Free Black Woman Barbara Diggs petitions for the release of her children, who were bound out against her will
Dublin Core
Title
Free Black Woman Barbara Diggs petitions for the release of her children, who were bound out against her will
Description
Statement of Barbara Diggs, a free woman of color, whose children "are slaves of Dr. Featherbridge of Talbot Co Md" he "claiming the right of binding them to him." File includes a massive number of enclosures, mostly dealing with apprenticeship and illegal enslavement after Maryland passed an emancipation measure in its Constitution of 1864.
Date
11/14/1864
Coverage
Talbot County, MD
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Statement of a Maryland Free Black Woman
Head Qrs. M. Dept 8” a/c
Balto [Md.] Novr 14"/64.
Statement of Barbara Diggs (fw)
I am a free woman, but my children are slaves of Dr. Featherbridge of Talbot. Co Md. I make this Statement desiring information as to whether my children can be held by the said Dr. Featherbridge he claiming the right of binding them to him. I wish to get possession of them immediately if possible as it was averse to my will to have them bound to the said Dr. Featherbridge
her
Barbara X Diggs fw
mark
Statement of Barbara Diggs, 14 Nov. 1864, filed with M-1932 1864, Letters Received, ser. 12, RG 94 [K-4].
Collection
Citation
“Free Black Woman Barbara Diggs petitions for the release of her children, who were bound out against her will,” Black Maryland in the Civil War—A Microedition of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, accessed June 8, 2026, https://www.fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/43.