Monocacy National Battlefield Park
L’Hermitage - African American Presence

Main house on what was once L'Hermitage. Evidence of slave quarters was found nearby.

Secondary house

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From the late 1790s until 1854, the Best Farm on the Monocacy Battlefield was part of L’Hermitage plantation. The large enslaved community there began with people from Saint Domingue (now Haiti). The wealthy Vincendière family emigrated there in 1793 to escape the violent liberation movement that became known as the Haitian Revolution. They brought with them the maximum of twelve enslaved servants that Maryland law allowed them. They were: Saint-Louis, age about 14; Pierre Louis, age 35; Lambert, age 5; Fillele, age 8; Marianne, age 40, Cecile, daughter of Marianne, age 18, Souris, age 15; Janvier, age 24; Francois Arajou, age 20, Jean Sans-nom, age 16; Veronique, age 16; and Maurice, age 15. In 1797, Pierre Louis successfully petitioned for his freedom in 1797 on the basis that he had been brought to Maryland illegally. By 1800, 90 enslaved people lived at L’Hermitage. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of their dwellings across the road from the front of manor house.

L’Hermitage was a site of much struggle. Enslaved people were bought and sold and treated harshly, by some accounts. In 1798 Polish diplomat Julian Niemcewicz passed by in a coach and wrote in his journal:

June 15. ... Four miles from the town [of Frederick] we forded the river [Monocacy]. On its banks one can see a row of wooden houses and one stone house with the upper storeys painted white [the secondary house]. ... One can seen on the home farm instruments of torture, stocks, wooden horses, whips, etc. Two or three negroes crippled with torture have brought legal action ...

In the late 1790s, several enslaved people tried prosecuting their owners for cruelly beating them; others escaped. Harry, Jerry, Abraham, Stephon, Soll, and George brought suit against Boisneuf Vicendiere, and Jenny brought suit against her mistress, Victoire Vincendière, but both cases were unsuccessful. Shadrack’s case against Boisneuf was successful, however. At least two people escaped from slavery at L’Hermitage, according to ads placed in the newspaper in 1795. Phil had lived in Baltimore County previously and Jerry, a brickmaker, in Annapolis. Jerry was thought to have left on a bay horse.

Sales of enslaved people from L’Hermitage separated families, for some an even greater hardship than physical violence. John, Ramond, and Black Emmos were sold to a slave dealer in Baltimore In 1819, Indianna was sold in 1822, Daniel in 1824, and seventeen people were sold to a Louisiana slavetrader in 1825. In 1827 the family sold the farm.

Some individuals later obtained their freedom from the Vincendières. In 1830 Matilda Murdock and her two-month-old son Robert were emancipated, and Matilda’s son John was to be freed in 1858 under the terms of a will. In 1832 Justice Brown received his freedom with the explanation that he was “uncommonly good.” In 1844 Caroline and her daughter Cornelia were freed, although Cornelia was only 5 years old at the time and would not obtain full freedom until age 15. In 1853 Caroline’s son Augustus joined his mother in freedom. In 1863, Cornelius obtained his freedom through a will.

Slavery continued at the property under John O’Brien, a large landowner involved in the iron industry in western Maryland, and David Best, his tenant beginning in 1843. He, too, bought and sold people. In 1860, he, like the Vincendieres in 1800, was among the largest slaveholders in the Frederick Town District, but he held only six. Agricultural practices in the region had changed and many slaveholders had migrated west. By 1860, a majority of African Americans in Frederick County were free. In 1864, Maryland ended slavery.

Resources

• Monocacy National Battlefield. “Slavery at L’Hermitage.”
• National Park Service. National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site Nomination, 2007.

Interest-African American, >Frederick-County, Frederick County, Maryland, >African-American