FREE AFRICAN AMERICANS OF MARYLAND AND DELAWARE by Paul Heinegg stated that ” During the colonial period in Maryland and Delaware: Over 600 free, mixed-race children were born to white women by African-American men. Fewer owned land than did their counterparts in Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina.They had closer relations with the slave population than did their counterparts in Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina. Although some claim Native American ancestry, the evidence indicates that most are direct descendants of mixed-race children of white women.”
In 1661 Maryland enacted a law declared that “divers free-born English women, forgetful of their free conditions, and to the disgrace of our nation do intermarry with Negro slaves,” and to deter these “shameful matches” the law provided that women who so marry, and their off-spring, should themselves become slaves.
In 1692 Maryland enacted a law which punished white women who had children by slaves by selling them as servants for seven years and binding their children to serve until the age of twenty-one if they were married to the slave, and till thirty-one if they were not married.
In 1715 and 1728 the Maryland General Assembly made the mixed-race descendants of white women who had children by slaves subject to the same punishments as white women. They were sold as servants for seven year terms, and their children were bound until the age of thirty-one. However, if they had a child by a free person, they were usually charged with fornication and received the same sentence as if both partners had been white: a fine or lashes, and their children were bound until the age of twenty-one (for boys) and sixteen (for girls) [Archives of Maryland, 30:289-90; 36:275-76; Laws of Maryland, 1715, chapter 44, section 25, cited by Wright, The Free Negro in Maryland, 27-8].
Free Mixed Race Children of White Women Listed In Inventories of Maryland
Queen Anne’s County Maryland
Aldridge, Campbell, Cornish, Davis (2 children), Flamer, Gibson, Green, Hall (2 children), Harding, Hawkins, Hopkins (2 children), McDaniel (2 children), Miller, Morgan, Natt (2 children), Nicholson, Pritchett, Reed, Roberts (2 children), Robinson (2 children), Scott, Simiter (2 children), Southwood, Stewart, Suitor, Webber, Whittam. 35 children. Also: unnamed child left at Benjamin Denny’s, Chance, Dazey, Hoy, Lang, Lewellin, Neuth, Sarah, Sheahea. Total: 44 children.
Court records before 1709 and 1720-1727 did not survive.
Somerset County Maryland
Armwood, Barton, Bass, Buley, Butler, Cambridge, Conner, Dogan, Donaldson (2 children), Downs, Duffy, Fortune (3 children), Frost, Hodgskin, Jervice (2 children), Johnson, Magee (4 children), Miller, Nutt, Redding, Richards, Roach, Roberts, Shaver, Walker, Winslow. 32 children. Also: Blackbourne, Gloster, Heather, Jones (2 children), Leopard, Logan (2 families), Smith, Tiror. Total: 43 children
1. Eliza Downes, born say 1708, was the servant of Sarah Dashiell of Stepney Parish on 15 March 1725/6 when the Somerset County court ordered that she be sold for seven years for having an illegitimate child [Judicial Record 1725-7, 97]. She may have been the ancestor of
i. Paddy, “N.” head of a Muddy Branch, Little Creek, Kent County household of 4 “other free” in 1800 [DE:31].
ii. James, “N.” head of a St. Jones Hundred, Kent County, Delaware household of 8 “other free” in 1800 [DE;46].
iii. James, head of a Little Creek, Kent County household of 7 “other free” in 1800 [DE:40].
iv. Isaac, head of a Dover Hundred, Kent County household of 3 “free colored” in 1820 [DE:35].
v. Charles, (Negro) head of a Caroline County household of 7 “other free” in 1810 [MD:194].
vi. Ben, “Negro” head of a Caroline County household of 7 “other free” in 1810 [MD:195].
vii. Daniel, “Negro” head of a Caroline County household of 5 “other free” in 1810 [MD:195].
Prince George’s County
1. William Downs, born say 1765, was a “free negro” head of a Prince George’s County household of 8 “other free” in 1800 [MD:303]. He was probably the father of
i. Robert, born about 1792, obtained a certificate of freedom in Anne Arundel County on 3 September 1816: aged about twenty four years .. . brown complexion … free born and … raised in the County [Certificates of Freedom 1810-31, 89].
