Witness to History

Witness to History. Montgomery County Courthouse. , The Montgomery County Courthouse that stood here from 1840 to 1891 witnessed the turbulent antebellum and Civil War years in Rockville. It was the setting for legal transactions involving both the selling and emancipation of enslaved individuals. Charles Price, a slave trader who co-owned the prominent Price, Birch and Co slave-trading company in Alexandria, Virginia, held property nearby and placed newspaper advertisements to purchase enslaved Montgomery County residents. Fugitives and those charged with the crime of abetting freedom-seekers were tried here. Abolitionist and Underground Railroad operative William Chaplin appeared at a hearing here in 1850 after he was arrested in Silver Spring aiding two fugitives escaping Washington. He was charged in both Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County for his crimes. Facing condemnation from the pro-slavery Rockville community, he fled the state while on bail., During the Civil War, Union and Confederate troops passed through Rockville. Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart interned prisoners at the courthouse in 1863. The building also served as a hospital for soldiers wounded in engagements in 1864. Rockville's white residents' loyalties were divided, but they all experienced unrest as soldiers from both sides disrupted daily life and demanded or stole supplies, livestock, and horses., Maryland abandoned slavery by state referendum on November 1, 1864. Rockville was the headquarters of the Montgomery County office of the Freedman's Bureau that opened in September 1865. Headed by a Union veteran, the Freedman's Bureau worked to enforce rights to wages, employment, and property ownership, and assisted Black citizens in their continuing efforts to organize schools for their children., [Captions:] , Ads like this supported a robust domestic slave trade from Maryland to the Deep South., This courthouse was located here during the Civil War. The present red brick courthouse replaced it in 1891.