Slavery and Tobacco
Jeanette E. Sherbondy • August 3, 2021
The late 1600s
was a very profitable period for Eastern Shore tobacco growers and exporters. The crop was labor intensive, needing many indentured servants, convicts, and enslaved persons. The Eastern Shore’s diversified crops — tobacco, wheat, and corn — meant that local workers had no seasonal down time
After 1680, wealthy Eastern Shore landowners started buying enslaved persons for their large land holdings, which they had received as grants from Lord Baltimore. These persons were from the Caribbean, not directly from Africa. The buyers soon learned concepts of slavery from the Caribbean societies where they did business, and where enslaved persons had no legal rights whatsoever. Furthermore, the children of enslaved women were condemned to permanent slavery. With no rights to property, or to their own names, or to families, enslaved persons could be given, sold, and rented out, much like livestock.
The 1690s were profitable years for tobacco, but many workers came down with what was known as “green tobacco sickness” from handling the nicotine-filled tobacco leaves. This caused nausea and vomiting.
From 1702-13, however, there was a depression during Queen Anne’s War. Tobacco prices declined and trade was suppressed. This led to more diversification of crops because the grain trade was more reliable than tobacco. By the 1750s, there were food shortages on both sides of the Atlantic, but Maryland grain was shipped to Philadelphia, where it was milled and exported to Europe.
During Europe’s Seven Year War (1756-1763), the demand for grain increased. Philadelphia merchants bought grain from the Eastern Shore, notably from Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties. Upper Shore planters were either Lloyds themselves or were connected to the Lloyd family of bankers and ship-owners. That meant they controlled the grain exportation more than the planters on the Lower Shore, who depended on other shippers. The Lloyds shipped their produce from Chestertown and Oxford to Philadelphia. Kent County was the biggest exporter of the counties and by 1770, it specialized in wheat. Eastern Shore wheat accounted for one-fifth of all wheat exported from the American colonies in the years before the Revolution.
Enslaved labor made this crop production possible. The population of enslaved persons grew. Talbot County had only a handful of enslaved persons in the 1680s, but had 492 by 1710, and 2,910 in 1755. They were mostly West Africans. The majority came from Gambia — Guinea-Bissau today — and Sierra Leone. Others came from coastal communities along the Bight of Benin. They came from various ethnic groups, Mandingas, Jolofs, Fulas, Fon, Yoruba, Edo, and Igbos. Some were Muslims. Even though they spoke different languages, in Maryland and elsewhere, they were all classified as “Negroes.”
Most had been farmers in Africa. They knew how to raise small plots of tobacco, but wheat was new to them. They weren’t accustomed to the tools, plows, sickles, scythes, and teams of oxen. Men managed the draft animals and women and children threshed and bound the wheat. Harvesting meant a short time to do a lot of work over a two-week period.
By 1775, enslaved persons were worked hard. They suffered under the unrelenting three-crop regime. The War of Independence offered them new opportunities. The British blocked trade and encouraged enslaved persons to escape and join their forces. Tobacco farming collapsed on the Eastern Shore. Wheat continued, but the British often blocked shipping it to the Caribbean. Furthermore, the American Continental Congress demanded wheat for its troops. Farmers and merchants were angry.
Enslaved persons were adversely affected because their owners gave them less food and clothing. The nature of slave work changed, with craftwork assigned to men and spinning and weaving to women. With their owners hoping they could feed themselves, enslaved people had more free time for their own gardens. Many left and lived by wandering. With poor White people also wandering, in the 1780s there was great concern about all the “beggars, vagrants, and vagabonds.”
Maryland passed a Poor-Relief Act in 1788 that permitted counties to convert buildings into almshouses and workhouses. The White landowners were worried about wanderers’ mobility because they feared thieving. The inmates were put to work, and treated much like enslaved people.
There was a brief surge in 1781 in tobacco profits, especially with sales to England. Then the market became saturated; the price of tobacco dropped, but grain prices surged. The grain economy labor force needed to be restructured. Owners hired out enslaved persons, or sold them, or freed them. The demand for slave labor increased for other industries associated with grain production.
Until Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793, many enslaved persons migrated to Pennsylvania. The free Black population exploded in the first part of the 1800s. Former slaves became seasonal workers and life on the Eastern Shore was revolutionized after tobacco’s demand for slave labor ended.
The main source for this article was Hirelings by Jennifer Hull Dorsey, published in 2011, and available in the Maryland Library System.
Jeanette Sherbondy is a retired anthropology professor from Washington College and has lived here since 1986. In retirement she has been active with the Kent County Historical Society and Sumner Hall, one of the organizers of Legacy Day, and helped get highway /historical markers recognizing Henry Highland Garnet. She published an article on her ethnohistorical research of the free Black village, Morgnec.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
