Remembering Ancestors at the Sotterley Plantation

Remembering Ancestors at the Sotterley Plantation. The Price of Prosperity. , The Price of Prosperity , By the latter part of the 17th century, the development of the plantation economy of Maryland was well established. The shift of political power from English nobles to wealthy planters and fewer indentured servants coming from Europe, created a need for more and cheaper sources of labor. Slavery was legalized in Maryland by 1664, only 30 years after the colony's founding. Importation of captured and kidnapped enslaved Africans increased, with Maryland and Virginia importing about 6,000 enslaved people directly from the African continent by 1700. By 1719, 30 percent of Maryland's population was of African descent. African enslaved populations continued to grow for the next 50 years. To quench their own lust for goods, wealth and power, leaders of coastal African nations preyed on their enemies and were all too eager to supply the conquered and the kidnapped to Europeans and their colonists. Europeans took advantage of this discord., The Middle Passage to Patuxent , Enslaved Africans in Maryland came from many cultures, such as Igbo, Asante, and the Angolan peoples. In Maryland's early trade, most were sold and transported from the Gold and Windward Coasts of Africa. Many enslaved had endured a long march to the coast and weeks or months in captivity in fortresses like Cape Coast Castle. From there, they would be rowed out to the slave ships. Most of these vessels were merchant ships outfitted to carry human cargo. On one such ship, the Generous Jenny, some people may have been below decks for months. People would be chained together on overcrowded, disease ridden ships, exposed to abuse, and unable to understand the language of their captors or their fellow prisoners. Many records from the Royal African Company in the early 18th century do not survive. There were other ships intended for the Patuxent in Maryland whose voyages were thwarted. More may have arrived at Sotterley, but the record is lost to history. We honor those people of Africa who perished on the middle passage to James Bowles' plantation on the Patuxent River, and we honor those who survived to spend their lives and labor at this place on which our community, state and nation was built., Beneficiaries of the Slave Trade , James Bowles arrived in Maryland by 1699 and settled on 2,000 acres on the Patuxent River that later became known as Sotterley. Bowles had come from a family of English merchants in the town of Deal in Kent County, England. Generations of his family traded in tobacco, sugar and slaves. James Bowles was also connected by blood and marriage to prominent Maryland elite families who supported their wealth through the ownership of slaves. Bowles served in the Upper and Lower Houses of colonial government and was appointed as Officer of the Upper Potomac, controlling trade in the region. Bowles made his money by trading goods produced on his plantation, stipends he received from his government appointments, and from profits in the slave trade as an agent for the Royal African Company. The Bowles family continued to prosper and was served by enslaved Africans who worked in the plantation house, on the farm, and on other parcels of land surrounding the home plantation. James Bowles traveled to London in 1727 to prove his father's Will, only to die within days of his arrival. His widow, Rebecca Tasker Addison Bowles and their three daughters inherited his property that included 41 slaves. Rebecca remarried George Plater II in 1 729 and the Plater descendants who owned Sotterley for the next 100 years would also rely on enslaved labor for their wealth and status., Sotterley ownership would transfer to the Briscoe family in the 19th century who still relied on chattel slavery for their labor needs. Slavery was a way of life at Sotterley for 165 years until Maryland finally emancipated slaves on November 1, 1864.