  But this precedence was not in the State’s liking so the Attorney General filed suit in the Court of Appeals of Maryland who reversed the position and ordered the tax to be paid. In justifying the reversal that the enslaved are always personal property even if manumitted, the Court stated that “Indeed, the law has gone so far as to presume every negro a slave to some one, until the contrary appear”. 6

Did those Manumitted live at Freetown?

At that time, the land was owned by William Clarke who was holding it for his son John Ridgely Clarke per Nicholas Worthington’s will. No land ownership of those manumitted was provided in the will.  Five of the seventeen enslaved men and women and children manumitted were clearly living along Old Guilford Road, now called Harriet Tubman Lane, just 5 years later according to the 1850 census of the Howard District of Anne Arundel County.7  In particular, Abraham and Patience Dorsey, Isaac and Nelly Holland, and Henry and Airy (possibly) Baker were living in their three independent households but did not own the land on which they lived.  Isaac Holland was one of the original trustees at the Locust Church. 

Another household next to the Holland’s was occupied by Airy Johnson (60) and Kitty Brooks (58). Johnson and Brooks were among the surnames used by those enslaved by Mr. Worthington and Airy was a named also used. There was not always a clear first and last name of the enslaved individuals, but it is likely that Johnson and Brooks were also manumitted by the Worthington will.   Similarly, two other families living next to Henry Baker were Benjamin, Hamilton and Lucy Johnson and Rachel Johnson and Matilda Cooke. There were 4 members of a Cook family that were manumitted, so it is entirely possible that these other two families were also formerly enslaved. 7

On the 1860 Martinet Map households of  A. Johnson, R. Dorsey, I, Holland and A. Dorsey were all listed along Guilford Road at Freetown. 8

Citations

1 September 13, 1845. Nicholas Worthington of John, Last Will and Testament. P. 91-115. (See file in the right column).

2 Jody Frey. 2017. Updated 2021. Tracing the Settlement of Howard County, MD. Google Earth Maps of the Original Land Patents made using the kml files for Howard County Land Patents at https://jsfecmd.info/FREAK/HoCoFiles.html

3 December 5, 1845. Emancipation by Will. The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts). Friday, page 2.  Accessed 16 July 2021 from Newspapers.com.

4 January 1, 1846.  Noble Example. Boston Recorder page 3.

5 American Commercial Daily Advertiser 12-2-1845. Page 6. “The estate of the late Nicholas Worthington, of Anne Arundel county, will pay to the State of Maryland nearly $7000, under the law taxing legacies and collateral inheritances 2 ½ percent, supposing the estate not to exceed in value $250,000”.  Accessed 17 July 2021 from Genealogy Bank. https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:125193BF82A26B42@GB3NEWS-1426E8304F089A30@2395268-1424A26502445E38@5-1424A26502445E38

6 1852. Reports of Cases Argued ad Determined in the Court of Appeals of Maryland. Volume 6 containing cases in 1847 and 1848. Richard W. Gill. Clerk of the Court of Appeals. The State vs Dorsey, executor of Worthington. Pages 388-391. June 1848.

7 1850 Census Place: Howard, Anne Arundel, Maryland; Roll: 278; Page: 474a.  Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.