USA > Maryland > Dorchester County > History of Dorchester County, Maryland > Part 13
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In 1742 the Six Nations, allied Indian tribes, laid claim to large tracts of Maryland land along the Susquehanna and Potomac Rivers, and on the Eastern Shore of the Chesa- peake Bay, and claimed such payment for it as they estimated
1 A matchcoat was an Indian blanket, made of Duffield cloth, with the wool long upon one side so as to remind the savages of their furs.
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
the land to be worth. After some delay and failure to nego- tiate a sale of their claims the Shawnee Indians tried to per- suade the Eastern Shore Indians to rise in revolt with them and massacre the white settlers. Some friendly Indians in- formed the whites of the plot, prompt defences were made along the frontier, and a great massacre was averted. The story of the conspiracy is fully explained in the following affidavit :
"The examination of Jemmy Smallhomony, one of the Atchawamp Indians of Great Choptank, taken before me, Henry Hooper, one of his Lordship's Justices of the Provin- cial Court, taken this 25th day of June, 1742.
"This examinate sayeth that about the middle of May last there was an agreement made between some Indians that came from Shawan (being 23 in number), and the several nations of our own Indians, to rise and cut off the English, and that two of our Indians went up with them in order to know the time which was agreed on to be this moon, and to be assisted with 500 of the Shawan and Northern Indians, and about the same time the French, with the assistance of other Indians, were to attack the back inhabitants of Maryland and Pennsylvania. This examinant further saieth that the several nations of our Indians have built a lodge house about 20 feet long and 15 feet wide in Pocomoke Swamp for a repository to secure their arms and ammunition, and that they now in the said house have several guns with a good deal of ammunition, and a large quantity of poisoned arrows pointed with brass, and that they intended to begin the attack in Somerset and Dorset, and several places in one and the same night, and when they had cut off the English in those two counties, to extend their conquest upwards till they had joined the other Indians and the French. This deponent further saith the Said Indians intended to destroy man, woman and child, as far as they extended their conquest, etc.
his "JEMMY X SMALLHOMMONY. mark
"Taken the day and year above written by me.
"HENRY HOOPER."
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INDIANS LEAVE DORCHESTER COUNTY
In 1744 the Indian tribes then living in Dorchester began to leave the province, and to locate new homes in greater for- ests with broad hunting grounds and more game, farther away from the whites, who continually invaded their reserva- tion and influenced "their young people to adopt more vices than virtues." After the death of their "Crowned King," or head chief, Winicaco, about 1720, being subjects of the Iro- quois Indians, to whom they paid tribute, and by whom they were influenced, they became more and more dissatisfied with the limits of their reservation, and menaced surroundings until they finally departed from the province. The Choptank Indians and a few scattering families of other tribes remained in Dorchester and by degeneration and intermarriage with the "blacks," became entirely extinct about 1840. They left behind them a memorable history, a collected vocabulary1 of the names of places, objects and customs, in their language. This, together with written stories and oral traditions of them will animate an inquiring interest in the minds of our future generations, closely akin to our thrilling interest in the "redskins," be they Nanticokes or Mohicans.
'A vocabulary of their language was obtained by Mr. Williams Vans Murray, in 1792, from the remnants of tribes still in Maryland. It is in the library of the American Philological Society, but has never been cor- rectly or completely printed.
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Colored Race in Dorchester County. CHAPTER XXI.
SLAVERY DAYS-PERIOD OF FREEDOM-PROGRESS-CHURCHES.
With the first white settlers that came to Dorchester, black slaves or servants were brought, few at first but as farming grew and cheap labor became profitable, direct importations of negroes were landed at Cambridge and Vienna, and sold for the cost of transportation. From the earliest days of the slave-holding period to its termination there were some free blacks who had either bought their freedom from their mas- ters or had been set free at a certain age or by decree at their master's death.
Slave service was not more severe in Dorchester than in other slave-holding sections of the country. As else- where, members of slave families were liable to be sold and separated, husband from wife, and children from parents. Some masters and overseers cruelly treated their slaves, who were scantily clothed and poorly fed, while overtasked and whipped for failing to perform excessive work. Inhuman cruelty was rare, but from the lips of my grandmother I was told of a woman, owner of a number of slaves, and whose name is still perpetuated by her descendants on the Eastern Shore, who had her slaves lined up and whipped every Mon- day morning, those most deserving of punishment being washed with salt and water pickle after the whipping. I am unable to decide why she had the salt water applied. Was it an antiseptic treatment for injured tissue, or was it to inflict more punishment by the severe irritation it produced 'on application to excoriated backs?
