Jail and Courthouse Underground Railroad markers

The stone section under the porch roof was the original jail built in 1851 and is behind the courthouse built in 1843.  The National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom website HERE


Jail

The Howard County Jail, located at 1 Emory Street, in the Historic District of Ellicott City, Maryland, was the location where freedom seekers and those charged with encouraging enslaved persons to run away or rise up against their masters or similar charges during the age of enslavement were held from January 1852 through the end of slavery in Maryland on November 1, 1864. The Maryland General Assembly passed an act authorizing the Board of Commissioners of Howard District to levy taxes to create the jail. The jail was accepted for use on December 16, 1851. Among the prisoners held were runaways like Augusta Spriggs and Richard Martin, held as a fugitive without a pass.

Courthouse

The 1843 Howard County Courthouse, located on Court Avenue in the Historic District of Ellicott City, Maryland, was the location for judicial proceedings related to legal cases involving those charged with encouraging enslaved persons to run away. From 1843 to the end of slavery in Maryland on November 1, 1864. The Courthouse was designed and built of native granite between 1840 and 1843, and is located high atop Capitoline Hill above Main Street in Ellicott City. Arguably, the most famous case involved the transfer of known Underground Railroad agent William L. Chaplin of New York from Montgomery County to Howard County in 1850 but there were many cases involving local free Blacks like that of Warner Cook, charged with enticing those enslaved to run away.

©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
Researching Food History HOME