"Fifty-Four Days Work of Two Negroes": Enslaved Labor in Colonial Somerset County, Maryland

Abstract

The uses of enslaved labor outside the context of staple crop production be? come evident through an examination of colonial Somerset County, the southernmost Maryland county on the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore. By the early eighteenth century, conditions in Somerset amounted to something of a paradox. The countys planters were thoroughly embedded in the larger Chesapeake plantation society and replicated, insofar as they were able, the features of that society, including the use of slave labor and cultivation of to? bacco. Yet poor soil conditions pushed residents to the edges of the tobacco economy. Unable to grow tobacco profitably, Somersefs men and women identified alternative export commodities that were more suited to the re? sources at hand, including lumber, meat, and ships. In addition, many Som? erset residents were active in an expanding coastwide trade that linked eco? nomic activity in the county to markets elsewhere in the colonies. Russo examines the allocation of enslaved labor in Somersefs diversifted economy using information drawn from judicial, tax, probate, and land records. Consideration ofthe evidence for Somerset County indicates that scholars need to devote more attention to the characteristics of slavery in anomalous areas that exist within broad staple-producing regions.