In Search of Four Year Old Enslaved Harriet: Rescued from John Witherow Brown in 1830

On May 5, 1830, John Witherow Brown, then manager (and later owner) of White House Tavern and Farm, in Vansville (now College Park, Maryland) placed the following advertisement in the Daily National Intelligencer:

TEN DOLLARS REWARD

The Subscriber will give the above reward for Negro Girl HARRIET, who was stolen from him on the 5th day of April last—she is about four years of age, of a brownish color, and has a small scar above the right eye; has the habit of sucking her fingers; had on a striped linsey frock. From information received, I have reason to believe that she is somewhere concealed by one Hanson Dynes, in the City of Washington.

JOHN BROWN

White House, on the Baltimore Road, Prince George’s County, Maryland

As of this writing I do not have any direct evidence of what subsequently befell Harriet, born around 1826. Was she recaptured by John W. Brown or did she manage to remain free in the District of Columbia or escape elsewhere? If re-enslaved, did she survive until the coming of freedom? In this post I offer some informed speculation on what might have happened to her, and suggest several potential candidates for her identity later in life.

To begin with, let us note that if Harriet’s mother was an enslaved woman owned by John Witherow Brown, then Harriet would automatically have been legally the property of Brown as well, even if Harriet’s father was a free person. Speculatively, Hanson Dynes of the District of Columbia, whom the enslaver John Witherow Brown accused of sheltering Harriet, may have been the father or kinsmen to Harriet. So one scenario is that Hanson Dynes either rescued Harriet himself or arranged for her to be rescued from the White House Farm, and then sheltered her in Washington City, several miles away from the White House Tavern. Harriet’s mother may have remained enslaved as the property of John Witherow Brown.

John Witherow Brown (1799-1862)

John Witherow Brown, who owned Harriet, was born April 22 .1799 in Middleton, Orange County New York, in the Hudson Valley. By 1818, he had moved to Baltimore Maryland and was employed as a stagecoach driver for the company Stockton and Stokes, which operated multiple tollways including the Baltimore-Washington Turnpike. For a time he managed the White House Tavern. January 311835, John Brown purchased from Stockton and Stokes the White House Tavern and 500 acred White House Farm for $7,000; the Tavern was also known as Brown’s Tavern, and is referred to by that time in a historical marker that still stands today at the intersection of Baltimore Avenue (U.S. 1) and Milestone Way, College Park, MD.

As seen, the wording of the May 1830 advertisement indicates by this point that John Brown was residing on the tavern property as a slaveowner (although he did not yet legally own the tavern). By the time of his death three decades later in 1862, his estate included 1500 acres and over 50 slaves.

The will of John W Brown, signed May 22, 1861 (testated July 22, 1862) specifically bequeaths two slaves to his illegitimate children, and otherwise leaves all his other human property to be divided among his legal, legitimate heirs, his wife acting as administrator of the estate.

By the time of Maryland Emancipation, on November 1, 1864, two years after the death of John Witherow Brown, his estate (administered by his widow Sarah Ann Miller Brown) possessed 52 slaves, whose names and ages were all recorded in the 1867 slave census (compiled by Maryland authorities in the futile hope that former owners would collect compensation for their former human property). Among those emancipated in 1864 was a Harriet Beall, age 26, born about 1838, twelve years older than “our” Harriet, but perhaps related to her. (It should be noted that the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 only applied to Confederate states, and not to the State of Maryland, which was a loyal Border State; freedom only came to those enslaved in Maryland with the adoption of the new Maryland Constitution, November 1, 1864, six months before the Confederate surrender..)

How did John W Brown acquire at least 54 slaves by the time of his death? Perhaps some were obtained through his marriage into a local slaveowning family. About one year before Harriet was rescued or “stolen”, John W Brown married Sarah Ann Miller (1823-1910), the daughter of John Miller, who resided in Vansville. Prince George’s County, evidently adjacent to the White House Farm. The 1840 census does not indicate that John Miller was a slaveowner. His father Jacob Miller (1765-1825,) owned 25 slaves in Vansville in 1820. Jacob Miller’s will, testated January 7, 1826, specifies that his lands and slaves are to go to this wife Sarah, and after her death to be equally divided among their children. His July 3, 1826 inventory in Prince George’s County lists nine slaves; some of these were presumably distributed to Jacob Miller’s heirs; perhaps one of these enslaved women was Harriet’s mother.

Hanson Dynes

What, in turn, do we know of Hanson Dynes, who may have rescued or hidden Harriet in 1830?

There are only a few references to Hanson Dynes in the historical record. Ten years after he was accused of sheltering Harriet, Hanson Dynes in the District of Columbia married Mary Douglass, on May 11, 1840. That same year, the 1840 census records him heading a household of four free persons of color in DC, consisting of one male aged 10-23, one male aged 36-54, one female aged 36-54, and one female over the age of 55. In other words, there is no record corresponding to a female aged sixteen, the age that Harriet would have been in 1840. So she may have been moved or recaptured by 1840, or perhaps her existence was hidden from the census enumerator.

*1868 City Directory, District of Columbia, Winnie Dines, widow of Hanson Dines. 314 12th street, west.*

The only other record of Hanson Dynes I have found is in the 1868 City Directory for the District of Columbia, in which “Winnie Dines” a washerwoman residing at 314 12th Street west, is listed as the “widow of Hanson.” Six years earlier, Winnie Dines was emancipated for compensation by William H Moore on May 27, 1862 in the District of Columbia, along with her apparent son George Dines. Moore had inherited Winnie and George from his mother Verlinda Smith, the widow of John W Smith,. So it would appear that the free man Hanson Dynes, at some point following the death of his first wife Mary Douglass, married the enslaved woman Winnie, while she was enslaved by the Moore-Smith family. Hanson must have died at some point prior to 1868, when Winnie listed herself as a widow, but I have not yet found a death record for him.