In the county, public and private sales of slaves were fre- quent during the colonial period; the traffic was then local
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COLORED CHURCHES
and chiefly confined to the counties of Maryland. After the Revolution, when new States were organized in the "South," the settlers there needed more manual labor, which made an active demand for Maryland slaves at a good price. Negro buyers, often called "Georgia Traders," came to Cambridge and other places in the county and bought young slaves whom they carried "South." At these heart-rending sepa- rations between the slave husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, rivers of burning tears were poured out, and bitter wails of lamentation sent up to Him who heareth all things and seeth the "sparrow fall." In His own providential time and way He seemeth to have made the bondmen free.
In 1863 the emancipated colored people with free blacks in the county numbered about 8400; by the census of 1900 about 9463, a very slow increase of about one-fourth of one per cent. annually.
On industrial lines, the advancement of the colored race here has been slow, many having barely met the scanty re- quirements for food and clothing. Many others have acquired personal and real property and live very comfort- ably. In education the young have made creditable pro- gress with the facilities afforded. As in slavery days, they are a punctual and zealous church-going people. In many families their cultivated good habits mark out a progressive and better future for the frugal and industrious.
Church influences and business association with the pre- dominant white inhabitants have had an elevating effect on most of the colored race in the county; the masses are law- abiding, quiet and peaceable citizens.
THEIR CHURCHES.
The colored race throughout the county has respectable and fair sized church buildings. In Cambridge, "Waugh Chapel" M. E. Church was first built in 1826, which was replaced by a second building and that by a third, which has been abandoned for the fourth one now well advanced
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
towards completion. It is a handsome structure, built of brick and gray stone trimmings in the latest style of archi- tecture. B. D. Price, Esq., is the architect, and J. Benj. Brown the contractor. It will cost about eleven thousand dollars and seat six or seven hundred people. The member- ship is over three hundred, while there is a large Sunday school of two hundred scholars. The present pastor is Rev. A. L. Martin, who has been in charge of the church for sev- eral years. He is a graduate of Princess Anne Academy, and Morgan College of Baltimore. The new Waugh Chapel, when completed, will be one of the finest churches in the Delaware Conference District.
Bethel African M. E. Church, in Cambridge, was built in 1879. It is a neat, brick edifice, with a membership of about three hundred, with a fine Sunday school of about two hun- dred pupils. The pastor, who has been in charge of the con- gregation for the past five years, is Rev. James E. Martin, a native of Charleston, S. C. He was educated at Howard University. This church belongs to the Baltimore Confer- ence.
In Dorchester County there are fifteen churches for colored people that belong to the Delaware Conference and seven to the Baltimore Conference, controlled by a body of twenty- four bishops. There is one colored Baptist church in Cam- bridge, "Zion B. C.," built in 1895. Rev. Mr. Scott is the pastor.
BETHEL AFRICAN M. E. CHURCH. CAMBRIDGE.
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Domestic and Social Life in Colonial Days. CHAPTER XXII. .
The pioneer settlers, who were led by the hand of destiny to select that part of the Eastern Shore between the Chop- tank and the Nanticoke Rivers, as early as 1645, and later on, came with some knowledge of colonization, as most of them were from Virginia, the Western Shore and Kent Island. With small means they were obliged to construct cheap and plain rough-hewn houses of logs and clap-boards out of the abundance of timber that densely grew on every acre of land. ยท With more refinement and better management, they did not become cave-dwellers, like hundreds of their Pennsylvania neighbors, who dug out caves for homes in the sides of hills, that were used by humble newcomers to live in for half a century. Without saw-mills and brick kilns, our ancestors, sturdy and strong, with axe in hand, were the architects of their log cabin homes; many were built comfortable and sub- stantial, though the broad chimneys were constructed of clay and riven sticks of wood, and the clap-board doors and win- dow shutters were hung on wooden hinges. The simple door fastenings for those combination houses-the best room and kitchen-was the wooden latch to which the latch-string was attached, that usually hung outside. This outhanging latch-string was the symbol of neighborly welcome to enter the threshold of colonial hospitality, where within warm- hearted hosts generously dispensed to their guests the best that could be had to eat, with every home and fireside com- fort at their command.
