Biography:
Benjamin Ducket born at Marietta, a plantation and manor
house in northern central Prince George's County, Benjamin Duckett
was enslaved by the Duval Family. Benjamin Duval (d. 1801) built
Marietta upon a 150 acre tract purchased from part of a larger
survey known as "Darnall's Grove." Gabriel Duval
(1752-1844), Benjamin Duval's son, purchased the property from his
father in 1784. During the first decades of the nineteenth century,
Gabriel Duval established himself as a country gentlemen among the
economic elite in the county. As an Associate Justice of the United
States Supreme Court (1811-1835), Duval resided in Washington, D.C.
for several weeks each year. Likewise, his duties on the Circuit
Court saw him travel widely throughout Maryland and Delaware.
He also conducted a private practice from a small law office on his
plantation. Duval, like many Maryland elites, bred race horses, and
traveled to competitions around the state. Gabriel Duval moved in
the highest social circles, and James Madison spent a day and night
at Marietta while on a country jaunt during his presidency
(1809-1817). Official duties and visitors aside, life at Marietta
was centered on families. Foremost in this way were the planter's
family: the Duvals. Yet, the slave quarters at Marietta were home to
numerous families as well. The total number of slaves at Marietta
during the Antebellum years fluctuated between thirty-five and
fifty. Along with Gabriel, other Duvals living at Marietta during
the nineteenth century held African Americans there. Included among
these slaveholders were Gabriel's son, Edmund (d. 1831), Gabriel's
sister Delila, and his orphaned grandchildren, Marcus, Edmund, Mary,
and Gabriella, who came to live with him and his wife Jane (d. 1834)
in 1832. Life at Marietta remained active throughout the Antebellum
Era.
To learn more visit:
Beneath the Underground Railroad