"Margy" Blake (1811-1880) was the daughter of Charlotte and Perry Blake - he was a free African-American and a Marine during the War of 1812. She was born a slave of Jesse and Sarah Levering and looked after one of
their daughters, Sarah Levering. Blake bought her freedom
in the 1850s, and was the subject of a book by Levering in 1897.
Although Jesse Levering had a successful business in Baltimore, he died suddenly of cholera when Sarah was 7 years old, and his widow moved her young family to Ellicott City, and Margaret was sent to work for other families.
