Fugitives

Biography:
Henry H. Smith fled with William Little from Fells Point in Baltimore on a Sunday in 1832, during a cholera epidemic. Smith was African American and about twenty-one years old. Both Smith and Little worked as indentured apprentices under the confectioner William Williams, who operated a store on Lancaster Street. He advertised in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston newspapers the day after their escape, describing Smith as "quick in answers, very artful, and from the information received, he has decoyed the said William Little away."

A search of the Maryland State Archives' collection of Baltimore manumission records, which begins in 1829, yielded no references to Henry H. Smith. If Smith was still enslaved, he was not a slave of William Williams, who listed no slaves in the 1830 census.

Smith and Little's escape is a rare example of a blacks and whites fleeing together. While their fate remains unclear, running away as a pair increased the risk of capture.

Fugitives often fled during holidays and periods when their absences were more likely to go unnoticed. For example, Henry H. Smith and William Little, indentured apprentices, escaped from Fells Point in Baltimore on a Sunday in 1832, during a cholera epidemic. Their master, William Williams, placed runaway advertisements in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston newspapers the following day. He described Little as about seventeen years old, white, and with "a bald place in the fore part of his head."

Smith and Little's escape is a rare example of blacks and whites fleeing together. While their fate remains unclear, running away as a pair increased the risk of capture.

Ben Orme was born about 1794 to an enslaved mother and a white man named William Orme. Since the status of a child was based on his mother's status in society Ben Orme was born a slave. Ben was the brother of Nelly Orme Saunders Arnold, the matriarch of the Plummer family in Prince George's County. Ben Orme was a slave at the plantation of Tilghman Hilleary in Prince George's County.

Ben Orme escaped from Tilghman Hilleary at least three times. In his first attempt in 1812, Ben was caught and taken back. He escaped again with Peter and Andrew Ridout during the British invasion of Maryland of 1813-1814. Fearing that he would be caught, Ben left the Ridout brothers and returned to his master. When he returned Orme testified that the Ridouts persuaded him to escape and he saw them ride off with the British. Ben Orme fled again in 1815 and was eventually captured.

In 1828 Tilghman Hilleary filed a claim against the British for the Andrew and Peter Ridout. In his claim he used Ben Orme's deposition as proof of lost property. Orme swore on the holy bible that he saw the two runaways, Peter and Andrew Ridout, ride off on horses with the enemy and persuaded him to come along. When Tilghman Hilleary died he willed Ben Orme to his son Thomas Hilleary.

Tilghman Hilleary was born February 4, 1751 in Prince George's County to Thomas and Sarah Odell Hilleary. Hilleary married Anne Wheeler, daughter of Clement Wheeler and Lucy Brooke of Prince George's County, on January 10,1782. Together the Hilleary's had eight children: Clement, Thomas T., Tilghman, Mary, Sarah Ogle, William, Anne, and George Washington Hilleary. Marriage to Anne Wheeler would prove to be a wealthy investment. Tilghman Hilleary and his wife owned a large slave labor force by Maryland standards, which consisted of at least 54 slaves in Bladensburg. The Hilleary's slaves were inherited through family and purchased over time. Anne's father Clement willed to her six slaves that added to the Hilleary slave population. Lucy Wheeler, Anne Hilleary's mother, willed a negro man Daniel to Tilghman Hilleary. Hilleary purchased a negro woman Sall and her two children from the estate of Marsham Waring in 1813.

During the War of 1812 many Maryland slaveholders would suffer the loss of enslaved labor as the British attacked their homes and carried off their slaves. In 1814 two of Tilghman Hilleary's slaves Peter Ridout (25) and Andrew Ridout (21), ran off to the British forces and enlisted in the Colonial Marines. At about the same time another slave belonging to Hilleary, Ben Orme, escaped from his plantation in Bladensburg. Orme eventually returned to Hilleary. In 1828 Hilleary made a claim for the escape of his two negroes Andrew and Peter. In the claim Ben Orme gave a deposition and swore on the bible that he saw the two runaway's ride off on horses with the enemy and persuaded him to come along. Orme was the brother of Nellie Orme Saunders Arnold whose descendants, the Plummer family, were also owned by the Hilleary's.