Benedict's Slaves and Indentured Servants

 Owners of eighteenth-century plantations in Maryland generally had slaves who worked in their fields, particularly in the production of tobacco.  Our ancestor, Benedict Swingate Calvert, owned upwards of 150 slaves.  According to the Maryland Gazette, some of his slaves ran away.   Here are a couple of his advertisements for the return of runaway slaves:

And from June 17, 1756:

These advertisements give us a glimpse into eighteenth-century Maryland life and the horrors of slavery at the same time.  Significant rewards were offered for them; pistoles are European gold coins, particularly Spanish.  All three of them have injuries, presumably due to their difficult circumstances.  Both of these advertisements were found repeatedly in the Maryland Gazette.  I can only hope that this meant they had been successful in their escape.

Benedict also had indentured servants on his plantation.  They were generally thought of as not much more than slaves and slaves and indentured servants formed close bonds.  Here is an advertisement for another runaway indentured servant:

One wonders what their living conditions were like since the indentured servants also ran away.  Of course, Benedict was not the only Calvert to own slaves.  His son, George Benedict Calvert (1768-1838), who established Riversdale Plantation with his wife Rosalie Eugenia Stier, probably owned more slaves than Benedict.

Although further Calvert descendants who stayed in Maryland owned slaves, I find no mention of slaves in the few records I've found for our ancestor, William Michael Calvert (1770-1847), who went north to Pennsylvania while he was still a young man.  One can only hope that part of his reason for going north was so he would not have to participate in the despicable practice of owning other human beings.