| Introduction Maryland Law Colonial Law State Law Relations with Other States Petitions of the General Assembly Prigg v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Gorsuch Treason Trials Federal Laws Regarding Slavery The Declaration of Independence Northwest Territories The Constitution The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 Slave Trade The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 Slaves, Freedmen, and the Law Dred Scott v. Sandford Free People of Colour Before the End of Slavery Organizations Against Slavery The American Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes and Others, Unlawfully Held in Bondage The Baltimore Society for the Protection of Free People of Color Prince Georges County and the Underground Railroad Henry Tom Matthews William Brown Benjamin Ducket Jim Belle Nace Shaw Adam Smith Joseph Thomas and William Oliver The Maryland Colonization Society Friends' Association in Aid of Freedmen Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People Freedmen's Bureau Slavery in Prince George's County Colonial Slavery Quando Joice Daphne Others Colonial Slave Work Colonial Trials and Legal Proceedings Colonial Slave Resistance Poplar Neck and the Slave Consipiracy of 1739 The Revolutionary War Period Growth of Slavery in the Post Revolutionary War Eara Slave Patrols Religious Restrictions Other Laws Economic Valuation Insurrection of 1845 Public Opinion Slave Accounts Dennis Simms Lewis Chambers Hensin Williams William "Mac" Pickney Epilogue: Freedom The Civil War and Prince Georgians The Election of 1863 The Constitutional Convention The Aftermath |
| A History of Slavery in Prince Georges County, Maryland |
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The Witnesses by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In Ocean's wide domains, Half buried in the sands, Lie skeletons in chains, With shackled feet and hands. Beyond the fall of dews, Deeper than plummet lies, Float ships, with all their crews, No more to sink nor rise. There the black Slave-ship siwms, Freighted with human forms, Whose fettered, fleshless limbs Are not the sport of storms. These are the bones of Slaves; They gleam from the abyss; They cry, from yawning waves, "We are the Witnesses!" Within Earth's wide domains Are markets for men's lives; Their necks are galled with chains, Their wrists are cramped with gyves. Bead bodies, that the kite In deserts makes its prey; Murders, that with affright Scare school-boys from their play! All evil thoughts and deeds; Ander, and lust, and pride; The foulest, rankest weeds, That choke Life's groaning tide! These are the woes of Slaves; They glare from the abyss; They cry, from unknown graves, "We are the Witnesses!" |