Caroline Courthouse

Caroline Courthouse. In the Shadow of Justice. , Many facets of 19th century rural life focused on a county’s courthouse. Elected officials, lawyers, merchants, and ordinary citizens all had reasons to gather at the Caroline County Courthouse Square. For the enslaved and abolitionists, the square possessed a more sinister purpose., Conducted in the shadow of the courthouse, the symbolic center of government and justice, local slave auction exhibited the inhumanity and raw, lucrative economics of the antebellum slave trade. The county jail also held abolitionists like Hugh Haziett, accused of aiding the runaways he tried to guide to freedom., Above: As the time of their intended escape drew nearer, their anxiety grew more and more intense, their food was prepared and their clothing packed. Douglass had forged their passes. Early in the morning they went into the fields to work. At mid-day they were all called off the field, only to discover that they had been betrayed., Right: Hammatt Billings depicted a slave auction to illustrate Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.