Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Thomas Brodey Culbreth (b. 1815 - d. )
MSA SC 5496-51591
Slaveholder, Caroline County

Biography:

    Thomas Brodey Culbreth was from a prominent Eastern Shore family, whose roots were primarily centered in Caroline County. His father Samuel had been a state delegate, while his uncle Thomas Culbreth had been a U.S. Representative and later state executive clerk to Governor Thomas Veazey. Samuel Culbreth owned fourteen African Americans in 1820 compared to his brother's seven slaves, both properties being in Caroline County.1 Thomas Brodey was born in 1815, and therefore grew up with an intimate knowledge of the aristocratic, slave holding class of the region. Such an experience was actually somewhat unusual for a resident of that county, which only had 1574 slaves by 1820, by far the least of any Eastern Shore district.2

    Culbreth's family ties likely caused him to be connected with a highly publicized fugitive slave case in the 1830's. In late December of 1834, eight African Americans were dragged through the streets of Salem, New Jersey by a local constable named Michael Donahower. He had purportedly been hired by Culbreth to capture a woman named Bet, who was the only individual named in the media accounts.3 By this time the town had become known as a destination for freedom seekers, even by the Maryland slave holders who had lost their property. Queen Anne's county planter Thomas Emory had become privy as early as 1826, when William Duhamel informed him that "a vast quantity of negros that have settled in the neighbourhood of Salem and are shielded by some few individuals of that place." Just months before the December incident Robert G. Johnson told Emory of another potential Maryland fugitive on trial in the town.4

    Donahower was hardly the first to act on the suspicions of Maryland slaveholders, but the public nature of his actions drew much more attention. According a local newspaper, the Freeman's Banner, the trouble started at 4 AM when "the quiet slumbers of our peaceful town were disturbed by the cries of fire or murder." It was actually the "heart-rending cries of eight miserable beings in chains," who were forced into the falling snow with just the clothes on their backs.5 These details are corroborated in the diary of a Salem Quaker named John Mason Brown, apparently an eye-witness to the events. Brown would further contend that while several men were involved in the capture, Michael Donahower "passed more imprudence than all the others united."6

    The proceedings may have begun as early as that same evening, with much of the town's residents gathering in anxious anticipation. The unnamed counsel for the black defendants immediately challenged the legality of Donahower's papers, which allegedly showed that power of attorney was given to him by one of the slaveholders. After hearing the testimony of several witnesses, Judge George Bush decided that the documents were insufficient to prove ownership of a black woman and her child. At that point, Donahower brandished a pistol and refused to release those whom he considered his rightful property. Brown, the local sheriff and many others intervened to detain the belligerent slave catcher, while the defendants made their escape.7 According to a more pro-slavery account , Thomas B. Culbreth was actually present during most of these events and put up resistance alongside Donahower. However, this contention was likely a biased attempt to defend his claim to the African Americans on trial.8 Regardless, Culbreth was unable to return the woman, named Bet, and her child back to Caroline County.

    The rest of the reputed fugitives, as well as Donahower, were kept in the Salem County Jail until January. After more deliberation about the slaveholder claims, this session was further postponed to March. It is unclear what ultimately happened to Michael Donahower and the other six African Americans who were captured. However, there is no doubt that Thomas Culbreth would not be deterred by his initial failure in Salem. Outraged by what had occurred the previous year, the Marylander went to the New Jersey Supreme Court and introduced a "Plea of Trespass for the Escape of a Black Woman."9 The 1835 case implicated John Mason Brown and several others in Bet's escape, for which Culbreth was seeking a $10,000 in damages. The six men were described as "principally Friends, all of them among the most respectable inhabitants of the town of Salem." The eight day trial ended successfully for the former slave owner as the plaintiffs were assessed $1,000.10 Presumably much of these damages were awarded to Culbreth himself, which would have softened the blow of losing the two slaves. Perhaps coincidentally, in his role as executive clerk to the governor, Culbreth's Uncle Thomas would become embroiled in the political controversy that followed the case of fugitive Margaret Morgan's retrieval in Pennsylvania just a few years later. The elder Thomas served as the intermediary between the two states' executives in a sometimes contentious set of correspondance about the potential prosecution of the slave catchers, including Edward Prigg.

    By 1840, Thomas Brodey Culbreth was living in Delaware, most likely on property that his father had purchased for his children in 1818.11 His seven person household did not include any enslaved African Americans. Perhaps the whole ordeal in Salem had altered Culbreth's view of the institution, or he had simply tired of the inconvenience owning slaves had caused him. Thomas appeared in the Caroline County, Certificates of Freedom in 1845, vouching for the free status a a black woman named Rachel Thomas, though there relationship was unspecified.12 Culbreth is also recorded in the 1850 Federal Slave Schedule, owning two young black males in Caroline County, Maryland.13 It is unknown what occurred to this property, or Thomas B. Culbreth after that time.


Footnotes -

1. Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census, Caroline County, Maryland, District Not Stated, p. 5.
    Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census, Caroline County, Maryland, District 2, p. 4.

2. University of Virginia Library, Historical Census Browser, Geospatial and Statistical Data Center, 2004, http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu.

3. "The Slave Case in New Jersey." Baltimore Sun, 20 April 1838. 

4. Poplar Grove, Series 13, pp. 129-131.; pp. 195-197.

5. "Annals of Kidnapping: An Exhibition of Slavery in New Jersey." Liberator, 10 January 1835. 

6. John Mason Brown. Diary [December 25, 1834 - February 2, 1838]. MC 154. Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey.

7. "Annals of Kidnapping."

8. "Unprecedented Outrage," found in Thomas Brothers. The United States of North American As They Are; Not As They Are Generally Described: Being A Cure for Radicalism. Longman: London, UK (1840).

9. Brown Diary.

10. "The Slave Case in New Jersey." Baltimore Sun, 20 April 1838. 

11. Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census, Murderkill Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, p. 15.
      Caroline County Court (Land Records) Book M, 1817-1820, pp 307-8.

12. Caroline County, Certificates of Freedom, 1827-1857, p. 196. 

13. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census, Slave Schedule, Caroline County, Maryland, p. 4. 

Researched and Written by David Armenti, 2013. 

Return to Thomas B. Culbreth's Introductory Page


 
 
 


This web site is presented for reference purposes under the doctrine of fair use. When this material is used, in whole or in part, proper citation and credit must be attributed to the Maryland State Archives. PLEASE NOTE: The site may contain material from other sources which may be under copyright. Rights assessment, and full originating source citation, is the responsibility of the user.

Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
© Copyright January 18, 2013 Maryland State Archives