| Location | Talbot County, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Names Mentioned | Jane Kamper; William Townsend |
| Date | November 14, 1864 |
| Document Title | Statement of a Maryland Freedwoman, November 14, 1864 |
| Document Description | Freed by the adoption of a new state constitution that abolished slavery, Jane Kamper contested her former owner's attempt to keep her children under his control by having them apprenticed to him. |
| Transcription |
Balto [Md.] Novr 14" /64 Statement of Jane Kamper Slave of Wm Townsend of Talbot County Md. I was the slave of Wm Townsend of Talbot county & told Mr. Townsend of my having become free & desired my master to give my children & my bedclothes he told me that I was free but that my Children Should be bound to me [him]. he locked my Children up so that I could not find them I afterwards got my children by stealth & brought them to Baltimore. I desire to regain possession of my bed clothes & furniture. My Master pursued me to the Boat to get possession of my children but I hid them on the boat her Jane X Kamper (f[ree] n[egro]) mark Statement of Jane Kamper, 14 Nov. 1864, filed with M-1932 1864, Letters Received, series 12, Adjutant General's Office, Record Group 94, National Archives. Given at the headquarters of the Middle Department and 8th Army Corps. Published in The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South, p 519, in Free at Last, p. 373, The Destruction of Slavery, 519 and in Families and Freedom, p. 214. |
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[Author (if known)], Documents from the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, [Date (if known)], Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva’s Black History, Nabb Research Center, Salisbury University.
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