Slaveholders Listed on this Page
- Historical Summary
- Hepburn, William
About the information in this list
Each listing represents a record of one Black slave or indentured servant (more on terminology below). The list is sorted alphabetically according to the owner's surname. I felt that this order would be the most useful for several reasons. It groups slaves together who would have lived with the same owner, and increases the likelihood of finding persons related to each other. Records of slave surnames are rare, many being identified only through their given name. You can search this listing for a specific slave given name by using your browser's Find feature (Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer use Ctrl + F).
Dates of birth for the slaves, unless specified in the original documents, have been calculated by subtracting their given age from the date of the record. Very often, their ages as reported in the original records are given as approximations (such as "about 25 years of age"), which is indicated by a lower case "a" following their age. The term Status refers to the slave's relative freedom. Unless specified otherwise, slaves served "for life" prior to Pennsylvania's Gradual Emancipation Act of 1780. Children born to slave mothers after the passage of that legislation were to serve until age 28, which was much of their productive lives.
The term Description refers to the main description of the slave as given in the original source (including misspellings). This is often a means by which slaves were put into certain categories according to race and relative age.
The terms "slave" and "servant" were often used interchangeably, especially in the earliest years of the time period covered in this study. After the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1780 was passed in Pennsylvania, the term "servant" frequently came to mean either someone in indentured servitude or someone employed by the head of the household. The passage from slave to servant was often indistinct for many Blacks, many of whom remained with their former owners after being legally emancipated. For simplicity I have used the term "slave" to represent these people whom I believe were truly in bondage, even though some records list them as "servants." This list does not include white indentured servants, who were an entirely different class of labor from Black slaves and Black "indentured servants."
The locations listed for the owners, especially City or Township are greatly mixed, and represent the location listed in the original record. As township boundaries shifted and new townships and counties were created, the original listing may be misleading.
Enslavement Data
- Historical Summary
Notes: The following historical sketch of Judge Samuel Wallis is from Marshall Anspach's Historical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. In addition to the information on Judge Wallis, it included a summary of the other prominent slaveholders and their location in the county.
Samuel Wallis was born in Harford County, Maryland, about 1730, of Quaker stock. He received a good education and entered into active business early in life. At one time he had been a shipping merchant. He also studied surveying, and became interested in speculation in Pennsylvania lands as soon as this area came into the market. As the result of being employed by Judge James Wilson, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a prominent early Supreme Court Judge, a agent for the Holland Land Company, as a surveyor, Wallis was able to acquire the choicest parcels for himself, giving the poor Dutchmen the worst of the bargain. In time he became the largest land owner and the most active dealer in lands in the Muncy area, sometimes individually, and sometimes in ventures with Wilson, Henry Drinker, Abel James, Reuben Haines, Robert Lettis Hooper and John Adlum.
As early as 1769, he became possessed of over 7,000 acres, and built the first permanent home, a stone house, in Lycoming County, to which he brought his bride, Lydia Hollingsworth, whom he married on March 1, 1770. Here they lived until the Great Runaway of 1778. Fort Muncy, which was a rallying point during the Indian troubles, was built a few hundred yards north of Wallis’ home. It was destroyed in 1779 by the notorious Captain McDonald, as he passed down the valley to capture Fort Freeland, and was afterward rebuilt by Captain Walker and served a good purpose until the close of the war.
Although the Quakers, as a religious group, were generally opposed to slavery, Wallis, himself a Quaker, owned slaves, and strenuously advocated the custom. Others who owned slaves were Charles and Samuel Stewart, of Nippenose Bottom, J Knox of Larrys Creek, William Crownover, who settled “Level Corners”, Sheriff John Hayes, of Montoursville, General John Borrows, Robert Martin, of Newberry, Amariah Sutton, John Dunlap, of Jaysburg, Judge William Hepburn and the Rose family. In 1800 there were 30 slaves in Lycoming County, but by 1830, there were only 5 slaves.
Source: Historical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, 1795-1960, Marshall Anspach, compiler, Published by Lycoming Law Association, Williamsport, PA, 1961. Excerpt taken from "Part 9," of the work, published online by Lycoming Law Association, https://www.lycolaw.org/about/sketches/13, accessed 16 November 2024.
- Slaveholder Name: Hepburn, William
City or Township: Williamsport
County: Lycoming
Occupation: Farmer, Distiller, Merchant, Pennsylvania State Senate: 1793-1795, President Judge of Lycoming County
Notes: Lived 1753-1821;
- Enslaved Person's Name: Oliver
Sex: Male
Age: Age not specified, but described as a "boy."
Date of Birth: Not known
Status: Undetermined, but from the date and personal description, probably a slave to age 28
Description: "Negro boy"
Notes: Meginnes gives detail of a found receipt: "Also one other receipt, dated July 11, 1796, for £100 in specie in full for a negro boy named Oliver, sold by William Gray, Esq., of Sunbury."
Date of Record: 11July 1796
Source: John F. Meginnes, Genealogy and History of the Hepburn Family of the Susquehanna Vallay, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1894, p. 70.
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