FLAMER/ FLAMES FAMILY
Members of the Flamer family were
i. John1, born say 1717, a “Molatto” servant man having “eleven months and 15” to serve and valued at 4 pounds in the inventory of the Queen Anne’s County estate of William Hernsley on 28 October 1737 [Prerogative Inventories 1737-1739, 45-6]. He had an illegitimate child by Elizabeth Grinnage in September 1736 [Judgment Record 1735-9, 344, 382]. He may have been identical to Jonathan Flamar who owed 994 pounds to the Queen Anne’s County estate of Solomon Clayton (who died in 1739) [Prerogative Inventories 98:18-22].
1 ii. Rachel, born say 1720.
2 iii. Judith, born say 1722.
1. Rachel Flamer, born say 1720, a “poor old Woman,” was supported from public funds by the Queen Anne’s County from 12 December 1775 to 1787. She was called a “poor molatto woman” by the court when it approved her allowance for 1777 [Surles, and they Appeared at Court, 1774-1777, 65, 80; 1779, 1782, 1785, 1786, 1787, 35, 53, 89, 96, 117]. She may have been the ancestor of
i. William, a “Molatto” servant man having “eleven months and 15” to serve and valued at 4 pounds in the inventory of the Queen Anne’s County estate of William Hernsley on 28 October 1737 [Prerogative Inventories 1737-1739, 45-6].
2. Judith Flamer, born say 1722, was the servant (no race indicated) of Mark Hargadine of Saint Paul’s Parish in March 1745 when the Queen Anne’s County court convicted her of having an illegitimate child named John in 1742 and another child in 1743. In August 1750 she confessed to having other children on 10 June 1747 and 10 December 1748 [Judgment Record 1744-6, 161-2; 1750, 40-2]. She was a spinster living in St. Paul’s Parish when she received 30 lashes and was ordered to pay four-fold the value for stealing a hog worth 40 pounds [Criminal Record 1751-9, n.p.]. She owed the estate of Thomas Kendall 4 pounds, 19 shillings on 10 August 1756 [Prerogative Inventories 73:243]. She was the mother of
i. John2, born on 10 October 1742, a “black” taxable in the Upper Hundred of Kent Island, Queen Anne’s County in 1776 [MSA 148], married to Sherry Grinnage‘s daughter Sarah on 1 November 1790 when Sherry gave her 5 pounds currency by his Caroline County will [WB JR B:168-70].
ii. ?Ann, mother of William and John Flamer (no race indicated) who were with George Sweat on 26 January 1774 when the Queen Anne’s County court ordered him to bring them to court [Surles, and they Appeared at Court, 1774-1777, 41], perhaps identical to the “Molatto girl named Nan” who was valued at 16 pounds in the inventory of the Queen Anne’s County estate of William Hernsley on 28 October 1737 [Prerogative Inventories 1737-1739, 45-6].
iii. ?Solomon, head of a Queen Anne’s County household of 9 “other free” in 1790 [MD:99] and 9 in 1800 [MD:341].
iv. ?William, head of a Talbot County household of 1 “other free” and 3 slaves in 1800 [MD:506].
1. Ann Pritchard, born say 1748, was a spinster living in Queen Anne’s County on 10 May 1767 when she had an illegitimate “Molatto” child by a “Negro man.” The court ordered that she be sold for seven years after she completed her service to James Sudler [Judgment Records 1766-7, part 1, CD image 100]. She was probably the mother of the five-year-old “Mulatto” girl serving until the age of twenty-one when she was listed in the Queen Anne’s County inventory of James Sudler on 8 April 1773 [Prerogative Inventories 113:199]. She may have been the ancestor of
i. Silas Pritchett, manumitted by Solomon Barwell in Kent County, Delaware, on 20 October 1786 [Delaware Archives RG 3555.55], head of a Kent County, Maryland household of 5 “other free” in 1800 [MD:63].