In 1864, the Baltimore Sun ran the names of the people drafted for the Union Army from Prince George’s County, including the name of “Peter Stewart, slave of the estate of Benjamin Lee“.
Dr. Benjamin Lee had died during the war and his administrators created an inventory of his estate in 1863. The inventory did not include the name Peter.
The 1867 Slave Statistics provide an incomplete list of people enslaved in Queen Anne District [District 7] of Prince George’s County as reported by their enslavers. While submission of the list was voluntary, and not all estates and enslavers submitted a list. That said, it provides the names of over fourteen hundred enslaved people. The 1860 Slave Schedule recorded almost twenty-three hundred enslaved people. The Prince George’s County Slave Statistics names about 62% of the enslaved population in Queen Anne District. Of them, there is only one named Peter: Peter Ridout enslaved by Violetta Sprigg, the neighbor of Benjamin Lee. He was also named in the list.
The list also included the names of Thomas Brown and Jno Hamilton, enslaved on the estate of Benjamin Lee.
Jno. Hamilton is named — he and his partner Patsy are named near the beginning of the inventory list. In 1870, he and Patsy are living in the household of C. A Harding, the son-in-law of Benjamin Lee, and Eleanor Lee, Benjamin Lee’s widow. Patsy is working as a servant in the household, while John is laboring in the fields.
Thomas Brown, like Peter Stewart, is not named in the 1863 Inventory. He may be the “Tom” who fled Lee’s enslavement in 1859. Lee described him as a 32 or 33 year old man. Further information about Thomas Brown has not been found. If Peter fled Lee’s captivity, like Tom, then Lee does not appear to have advertised for his return.
The question persists if Peter Stewart was the name of a person enslaved by Benjamin Lee, or if the editors of the Draft List in the Baltimore Sun made a mistake as they transcribed and inserted names.
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