Polish Mills (b. 1811 - d. 1865)
MSA SC 5496-51399
Property Owner, Dorchester County
Biography:
Polish Mills was a farmer, who lived in the Bucktown District of Dorchester County. He is first recorded as a slaveholder in the 1840 Census, when four African-Americans resided on his property.1 Though Polish was too young to be a sole proprietor in 1830, it is known that he was active in the plantation economy before that first documentation. Rit Ross, mother of Harriet Tubman, had actually been hired out to Mills in 1833. Their owner Edward Brodess lived on a nearby farm, but did not have enough work to occupy his bondsmen. Tubman's sister Linah was also sent to Mills' plantation, where she was deemed to have little value as a slave.2 Young Harriet likely risked punishment by sneaking over to visit her family there. Polish Mills may have rented slaves or employed free blacks more often than he owned them, considering that his official holdings stayed relatively small over the years.
In 1848, Mills paid William M. Robinson a combined $602 for George Hackett and his brother William. He was "to have and to hold the said Negroes Wm & George as slaves for life."3 Mills only had two male slaves recorded in his 1850 slave schedule, ages 10 and 12, who are most likely George and his brother.4 The white farmer claimed $8,000 worth of real estate that same year, which would again indicate that more labor was employed aside from the two young brothers.5 In 1860, Mills was in possession of four slaves, two of which roughly match the ages of the Hackett brothers.6
George was one of two young men who attempted flee from Dorchester on Christmas Day in 1861. This was a common time to escape, as slaves were given the opportunity to move about more freely and visit family on other plantations. Hackett's fellow freedom seeker, John Wesley Hughes, boarded the steamship Kent that was set to go from Cambridge to Baltimore. Presumably George participated in the same course of action, though the court record does not specify that he was also on the ship. While already out on the water, Hughes was exposed by the ship's clerk, who was suspected that his pass was fake. He was detained and sent right back to Dorchester County, as George Hackett most likely was.7
Local officials determined that a free black man, William Hill, was responsible for assisting Hackett and Hughes in their escape. The main witness to the alleged plot was Maria Camper, a free black woman who lived on Mills' property. Court documents relate her contention that William Hackett had learned to write from Hill. Both of the freedom seekers had been in possession of passes, affixed with the signature of local justice of the peace, Josiah Carroll. He was also a witness in the trial, presumably testifying that he had not written the passes.8 Still, Maria Camper's testimony seems to be the only evidence presented to tie William Hill to the escape.
On May 19, 1862, Hill was convicted in the Dorchester County Circuit Court on two counts of aiding a runaway slave. He was sentenced to a total of fifteen years at the Maryland State Penitentiary in Baltimore, each count yielding nearly the maximum charge of eight years.9 However, he did not have to serve that whole term. In 1865, William Hill was recommended to the clemency of the Governor, along with several others convicted of the same crime. Polish Mills died that same year, just as the Eastern Shore was coping with the loss of its primary source of wealth and status. In his will, Mills provided for Maria Camper, "a free colored woman who has been in my employ for many years past."10 Indeed, she and her daughters had been living in his household since at least 1850, possibly indicating a closer relationship between them and the white landowner.11 She was given a "house and lot of ground, or small field," and was allowed to gather firewood from the main house. Polish Mills never married, and left the rest of his property to assorted siblings, nephews, and nieces.12
10. DORCHESTER COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Wills), Book EWL 1, 1861-1871, pp. 326 - 329.
11. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census, Dorchester County, District 1, p. 152.
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