When prosperity and wealth came to the exclusively agri- cultural colonists from profitable crops of tobacco, dwelling houses and other farm buildings were greatly improved; where once stood the log-cabin there rose the commodious
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
dwelling. Domestic and foreign luxuries were soon col- lected in and about many a planter's home. Most colonists loved locations commanding views and water-fronts. How interesting to visit old houses built in colonial times, or note sites where others once stood in places well and tastefully chosen by their departed founders.
To return to the primitive settlers in their barely furnished homes; there is much to note of their many domestic priva- tions and inconveniences. Yet they always had one com- fort, the open blazing fire in great fireplaces, for wood was close by and plentiful and only cost the cutting. To avoid too much wood cutting and splitting, the fireplaces were built very large, eight, nine or ten feet wide and four or five feet in depth; some were so large that the children could sit inside the jambs while the dinner was boiling in the great iron pot, swung on the pot-rack over the flaming log-fire.
THE LIGHT OF OTHER NIGHTS.
When twilight ushered in the night and the log-fires dimly burned on stately hearths, the pine-knots then were lighted, the colonial lamps of that day, which cast bright reflections throughout the house and homely shadows of the hominy mortar and spinning wheel upon the white-washed walls. At that period candles were costly and scarce, and tallow was high. Candles imported were worth four pence apiece. But soon the colonial housewife made her candle wicks and dipped her own candles or cast them in metal molds, thus tediously made, they were economically used. Minister M-, on a small income, it is said, had his candle extin- guished as a frugal practice during long family prayers every evening.
Without candles at first, and later, oil lamps, every farmer laid in a good supply of "light-wood" for winter; even to-day open fireplaces and "light-wood" are still in use by a few old-fashioned, rural residents. Grass, pewter and lead candle- sticks were followed by iron, pewter and glass lamps.
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KITCHEN FIRESIDES AND FURNITURE
For many years the primitive ways of kindling fires and striking lights without application of existing fire was prac- ticed here, as throughout the world. When the ash covered fire in the fireplace died entirely out during the night, a mes- senger was often sent, one of the children or a servant, to the nearest neighbor's house to "borrow fire" which was car- ried between pieces of oak bark, or kindling wood for start- ing a new fire. One ancient contrivance, found in every home, was the tinder box, containing tinder (scorched linen or cam- Ibric), a flint stone and a piece of steel; in case of emergency it was used for starting fires or making a light by rapidly striking the stone against the steel with friction strokes which produced sparks that ignited the tinder. Another method of producing fire was to flash gunpowder in the pan of flint-and-steel gunlocks on old muskets which ignited twists of "tow" placed in contact.
In the days of our great-grandfathers and even grand- fathers, fires were started as here briefly described. Friction matches were first made in England in 1827. From the origin of Dorchester County in 1669, to 1830, only a little more than sixty years ago, the tinder-box, powder-flash and neighbor's fire, were some of the inconvenient methods of rekindling extinguished fires in the homes of our ancestry.
KITCHEN FIRESIDES AND FURNITURE.