The November 27, 1861 will of in the District of Columbia bequeaths to her daughter Maria Moore Orme, wife of William Orme, “my favorite negro woman Julia Dines and her child Henry Dines. “. She gives to her son William H Moore, her “negroes Winny Dines and George Dines.”

The same Winny Dines and George Dines appear in William H Moore’s compensated emancipation petition in 1862. Given that Winny was the widow of Hanson Dines, it may be George was Hanson’s son. Presumably Julia Dines was also some kind of kinswoman to Hanson. I do not know if there were related to Harriet, who would have been about 36 years old in 1862, when freedom came to the enslaved peoples of the District of Columbia.

The Enslaved Dynes Family and the Enslaving Young Family

Perhaps Hanson Dynes, and little Harriet, were related to other documented enslaved and free individuals with the surname Dynes or Dines residing in antebellum District of Columbia. In 1862, four different white members of the Young family living in Washington DC petioned for compensation for newly freed individuals with the surname “Dines.” In most cases these enslaved individuals were derived from the estate of Barbara Sim Smith Young, daughter of Clement Smith of Calvert County, MD, and widow of Ignatius Young, Sr. These petitioners were:

1. Ignatius Fenwick Young, who sought compensation for his freed slaves Daniel Dines, Joseph Dines, Eliza Dines, and Phillips Dines. He explains; “Daniel, Joseph, Eliza and Philip Dines were given to me by my mother Mrs Barbara S. Young at or about the time of their respective births, she having raised them.”

2. His sister, Mary C Young sought compensation for Fanny Dines, age 14 years, whom she described as Copper Colored, and about 5 ft 5 High, noting “Fanny Dines was given to me by my mother Mrs Barbara S. Young of the District of Columbia,”

3. their sister Clementina S Young sought compensation for Susan Dines and Barbara Dines. Susan Dines, she notes, was “female age 16, color black, about 5 ft 3 in High.” Barbara Dines was a female, age 6, "Copper Colored do 3 ft 8 in… Susan & Barbara Dines were given to me by my mother Mrs Barbara S Young of the District of Columbia,”

4. Also, in 1862, George Washington Young, the uncle of Ignatius Few Young Sr (the husband of Barbara Sim Smith Young), the largest slaveowner in the District of Columbia, petitioned for compensation for 68 slaves including (a different) “Phil Dines,: about thirty eight years old. George Young in his petition could not clearly remember how he obtained Phil Dines, but thought it possible he had been acquired though his wife, nee Henrietta Smith. Of possible significance, George Washington Young grew up in White Hall, near Accokeek, in Prince George’s County. It is is possible that this Phil Dines was related to the other Dines/Dynes mentioned above.

Other Dynes/Dines

Other free and enslaved Dines and Dynes in the DC area had roots in Prince George’s County Among these was Mary Dines, who is referenced in John Washington’s book, The Knew Lincoln (1940), as “Aunt Mary Dines,” a friend of his grandmother. Mary Dines, according to Washington, was raised in slavery in Prince George’s County and freed by her bachelor owner, whose heirs broke his will and had Mary transferred into slavery in southern Maryland, where she was cruelly abused. She escaped during the Civil War and settled in a Freedman’s Village in DC, where she repeatedly sang for President Lincoln.

Other Dines in 19th century DC include Charles Dines, born around 1851, who died at age, 27, on August 18, 1878, residing at Cissell Alley between Water & Grace (K) streets in Georgetown, a member of Mount Zion Methodist Church and buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, Georgetown.

Other Possible Harriets

Alternately, several Black women named “Harriet: in the District of Columbia might possibly correspond with “our” Harriet:

1. A woman named “Harriet Stewart,” described as “about thirty five years of age..a dark copper colored woman” was declared for compensated emancipation, with two other emancipated people, by Nathan Prather on July 15, 1862 Prather writes, “Petitioner acquired said three persons by inheritance from his father Jno. C. Prather of Prince George's Co. Maryland, who died 20 Sept 1848, The Prather family resided in Vansville, about a mile east of the John W Brown’s White House Farm, so it not beyond the bounds of possibility that Harriet Stewart, born around 1826, was in fact “our” Harriet, also born around 1826, who was somehow transferred from the Brown plantation to the Prather estate.

2. A “Harriet Brown,” twenty five years old, appears as a free woman of color, born about 1825, in the 1850 census, residing in Washington Ward 4. She resides with a 59 year old Elizabeth Brown and a two year old boy Zachariah Brown.

There is no specific evidence linking this Harriet Brown to “our” Harriet, although it is perhaps suggestive that she shares a surname with the slaveowner John W. Brown.

3. Another free Black woman, “Harriet Talbert,” appears in the 1850 Census in Washington Ward 1, also born 1825 in Maryland. She resides with the three children Charles Talbert, age 6, Clement Talbert, age 5, George Talbert, age 2, and Mary Talbert, age 1. No evident husband is listed.

Alternately, it possible that “our” Harriet died or was recaptured and sold away after 1830, and has not left behind any further trace in the documentary record.

We hope that future research will cast more light on the actual identity of the four year old Harriet who was rescued from John W Brown’s White House Tavern in 1830.

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