"Those beautiful vessels, robed in white, and so delightful to the eyes of freemen," remembered Frederick Douglass of the sailing ships he saw daily during his boyhood along the Chesapeake Bay, "were to me so many shrouded ghosts." Douglass contrasted the ships, loosed from [their] mooring, and free," with his own condition- "fast in chains, and... a slave!" And he swore, as he later recollected, "This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom."

"To Feel Like a Man": Black Seamen in the Northern States, 1800-1860; W. Jeffrey Bolster; The Journal of American History Vol. 76, No. 4 (Mar., 1990), pp. 1173-1199

During the British invasion slaves escaped or were taken by British troops. The escapees worked on board ships, became soldiers, or migrated. These case studies are organized by the subject's home county.

Related Materials: War of 1812 Records | Flee or Stay?: The African American Experience during the War of 1812

Allegany	Anne Arundel	Baltimore	Baltimore City	Calvert
Caroline	Carroll	Cecil	Charles	Dorchester
Frederick	Garrett	Harford	Howard	Kent
Montgomery	Prince George's	Queen Anne's	Saint Mary's	Somerset
Talbot	Washington	Wicomico	Worcester