Ann Johnson (b. circa 1833 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-8124
Fled from Slavery, Dorchester County, Maryland 1857
Biography:
Ann Johnson successfully escaped from Dorchester County, Maryland in 1857. Ann was described as having a chestnut or copper complexion. She was tall and had "an intelligent countenance."1 Prior to her escape, she was owned by Samuel Harrington in Cambridge. Harrington had five or six slaves, and thus Ann did a variety of work, laboring in the field and also in the kitchen. She said that Harrington was an "ill-natured man" and that he was a member of the "old time Methodist Church."2
Around 1853, Ann's brother ran away to freedom in Canada.3 Harrington sold his slaves after this escape, and Ann was sold from Dorchester County to a man named William H. Rhodes in Chesapeake City, Maryland.4 Rhodes and his wife were given to "intemperance and carousing"5 and Ann ran away from the Rhodes on April 26, 1856.6 She had no shoes or bonnet when she escaped, wearing only a "domestic dress well worn" and a handkerchief on her head. Rhodes advertised for her return in the American Eagle, offering a $50 reward.7
Ann, along with seven others, including one other woman, was helped along her way to freedom by the Underground Railroad. According to William Still's account of their escape, the group was betrayed by their conductor, who could not resist the reward for the runaways' return. He led them into the Dover Jail, and when the deception was discovered the group put up a powerful resistance, and Ann, along with the others, jumped from the window.8
Still wrote of this group that "they had the true grit."9 Although little has yet been recovered about her life after escape, Johnson is known to have reached Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was aided there by individuals connected with the Underground Railroad.
Return to Ann Johnson's Introductory Page
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