Black Entrepreneurs

Contract between Samuel Eccleston and James Woodland, December 31, 1806

Contract between Samuel Eccleston and James Woodland, December 31, 1806

 

Articles of agreement made and concluded upon by James Woodland of the one part and Sam Eccleston of the other part, both of Queen Anne’s County and state of Maryland. The said James Woodland agrees to give the said Sam fifty dollars and find him his accommodations at said Woodland’s house. And the aforesaid Sam is to have his wife and three children, and the said James Woodland agrees to give the said Sam one shilling per pound for spinning tow thread, and one shilling for kersey, and one shilling and sixpence per pound for [?] thread, four yards to the pound. And the said Sam is to pay the assessment of said negroes and to clear said Woodland of all expenses, and is to serve the said Woodland for the year 1807 without any loss of time. And the said James Woodland agrees to find said Sam firewood. And if said Sam loses any time, he is to make it good. As witness our hands and seals, this 31st day of December 1806.

James Woodland (seal)
Saml Eccleston, his mark X (seal)
Joseph Latimer, witness

[spelling and punctuation have been modernized]

In 1800, while enslaved in Kent County, a Black man named Samuel Eccleston was “hired out” to work for another white farmer, James Woodland. Sometime within the next few years, Eccleston obtained his freedom. He continued to work for Woodland — but now he could negotiate the terms of his employment.

This 1806 manuscript is a labor contract between the newly freed Black man and the white landowner. Woodland will pay Eccleston $50 to work on Woodland’s farm for one year, as well as provide housing and firewood for Eccleston, his wife, and their three children. He also offers payment for thread spun by Eccleston’s wife. Language in the document hints that some of the family may still have been enslaved: it stipulates that Eccleston is to “pay the assessment of said negroes,” likely referring to an annual tax assessed on enslaved people. Still, Samuel Eccleston was now his own master.



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