David Canada (b. ~1800 - d. 1874)
MSA SC 5496-051270
Black Property Owner, Queen Anne's County, Maryland
Biography:
David Canada was an African-American who owned land and slaves in Caroline and Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. It is unknown whether Canada himself was ever a slave, or was born free. He was most likely the nephew or cousin of the elder David Cannaday, a fellow resident of Caroline County, who had accumulated over 100 acres of land in the early part of the century. Both men’s last names experienced countless different spellings throughout the official records, probably due to their illiteracy as indicated in various censuses.
In 1849, Canada paid James Turner $400 for a plot of land in Caroline County, which had actually once belonged to his presumed relation, the first David Canada.1 The elder had willed his substantial holdings to sons Perry and Philip. The two were forced to sell the land to pay off debts, ironically to fellow free black slaveholder Rixom Webb.2 In 1853, Canada was able to spend one thousand dollars to acquire another 146 acres in Queen Anne’s County, more than doubling his current holdings.3 David Canada first appears in census records in 1850. He is listed as a mulatto laborer, living in Queen Anne’s County with his wife Arianna and 13 other household members.4 In that same year, Canada appears on that county’s slave schedule with 10 bondsmen, ranging from age 2 to 55.5 By 1860, he held no such property. There is no record of runaway ads or manumissions executed by David Canada in the ensuing years before slavery was abolished. He is also largely absent from the court records of Caroline and Queen counties, with little regarding significant debts or crimes that might relate to enslavement.
The Federal Census indicates that by 1870 David Canada had $12,000 worth of real estate and $1,000 in his personal estate.6 However, the real estate value may have been miscalculated or exaggerated in this record. The tax assessments from 1866 assert that the total taxable value was $2,690.7 Nonetheless, the estate was easily one of the most valuable within the local African-American community. Canada was also worth more than nearly all of his white neighbors. This is all the more impressive considering that neither he nor his wife was able to read or write. Slaveholding aside, Canada and his wife shared their largess with the black community in 1868 by essentially donating a portion of his Caroline County land to the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. This act was done “in consideration of the sum of ten cents together with their esteem for the Methodist Episcopal Church(Colored).”8 His relation Philip Kennedy would go on to serve as a deacon in the congregation, while Perry Kennedy was a trustee. Unfortunately, these records do not provide a more specific label for the organization. The descriptions in the Caroline County land records are not sufficient to definitively identify it among the contemporary or former churches in that area.
David Canada represented a small, but growing population
of African-American landowners who sought to improve their lives through
the same economic pursuits as their white counterparts. At times this meant
that these individuals had to carefully straddle the line between the racial
communities, even coopting the system of unpaid labor that made farming
profitable for many Eastern Shore farmers. Due to the lack of court records,
manumissions, or runaway advertisements regarding his property, it is difficult
to determine the nature of the servitude that Canada employed. We do know
that his experience with slave ownership was relatively short, as only
the 1850 Census provides evidence of it. At his death in 1874, David Canada
passed down both his Queen Anne's and Caroline county farms to direct relations,
avoiding the debt and legal wrangling that often befell the estates of
prominent farmers.9 Like Rixom Webb, he was able to achieve a measure of
success at a time when free blacks, especially prosperous ones, were regarded
with suspicion by many white Marylanders. Perhaps by occupying that ambiguous
stance toward the status of African-Americans, David Canada managed to
gradually enhance his family's position in Eastern Shore society without
becoming a target of white animosity.
Footnotes -
1. CAROLINE COUNTY COURT (Land Records), MSA CE 94-24, Y, 1848-1850, pp.339 - 340.
2. CAROLINE COUNTY COURT (Land Records), MSA CE 94-21, v, 1840-1843, p. 370.
3. QUEEN ANNE'S
4. Ancestry.com, 1850 United States Federal Census, Election District 3, Queen Anne’s, Maryland.
5. Ancestry.com, 1850 US Federal Slave Schedule, Election District 3, Queen Anne’s, Maryland, p. 16.
6. Ancestry.com, 1870 United States Federal Census,
Election District 2,
7. CAROLINE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (Assessment Record)
1866, District 2, pp. 4-5.
8.
9. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Wills), 1871-1884, p. 121.
Researched and written by David Armenti, 2011.
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