Slaves helped colonies in Revolutionary War
Charles Ridgely likely one of the richest men in The United States by the last years of the 18th Century. He owned an estate of 24,000 acres in Baltimore County, Md. and his enterprises included agriculture, commercial and industrial concerns.
The most significant of these was the Northampton Furnace, mostly submerged in Loch Raven Reservoir today, but remembered with at least six historical markers.
What is not so evident on most of those markers is that slaves built, manned, and almost totally operated the furnace, which supplied cannonballs to the Revolutionary troops during the War for Independence.
Ridgely held well over 100 slaves during that time. This is just another bit of evidence how Black men and women helped the colonies gain their independence.
One of those was a woman named Pugg (last name unavailable), who took the chance to escape from the Northampton Furnace in August 1787. What job she performed there is unknown, though it was noted that she had lost her left thumb.
She was otherwise described as being about 5-6, having a full eyes and face, high forehead, large nose, long chin and with a dark complexion.
She took with her a six-year-old child and may have left other children with Ridgely.
The slave holder was offering $20 if Pugg was captured within 50 miles of home and $100 if captured 200 miles or more from Ridgely’s estate.
The notice appeared in the Freeman’s Journal or North American Intelligencer of Philadelphia (Pa.) on Aug. 13, 1788.
On to this week’s stories.
WHETHER A SLAVE WAS forced to work in the field, the house, as a blacksmith or carpenter his confinement was always fraught with danger and with the possibility
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