“...A free negro…assisted his wife and children to run away”

Manuscript document signed by E.H. Rockwell, as Grand Jury Foreman. Frederick County, Maryland, n.d. February 1864. 1 page, 7 7/8 x 6 3/8 in. Docketed to verso, filed 3 March 1864.

A fascinating account of Lloyd Brightley, “a Free Negro,” who helped his wife Mary and their three children escape from enslavement to freedom in the midst of the Civil War.

The document, an affidavit from the Grand Jury of Frederick County, Maryland, states: “The Grand Jurors of the State of Maryland for the body of Frederick County...present that Lloyd Brightley, Free Negro, late of said County on the 20th day of Oct. 1863 at the County aforesaid did unlawfully entice pursuade and assist a negro slave named Mary Brightley and her three children the property of Mrs. Sarah E. Lynch to run away on the information of Charles Gross.”

Manumission documents record six members of the Brightley family owned by Sarah Lynch’s stepsons, John A. Lynch (1825–1904) and William Boteler Lynch (1827–1909). The will of their late father, William Lynch (1788–1857), stipulated that his slaves were to be freed upon reaching the age of 37. Thus, Lloyd Brightley, who was older than 37 at the time of William’s death, was immediately emancipated. He evidently sought to free his wife and children amid the upheaval of war.

A poignant document recording a family’s struggle for reunification.