Two Families, Different Paths

The four Davis sisters came to Hampton with their parents and brothers after John Ridgely purchased three families from a Frederick County plantation in 1841 (the “Hawkins Purchase”

Maryland Center for History and Culture, MS.691

The enslaved at Hampton were forced into the confines of a life in bondage. Yet, each person was still a unique individual with their own story and experience. Consider the example of four sisters brought to Hampton as children in 1841. Eldest sister Harriet Davis Smith was a house servant and cook, who married Tom Smith, John Ridgely’s stable hand. Farm worker Caroline Davis Brown ultimately became the head dairymaid. Anne Davis Williams was a house servant, whose nursing skills were prized by the Ridgely family. Ellen Davis Harris was a farm worker who also cared for a large family of children.

The story of Davis sisters Caroline and Ellen is an example of how the formerly enslaved took different paths once Emancipation came to Maryland in 1864. What factors do you think influenced the choices they made?

 

Caroline Davis (1837-lv. 1894) was just four when she arrived with her family at Hampton as an enslaved person and was doing chores for the Ridgely children by age five. She remained at Hampton after Emancipation as an accomplished dairymaid, known for the high quality of her butter. In September 1865, Caroline married Thomas Brown (c. 1841-lv. 1910), who worked as a paid servant along with his father William. The couple had three daughters, and Thomas became head waiter at Hampton, a post he continued until after the turn of the 20th century.

Before her marriage to Thomas, Caroline had had a son named Lewis/Louis Davis (1857-lv. 1920), named for her brother, Louis Davis. Like his uncle, the younger Lewis was a coachman, and like his mother, he continued to work at Hampton after Emancipation. Lewis tended to the Ridgelys’ horses and drove their carriages through the 1910s.

 

Photograph of Nathan Harris driving Ridgely family members

1864, NPS

Ellen Davis (1831-1911) was an older sister of Caroline and Louis. At about age 17, she married Hampton’s senior coachman Nathan Harris (c. 1815-lv. 1880), "...the driver who used to handle the four in hand so skillfully as to command the admiration of the people of Baltimore…." Ellen worked as a farm servant while also caring for the couple’s nine children. Clothing records show that her work required aprons, and she may have assisted her sister Caroline in the dairy, or with preparing the hundreds of hams produced on the farm every year.

 

Photograph of John Gross, great grandson of Ellen and Nathan Harris, with the Ridgely family carriage Nathan drove

2018, NPS

After Emancipation, the Harris family was able to establish a life independent of Hampton thanks to Nathan's skill with horses. By the 1870s, he owned his own stable on Woodbourne Avenue, just north of Baltimore City. Ellen and Nathan’s daughter Isabella/Belle (1862-1935) was one of the last children to be born enslaved at Hampton. Researchers have discovered dozens of living descendants of Belle Harris and her husband Dennis Gross, many of them in the greater Towson area.

 

Learn More

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  Who Lived Here Exhibit

  Learn about the people that made Hampton what it is today.

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  Individual lives in focus

  Learn about how each person was still a unique individual with their own story and experience.

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  Enslaved People

  Hampton was the second largest plantation in Maryland. Learn about the struggle, hardships, and lives of the enslaved.

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  Buildings on the Home Farm

  Learn about the buildings on the home farm side of Hampton. From the overseer's house, quarters of the enslaved, to the dairy.

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  Chattel Slavery at Hampton

  From the colonial period through 1864, the Ridgelys enslaved over 500 people. Enslaved people, from young children to the elderly

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  Freedom Seekers

  Learn all about people that would seek their freedom from Hampton.