In the farmers' kitchens and about their fireplaces were found only the most useful utensils of domestic necessities. From the lubber-pole in the great chimney flue hung the pot- rack and swivels for hanging on the pot-hook, from which swung pots and kettles over blazing fires for cooking meats, boiling hominy and other food. On the hearth of fire-burnt clay stood the oven and spider for baking Indian pone and Maryland biscuit; the skillet, frying pan, grid-iron, fire shovel and tongs occupied convenient places within the chimney jambs. The johnny cake, made of corn meal, and the plate- cake of wheat flour, baked on wooden boards set up on the hearth before the fire, must be mentioned, as no better bread
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
ever passed within the mouths of hungry childhood before or since the days of modern cookery. While the poor had but few household goods, the well-to-do homes were better supplied. Of table-ware, china was very rare and never commonly used before the Revolutionary period. Among the first settlers, wooden plates or trenchers, metal knives, pewter spoons and some earthen dishes with a pewter or silver tankard of water, completed the table outfit in plain homes. Table forks were almost unknown, the first mention of a fork in Virginia was in 1677. The writer, when a boy, saw his uncle mold pew- ter spoons in molds that his grandfather brought from England. Glassware was very rare; glass bottles were so appreciated as to be specially mentioned in wills. Separate drinking cups for each person at the dining table were not in use. When large tumblers were first brought into use they were passed from one person to another to take a drink of the contents, whether it be water, cider or wine. Gourds were abundantly raised on the farms and used in every kitchen for dipping water and drinking it as well. While those early settlers bore many privations, yet they impro- vised some conveniences. In the place of manufactured chairs, then so scarce, they made benches for seats at the din- ing table, where, by the way, children were not allowed to sit with their elders or parents at meals, and often were required to eat their meals while standing-a strange, almost cruel, custom. Home-made spoons, trays, trenchers and hominy mortars of wood were household necessities, and wooden forks, shovels and ploughs were equally as useful in the fields. Food supplies were ample-Indian corn, some hogs and cattle, deer and wild turkeys in abundance; fish of many kinds in every river, and oysters covering every bar and river bottom. Of this variety of food only corn bread was objectionable, in some instances its constant use caused "family jars" and led to the greater cultivation of wheat, and the use of more wheat bread. With these limited resources and but few others, the plain settlers and their descendants constituting the great bulk of the population in Dorchester
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SOCIAL LIFE IN COLONIAL DORSET
County, lived for a hundred years before they much improved their domestic surroundings.
CLASS DISTINCTIONS AMONG THE WHITES.
Among the early colonists in the county, a few came with means that enabled them to buy large tracts of land, which they sold to advantage in smaller lots or extensively culti- vated with servants at a good profit. Soon they became wealthy and formed a distinct social class, chiefly slave holders. This line of distinction was so definitely drawn at some places that poor white families and the family tenants of large land holders were assigned to separate parts of the church when attending religious service, and at public places or taverns the wealthy families were guests of the parlors and dining rooms while the tenants' families were quartered in the kitchens and back rooms.
Domestic surroundings and home conveniences greatly influenced and graded social life, which is described as fol- lows:
SOCIAL LIFE IN COLONIAL DORSET. (By Mrs. Hester Dorsey Richardson.)
In reviewing the social life of Dorchester County in col- onial days we find that it had no peculiar or distinctive cus- toms of its own-that it shared with other counties the good old English mode of life, primitive in the early days but based preeminently upon the exclusive ideas of the English gentry.
Here as elsewhere in Maryland, the land was patented in large tracts of hundreds and even thousands of acres. These estates or plantations were the centres of social life in the county. Towns did not flourish in Dorchester in the early days. The English settlers, true to the habits and traditions of the Mother Country, preferred to live in the heart of large landed possessions which gave them both the seclusion and power so dear to the Britain. The broad fields which now yield so abundantly in golden grain were, in colonial times,
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
devoted to the culture of tobacco, which constituted the only currency of the country.
The question of labor was not a difficult one in those days when every outgoing ship laden with the crops of "sweet- scented tobacco" bound for England, returned with consign- ments of not only comforts and luxuries for the planters, but with adventurous young immigrants who became "inden- tured apprentices" for a term of four years in return for the payment of their passage over. The landed proprietors were only too glad to buy the time of service of these young fel- lows who were often of fine old lineage and in many instances well educated but without means.
The romance of the conditions which naturally arose on the estates has been grasped by the modern novelist to good effect, and the unfortunate relation between the young men of good blood in a state of temporary servitude to his mas- ter's family has been strongly pictured.
In the earliest years of the colony, the settlers were so harassed by the Indians that the plantations were neglected and many of their occupants would have suffered but for the natural food supplies for which the Eastern Shore of Mary- land is still famous.
When, however, the population increased, driving the Red Men from their native haunts along the waterways, wealth increased and was soon reflected in the homes and manner of life in the colony.
After the Revolution of 1688 and the advent of a Royal Governor in Maryland, none of the English ways and cus- toms were adopted.
Peace and prosperity came hand-in-hand and early in sev- enteen hundred the log cabins of the settlers were replaced by more pretentious frame houses, and toward the middle of the century not a few fine brick mansions were erected in place of the homes of simple design throughout the colony.
