Louise Mason and her children: the last people enslaved by the Maryland Jesuits

Louise Mason and her children: the last people enslaved by the Maryland Jesuits

Slave Women; Slave Families; Slavery--Maryland; Emancipation--Maryland

In 1867, officials in Maryland undertook a census of all the people in Maryland who were emancipated in the state in 1864. The census was prepared in the hope that the ex-slaveowners would be compensated for the loss of their human property, as slaveowners in Washington, D.C. had been. The census for St. Mary's County, Maryland, lists a family owned by "Rev. I.B. Meucer" of the Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen of Maryland. (This was probably John B. Meurer, S.J.) The family included Louise Mason (age 45), and her children Daniel, Ann, Charity, Thomas, Josephine, and Robert Mason. A 27-year old man named William Holly is also listed.

Louise Mason and her family were the last people currently known to have been enslaved by the Maryland Jesuits.

Maryland State Archives

Maryland State Archives

1864

Adam Rothman

Maryland State Archives

GSA83: Louisa Mason obituary, 1909

Website

English

Slave census

GSA69

Corporation of the Roman Catholic

Church Clergymen by Rev. I.B. Meucer-Owner

May 30, 1867

Louise	Mason	F	45	Nov. 1, 1864
Daniel	Mason	M	17	Nov. 1, 1864
Ann	Mason	F	15	" "
Charity	Mason	F	13	" "
Thomas	Mason	M	11	"
Josephine	Mason	F	9	"
Robert	Mason	M	7	" "	(230)
William	Holly	M	27	"
					No. of Slaves #8

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