| Location | Belair, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Names Mentioned | Annie Davis |
| Date | August 25, 1864 |
| Document Title | Maryland Slave to the President, August 25, 1864 |
| Document Description | Maryland's exclusion from the Emancipation Proclamation left Annie Davis still enslaved. Insistent on her right to freedom, she demanded that President Abraham Lincoln clarify her status. |
| Transcription |
Belair [Md.] Aug 25th 1864 Mr president It is my Desire to be free. to go to see my people on the eastern shore. my mistress wont let me you will please let me know if we are free. and what i can do. I write to you for advice. please send me word this week. or as soon as possible and oblidge. Annie Davis Annie Davis to Mr. president, 25 Aug. 1864, D-304 1864, Letters Received, series 360, Colored Troops Division, Adjutant General's Office, Record Group 94, National Archives. A Bureau of Colored Troops notation on the outside of the letter reads merely “file,” and no response to Annie Davis appears among the copies of letters sent by the bureau or by other offices in the War Department. Published in The Destruction of Slavery, p. 384, in Free at Last, p. 349, and in Families and Freedom, p. 227. |
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[Author (if known)], Documents from the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, [Date (if known)], Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva’s Black History, Nabb Research Center, Salisbury University.
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