research paper on slavery

Amanda Cunningham 1Union Mills Homestead Internship 8/21/2015

Complexities of a Slave Society: How Real were Familial Master-Slave Relationships?

In 1797 the Shrivers’ made their Homestead in Union Mills, Maryland. During the Civil

War, Maryland remained part of the Union as a border state out of necessity to protect

Washington D.C. This was done even though most Marylanders considered themselves a

Southern state with staunch Southern ideals. This imbalance between ideas and Union inclusion

created tension in Maryland families and within individuals. However, the Shriver Homestead in

Union Mills is situated extremely close to the Pennsylvania border. Perhaps because of this

proximity to a self-proclaimed Northern state, the Shrivers experienced differing loyalties

between Confederate and Union ideals depending on which Shriver one asked.

At the onset of war in 1861, A. Kate Shriver was called from boarding school at the

bequest of her parents concerned for her safety. Kate stated that she “came home a red-hot

Rebel,” however her father, Andrew Keiser Shriver, agreed with the Union and remained loyal

whence Kate “soon found [her] mistake and changed.” 1 This initial identification as a

Confederate fit to her experiences as a Southerner who owned slaves and only after her father

declared the family would remain loyal to the Union did Kate switch sides out of paternal

guidance. The irony was that Kate’s father owned five slaves and understood that the

Confederacy fought to protect their rights to own slaves. However his ownership of slaves may

have been out of labor necessity more so than out of feelings of racial superiority and Southern

ideals. This is evidenced by the fact that Andrew Shriver freed all five of his slaves and hired

them on as paid workers following President Lincolns’ Emancipation Proclamation. Maryland

was a border state and because of this Andrew Shriver was still able to own slaves under the

1 A. Kate Shriver. I Remember: Notes on Life at Union Mills. Hanover, October 1930. Union Mills Publishing 2013. pg. 1


rules of the Proclamation because only Slaves within the Confederate States were technically

freed.

The relationship between master and slave was a complicated one not easily understood

even by the master and slave of the time. Louis E. Shriver, Kate Shriver’s brother, had a

complicated yet not uncommon relationship with a young male slave prior to the Civil War. The

slave boys name was Harry and was only a few years older than Louis. Louis referred to Harry

and his other four slave family members as “pretty well grown up and able to work, if you could

make them.”2 Louis remembered that “there were no boys in our family near my own age…

under the circumstances, Harry…became my chief and almost constant companion and I stood

by him on all occasions.”3 Although Louis and Harry became inseparable friends, they only did

so ‘under the circumstances,’ their friendship may not have been forged if Louis had white male

playmates. However this friendship may have formed regardless of the number of white

playmates based on further recollections by Loius. Louis remembers within Random Shots that

he and Harry once ganged-up on a white neighborhood bully and that they “did him (the bully)

up fair.”4 Louis remembered this assault in good light; Louis never mentioned repercussions or

punishments for himself nor Harry. This lack of punishment for a black slave assaulting a white

male speaks for how race relations may have been more relaxed in Union Mills, Maryland

regardless of status of free or enslaved.

“Harry the colored boy, died at or about beginning of War…Harry had no more sincere

or heartbroken mourner than I (Louis) was.”5 Although the friendship that Louis remembered

between himself and Harry may have been in some ways very real, Louis made it a point to

2 Louis E. Shriver, Random Shots at Old Times. Union Mills, MD, July 4, 1930. Union Mills Publishing, 2013. pg.5.3 Louis E. Shriver, Random Shots at Old Times. Union Mills, MD, July 4, 1930. Union Mills Publishing, 2013. pg.5.4 Louis E. Shriver, Random Shots at Old Times. Union Mills, MD, July 4, 1930. Union Mills Publishing, 2013. pg.5.5 Louis E. Shriver, Random Shots at Old Times. Union Mills, MD, July 4, 1930. Union Mills Publishing, 2013. pg.5-6.


reference Harry as ‘the colored boy.’ This type of identification separated Harry from Louis in

innumerable ways so that anything that Louis may have felt for Harry would have been

distanced. When the White hearse driver related events to Louis about Harry’s funeral, attended

and presided over by all colored members, Louis stated he found it “very amusing.”6 Louis again

showed a form of detachment to Harry even though he thought of himself as Harrys ‘most

heartbroken mourner.’ This type of back and forth in emotions showed the complexities within

the master-slave relationship. These complexities are further explored by Kate Shriver in I

Remember.

Kate Shriver remembered an incident concerning a female slave who stole a watch from a

white employee who worked in her father’s mill. The slave, Prissila, was caught and the “Sheriff

came took her to the garret and whipped her, on I suppose her bare back.”7 Kate continued the

story with the statement “it certainly seemed horrible,” and focused on how she felt about the

incident.8 She never mentioned Prissila as her main concern and said that it only ‘seemed

horrible,’ it of course would have been horrible for Prissila and not Kate. After her father freed

their slaves she surmised that “I often think my mother must have had a fearful time with them.

These colored people came from below Westminster, on the Baltimore Pike, and were all of one

family.”9 What was most important to Kate was that her mother was now free of the pain of

ruling over the slaves because they were difficult to manage. They would have been difficult

because they were from further South and a part of one family, thereby would remain loyal to

their own slave family and not the Shriver’s.

6 Louis E. Shriver, Random Shots at Old Times. Union Mills, MD, July 4, 1930. Union Mills Publishing, 2013. pg.9. 7 A. Kate Shriver. I Remember: Notes on Life at Union Mills. Hanover, October 1930. Union Mills Publishing 2013. pg. 7.8 A. Kate Shriver. I Remember: Notes on Life at Union Mills. Hanover, October 1930. Union Mills Publishing 2013. pg. 8.9 A. Kate Shriver. I Remember: Notes on Life at Union Mills. Hanover, October 1930. Union Mills Publishing 2013. pg. 8.


Although Andrew Keiser Shriver and his family remained loyal to the Union and freed

their slaves before they were required to, confusion on slavery and how the slaves were to be

viewed was evident. Louis E. Shriver all at once viewed his slave friend Harry as: a companion,

entertainment, and practical labor. His sister Kate viewed the slaves simply as a burden for her

mother and something that seemed to stain her own experiences as a child. These feelings were

complex and forefront in the mind of many Southern slave-owners prior to the Civil War. Even

for a Union loyal family, the idea of slavery was not as simple as black and white.

research paper on slavery

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