From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family

3. Welcome to America

3 Welcome to America Annapolis was teeming with visitors on June 4, 1752, a Thursday. A new session of the colonial assembly had convened the previous day, and the town was full of legislators and favor-seekers. In addition, planters and slave traders from around the colony were there to look over the newly arrived slaves from Africa, including Yarrow, that were to be sold that day on board the Elijah. Then there were the curious. They had come to town simply to watch these strange-looking, frightened black men, women, and children as they came ashore in small boats with their new owners. Everyone in town could see the small snow riding at anchor there in the Severn River. Everyone knew, or knew of, the men conducting the sale, Benjamin Tasker Jr. and Christopher Lowndes. For those interested in slaves, the excitement was palpable. Ships with slaves from Africa rarely came into Annapolis. Only twelve ships, with 2,241 slaves, came into Annapolis and the upper Chesapeake Bay from Africa during the sixteen years from 1743 until 1759.1 Slave ships from the Gold Coast and Senegambia, the regions from which Diallo’s Arabella and Yarrow’s Elijah sailed, were even rarer. The last ship to come from either of these places was the Gambia Merchant in 1743, nine years earlier. The next ship, Venus, would not show up for seven more years, in 1759. In the sixteen-year period, the Elijah may have been the only source of Muslim slaves arriving directly into Annapolis from these two places. Rarest of all were these Muslim slaves. Merely because a ship came from Senegambia did not mean that it carried Muslims.2 The African slaves saw things differently. They surely had a mix of feelings. They would have been relieved that the terrible voyage was 42 | welcome to america over. They would soon be rid of the confines, shackles, and dangers of the stinking ship and away from the oppressive crew. Land beckoned. But they did not know what lay ahead. Whatever it was, they knew it would not be good. It certainly would not mean freedom. The crew may have communicated this to them. They could guess they would be split up, and in this there was fear. They might not speak exactly the same language, but they could understand one another. What is more, they had been through the terrors together and had bonded. They could not know if they would ever see each other again. Sold! The previous day, Benjamin Tasker Sr. had spoken to a joint session of the assembly. Although he had served in the upper chamber for years, Tasker had recently become the acting governor, and this was his inaugural address. His predecessor, Samuel Ogle, had died earlier in the year.3 The succession provided a bizarre example of what the feudal society of the Maryland colony meant: Ogle had been Tasker’s son-inlaw . Although the two men were about the same age, Tasker had married his daughter to the much older Ogle. The strategic marriage undoubtedly helped Tasker rise to the post he now held. One member of the upper chamber listened to the new governor’s short speech with special attention—his son, Benjamin Tasker Jr. Both chambers of the assembly convened again on the morning of June 4. Since the upper chamber had little to do, Benjamin Jr. was free to attend to selling the slaves on the Elijah. The walk from capitol to wharf was a short one. Besides, the slave trade was really the business of Tasker’s brother-in-law, Christopher Lowndes, and he would have played the more active role. The lower chamber of the assembly was busier. The morning that Yarrow was sold into slavery in America, a bill was introduced, the first of the new session, to amend the Maryland slave code. The bill prohibited old and useless slaves from being freed by their owners lest they become a burden on the public. It also prohibited manumission— welcome to america | 43 the grant of freedom to a slave—by last will and testament.4 The assembly was not putting out the welcome mat for Africans. The mere presence of the Elijah in Annapolis riveted the attention of residents of the city. If you were there that day, you looked across an expanse of water and saw the ship bobbing gently at...