Ann M. Green (b. circa
1820 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-8458
Fled from Slavery, Queen Anne's County, Maryland 1857
Biography:
Ann Maria Green successfully escaped Queen Anne's County, Maryland at age thirty-seven with her husband, Christopher, and her son Nathan. She had been owned by James Pippin, a farmer who "lived near the nine bridges" in that county and had eight bondsmen as of 1850.1 She may have been the same Ann Maria Green, recorded as a runaway slave in the Baltimore Jail as a runaway slave thirteen years earlier.2 This is more likely considering that her husband was owned by a Baltimore merchant named Clayton Wright, who periodically hired Christopher out to country farmers, including those on the Eastern Shore. The 1844 runaway had been claimed by a Thomas Wright, of Queen Anne's County, a possible relation of her husband's master. The Greens' son Nathan had been born in 1837, and was also owned by Pippin prior to their escape. The couple must have struggled to maintain normal relations within this arrangement, which was not unusual for enslaved families.
In describing her master, Ann Maria stated that "he tried to work me to death, and treated me as mean as he could, without killing me."3 The physical abuse was accompanied by constant threats that she and her son would be sold to Georgia. Pippin's treatment had apparently gotten worse in recent months, after Ann's brother Perry Trusty and another slave named James Massey fled the plantation.4 Remaining slaves and family members often bore the brunt of owners' anger when others were able to escape to freedom. Assuming that Ann and Perry had both of the same parents, his story would also hold relevance for her experience in slavery. When Trusty reached Philadelphia, he recounted a horrifying story that William Still would later publish.5 He stated that his mother, probably Ann Maria's as well, had been murdered by the son of a previous owner. Though the young man was taken to court, a petition from white Queen Anne's citizens successfully pled for clemency on the grounds that his act was in self-defense.6,7 Such incidences were not uncommon during this era when the legal rights of blacks, free or enslaved, were hardly respected.
Ann reached the same safe house that her brother had passed through several months earlier, and had her experience similarly recorded. Trusty may well have forwarded information that allowed the Green family to utilize the Underground Railroad connections in Pennsylvania and further North. Still would describe Ann as "a forcible narrator," who only spoke of her masters only in the most unflattering terms.8 He assisted Anna and her family to ultimately reach the fugitive slave community of St. Catharine's in Ontario, Canada. Christopher Green was working there as a common laborer as of 1871.9 There is no other documentation to describe Ann Maria Green's life in Canada, beyond that year.
2. BALTIMORE CITY AND COUNTY JAIL (Runaway Docket), 1836 - 1850 - Docket #882, "Ann Maria Green."
4. Ibid.
7. Petition to Governor, Clemency for John Seward, Poplar Grove Collection, Series 13, p. 224.
8. Still, p. 409.
9. Ancestry.com, 1871 Census of Canada, St. Catharine's, Lincoln, Ontario, p. 156.
Ancestry.com, 1861 Census of Canada, Canada West, Lincoln, p. 158.
Researched and Written by David Armenti, 2012.
Return
to Ann M. Green 's Introductory Page
|
|| Search the Archives || Education & Outreach || Archives of Maryland Online ] Governor General Assembly Judiciary Maryland.Gov
|