Slavery
L'Hermitage was also known in its time for its harsh regime. Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz traveled through the area in June 1798, recounting that he had been told of tyranny and torture at the plantation:
June 15. ... Four miles from the town we forded the river . On its banks one can see a row of wooden houses and one stone house with the upper storeys painted white . ... One can see on the home farm instruments of torture, stocks, wooden horses, whips, etc. Two or three negroes crippled with torture have brought legal action ...
Nine court proceedings against family members for cruelty to slaves are recorded, including proceedings against Boisneuf for "cruelly and immercifully beating and whipping" six slaves and against Victoire Vincendière for beating her slave Jenny. These charges were dismissed, but Boisneuf was found guilty in 1797 of beating a slave named Shadrack and of "not sufficiently clothing and feeding his negroes."
The Vincendières sold L'Hermitage in 1827, after gradually dispersing most of their slaves. Victoire moved to a townhouse in Frederick. Victoire died in 1854, still the owner of three slaves. Her will stipulated their freedom. Slavery at the property continued under the new proprietors. John Brien (or O'Brien) bought the farm and continued the practice, and David Best, the farm's tenant from 1843 kept slaves. Best had six slaves in 1860, making him one of the largest slave owners in the county. Slavery ended in Maryland in 1864.
The l'Hermitage site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Read more about this topic: L'Hermitage Slave Village Archeological Site
Famous quotes containing the word slavery:
“The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 2:23.
“I care not by what measure you end the war. If you allow one single germ, one single seed of slavery to remain in the soil of America, whatever may be your object, depend upon it, as true as effect follows cause, that germ will spring up, that noxious weed will thrive, and again stifle the growth, wither the leaves, blast the flowers, and poison the fair fruits of freedom. Slavery and freedom cannot exist together.”
—Ernestine L. Rose (1810–1892)
“What a revolting contrast exists in England between the slavery of women and the intellectual superiority of women writers.”
—Flora Tristan (1803–1844)