William Evans, Soldier and Sailor

William Evans, a slave of Capt. Thomas Mezick, the owner of Sandy Point Farm here, enlisted in the 30th Regiment, United States Colored Troops, in March 1864. The 22-year-old, thereby, gained his freedom. He joined 122 other area slaves who had been inspired by a USCT company camped at St. John's College in nearby Annapolis. Evans transferred to the U.S. Navy on April, 11, 1864. In 1870, he was listed in the census as an Annapolis-area "sailor."

Evans was among many Maryland blacks, slave and free, who fought in the Civil War (8,718 in the USCTs). As a border state, Maryland continued to sanction slavery during the war until a new state constitution abolished it on November 1, 1864. Before then, free blacks could enlist in the U.S. Army, and thousands of slaves fled to seek refuge with the Union troops. By early 1864, however, slaveholders such as Mezick were promised reimbursement for any slaves who enlisted. During the war, Mezick remained at Sandy Point Farm and owned the farm until the late nineteenth century.

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African Americans Faced Brutality

Thomas B. Davis, keeper of Sandy Point Lighthouse, wrote to a Baltimore judge on November 6th, 1984, that on the day Maryland abolished slavery, he saw men on horseback armed with whips and revolvers assaulting African Americans. "They took in the [St. Margaret Postmaster's cellar] a negro Woman stript her and with a Cow Hyde Lasarated her flesh until the Blood oozed from every cut and She within a Month of giving Birth." He documented other incidents involving men, women, and children.

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Show me all markers in:  Annapolis, MD  |  Anne Arundel County  |  21409  |  Maryland  |  United States of America

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