5. Slave Bench

This simple wooden bench is believed to have been made and used by enslaved African-Americans at The Briers, a mid-19^th-century farm located on current Route 108 north of the Olney crossroads. Before building his brick residence in 1854, prosperous farmer Josiah Waters Jones, Sr. (1810-1896) built a stone slave quarters in 1853. The Slave Schedule of the 1860 census shows that Jones claimed ownership of thirteen people and that his property included two “slave houses.” One was described as “still standing” in 1962, when all remaining farm buildings were demolished for the Olney Mill subdivision. A 1966 note says that the faux mill at the entrance to the neighborhood was created using stone from the slave quarters, blacksmith shop, and stables of The Briers.

In 1867, the state of Maryland commenced a “Slave Census” which listed, by former owner, those individuals enslaved in 1864 at the time of Maryland’s emancipation legislation. In 1864 The Briers had been home to eleven enslaved persons: David Dorsey, 60; Edward Williams, 49; George Thomas, 35; Peter J. Williams, 32; Thomas Williams, 30; Tilghman Debtor, 19; Samuel Debtor, 17; Mary [no surname given], 17; Martha Debtor, 12; Elias Debtor, 8; and Anne Debtor, 2.

Tilghman and Samuel Debtor are noted as having enlisted in the Union Army, for which Josiah W. Jones received $100 compensation each. David Dorsey was, perhaps, the “capable slave Uncle Dave, blacksmith and wheelwright” according to historian Roger Brooke Farquhar in 1962, in Old Homes and History of Montgomery County, Maryland (Judd & Detweiler, D.C.) Dorsey may also have crafted this small bench which was donated by a Jones family member.

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