69 Slaves Escape to Freedom

Lancaster County · dedicated 2016 · Mary Ball Road about 1,400 feet north of Robert O. Norris Bridge

About 2,400 enslaved African Americans in Virginia escaped to the British during the War of 1812, encouraged in part by a proclamation issued on 2 Apr. 1814 offering them freedom and resettlement in “His Majesty's Colonies.” Three enslaved men from Corotoman, a plantation two miles west of here, fled on 18 Apr. 1814. Several days later, they guided British barges back to carry off friends and relatives, including 46 children, the largest group of slaves to leave a Chesapeake Bay plantation during the war. Some settled in Nova Scotia or Trinidad. British reparations later compensated some owners for departed slaves, including, in 1828, those from Corotoman.

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69 Slaves Escape to Freedom

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