Last night I was listening to Black ProGen Live, a group of professional genealogists who research and document African-American families, they have round tables setting (Webinar presentations) on YouTube. Black ProGen Live stated “That in 1860, there were more than 4 million enslaved people of African descent living in the United States. At the same time, there were nearly 400,000 free people of color (FPOC) living in the U.S.” I was surprised about the 10 percent, since majority of my relatives on the Eastern Shore were free in 1860. So I went to research how many free people of color were counted in Maryland and then broken down to Caroline, Queen Anne, Dorchester and Talbot counties.
Maryland : 83,942 free people of color
Caroline County: 2,786 Queen Anne: 3,372 Dorchester:4,684 Talbot:2,964
The county with the majority of FPOC was Baltimore with a total of 29,911 FPOC
So Maryland had almost 1/4 of the 10 percent of FPOC living in United States. So here is a list of my head of household relatives that were free people of color in the Eastern Shore Maryland.
Caroline County:
Matthew Johns and his wife Emily Ann Homer
Henrietta Lockerman
John and Sarah Lockerman
Benedict Wyatt and his wife Clementine Sarah Coker
Jame Flamer and his wife Lurette
Joseph Flamer and his wife Loretta
John Sparks and his wife Mary
Robert Matthews, he lived most of his life in Caroline county, but in the 1860, he was working Anne Arundel.
Wilson and Elizabeth Downes
Medford Pritchett and Mary Adeline Clark
Nathan Clark and his wife Mary Cooper
Dorchester County:
William Cephas
Those mention are head of lineages, this does not include children or siblings that are also FPOC
Eastern Shore's Africans, Melungeons and Native Americans 