In Dorchester County we find only a few survivals of the period notable for lavish hospitality and pretentious liv- ing. While, however, there was not so large a community
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of wealthy land holders here as in the counties of St. Mary's and Anne Arundel, when the capital cities drew to them- selves and their outlying districts those who were near to the throne, we yet find evidences of a free and open-handed life in old Dorset.
The English sports of fox-hunting, cock-fighting and bear- baiting engaged the time and attention of the colonial gen- try here in Dorchester no less than in Queen Anne's, Som- erset and other Eastern Shore counties. Many a high- bred colonial dame rode to hounds with all the daring of her brother, the squire, or Lord of the Manor, and doffing habit and top boots, presided at her father's well-spread mahogany with the grace of one "to the manner born."
Gay house parties were the distinctive feature of the social life in colonial Maryland. The family coach, filled with merry young folks, accompanied by attendant cavaliers on horseback, was the mode of their unexpected arrivals, or the music of the horns and bay of the hounds were many times the first intimation to a hostess that her house was soon to be filled to overflowing with the pleasure-seekers already crossing her husband's "preserves."
While the wide-spreading portals of colonial mansions bespeak the lavish hospitality which was so graciously dis- pensed, both mistress and master found much of the practical side of life to absorb their attention.
It is true that on all large plantations there was an over- seer to bear the burden of the out-door management, yet the master did not rely entirely on this valuable assistant. Daily, usually immediately after breakfast, he would ride over his estate on horseback, keeping personally in touch with the cultivation of his acres as well as the condition of his slaves, the successors to the early apprentices. Leaving his overseer to put his orders into execution, the proprietor lived the life of a gentleman of leisure, concerning himself with politics and questions of national importance.
The real colonial dame had her duties as well as her pleasures, not only did she look well to the ways of her
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HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
household in the routine fashion of the modern woman, but she directed her women servants in the weaving of linen and cotton, in the knitting of socks and stockings and the cutting and making of garments for her slaves.
Besides looking out for their material comforts she was their spiritual guide and their friend and counselor in trouble.
A quilting bee was a popular form of entertaining among the young people of the Eastern Shore in colonial times and later.
The hostess having finished piecing a quilt would invite all the young ladies of the neighborhood to quilt it, each would arrive with her reticule at her side containing her own thim- ble, scissors and needle book.
It is safe to say that their tongues flew even more swiftly than did their needles when the lively young creatures got to work. Gossip, wit and good-natured raillery made the time pass quickly and with the twilight came the beaux, the quilting finished, the frames were moved out of the way and, after a hearty supper, the floor was cleared for dancing. Thus what would have been a tiresome task, when turned into a frolic became a popular means of diversion. Many of the quilts made under such circumstances have been pre- served as heir-looms in old families of the county.
In Dorchester, more largely than in most other counties, early customs have been preserved; but here as in other sections of the South, the late war, with the subsequent de- sertion of the old plantations for town and city life with their enlarged opportunities, marked the passing of the ideal social life in the counties of Maryland.
County Folklore and Superstitions. CHAPTER XXIII.
Many popular superstitions are transmitted from genera- tion to generation by oral traditions and family customs, from parents to children, and from friendly associates to each other, that are accepted in as strong faith as belief in "Holy Writ." Youthful impression of that character become fixed superstitions for practical application and use as time, place and circumstances point to their supernatural influence. In- animate objects and customs are venerated in business transactions, laboring pursuits, and social events, rites and ceremonies are performed for love, luck, health and pros- perity. This credulous belief in the power of supernatural effects and signs for good or evil deeply impresses the mar- iner on his ship, the farmer at his plow, the minister in his church, the physician in his profession, the swain in his doubt- ful wooing, and the fair maid in her delusory dreams of hope and happiness, and in short every grade of society, from the inmates of the poorest home to those who dwell in palatial mansions. Over the cabin doors of the Southern blacks, in the little cottages of the mountain miners, about the premises of the busy farmers, on the bow of the stately ship and little byster 'boat and somewhere about the homes of wealth counted by millions, and at the "White House," too, the horse shoe hangs for "luck." The origin of its universal use for a specific influence to bring good fortune to its possessors is simply mythical.
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