War Touches Sotterley

War Touches Sotterley. . , Sotterley's prime location on the Patuxent River, with access to the Chesapeake Bay, inevitably drew it into conflicts during the Revolutionary War, the War of 18 12 and the Civil War., The Plater families had been prominent in service to the British crown's representatives in the Maryland colony, and had enjoyed many privileges as a result, but as Britain imposed taxes on the colonists, and harsh penalties for non-payment, resistance hardened among the populace , and at Sotterley as well. Owner George Plater III voted to support independence and served on the Committee of Safety. During the War of Independence, plantations along Southern Maryland shores endured near-constant harassment and raiding by British forces, including the burning of homes and settlements. Sotterley's Plantation House escaped the torch, but the estate was ransacked and plundered in 1781 and 1783., The scenario was repeated 30 years later, when British forces reappeared for the War of 18 12. when the British blockaded the Chesapeake Bay in February 1813, they cut off an economic lifeline for farmers, traders, and the shipping industry. They raided Sotterley and other sites, taking food, livestock and other provisions, burning crops, and enticing slaves to escape. At Sotterley, almost 50 slaves were known to have sought their freedom with the British, many settling in Canada and the Caribbean. The loss of their labor, and the damage and loss from British raids, devastated the plantation. In 1822, George Plater sold a depleted Sotterley to a step-uncle, who then sold it to Thomas Barber. On Barber's death in 1826, Sotterley and its slave population were divided between his two daughters, Lydia Barber and her step sister, Emeline Dallam, wife of Dr. Walter Hanson Stone Briscoe., The Civil War tore the region apart. As a border state, Maryland remained in the Union, but many of its citizens, especially in Southern Maryland where planters were dependent on slave labor, sympathized with the Confederacy. This made the area dangerous for free as well as enslaved blacks. More than 600 African Americans from St. Mary's County served in the Union forces, including George Barnes, an enslaved man from Sotterley. Henry, David and Chapman Briscoe, three sons of Emeline and Walter, served in the Confederate Army. It is known that in at least one battle, at Petersburg, George Barnes and Henry Briscoe were on opposite sides. Maryland outlawed slavery in 1864, with the U.S. Congress following suit the next year. At the war's conclusion in 1865, the slave-supported plantation system was at an end.