Emily Saunders Plummer

Emily was born on the Three Sisters Plantation located in Lanham, Maryland. Her precise date of birth is uncertain, but it was likely sometime around the year 1815. Emily never knew her father, Richard Saunders, as he was sold in Annapolis while she was very young.[1][7] Her mother, Nellie Orne Saunders, was of mixed ancestry; her mother was English and her father an African slave.[4] Altogether, Nellie had 23 children, including Emily, some of whom were from another marriage.[1][8]

In 1839, Emily and her mother visited the Riverdale plantation to tend to her Aunt Lucy, who was suffering from illness. While there, Emily met Adam Francis Plummer, a Riverdale slave, and the two fell in love.[9][8] The couple were married at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington DC on May 30, 1841; The marriage was legally recognized and a license was issued in spite of the fact that marriages between slaves were usually not legally binding at the time.[4][3][9] Throughout the years, Adam and Emily would have nine children, but only eight lived to adulthood.[5]

It must be remembered that during the first twenty-two years of their marriage, Adam and Emily were unable to see each other on a daily basis due to the fact that they lived on different plantations.[6] During the time that Emily lived at Three Sisters, Adam would make the eight mile journey to visit her on weekends.[3] Fortunately for the two of them, Adam had the privilege of being granted provision grounds which he could cultivate in his free time. The crops he raised on these grounds could be sold at market in order to purchase provisions and gifts with which he refurbished and decorated Emily's cabin.[10] The couple's lives were changed drastically eight years after their marriage when Emily's owner, Sarah Ogle Hilleary, died, and her new master, Tilman Hilleary, tried to sell her. He first attempted to do so in March 1849, but this was thwarted by the birth of Emily's fourth child, Julia. Consequently, it was Emily's sister, Henny, who was sold instead. Knowing the sale of Henny only delayed the inevitable, Adam desperately sought a buyer for his wife and children, and ultimately settled on Colonel Livingston Gilbert Thompson from Meridian Hill, Washington D.C. The sale was completed on December 2, 1852, with Emily and three of her children being transferred to Colonel Thompson while two of them were forced to stay behind at the Three Sisters Plantation. Although it is believed the distance between Riverdale and Meridian Hill was similar to that between Riverdale and Three Sisters, Colonel Thompson's wife was less keen on allowing Adam to visit his wife than Mrs. Hilleary had been. Consequently, he began seeing his family on a biweekly, rather than a weekly, basis.[1][11][12] Living conditions at the Thompson residence were worse for Emily than they had been at Three Sisters; In June 1854, Emily's sixth child, Marjory Ellen Rose Plummer, died due to neglect within a year of her birth.[13] Colonel Thompson was known to beat and swear at her children, and Emily would often resort to putting herself in harm's way in order to protect them from his outbursts. Her behavior resulted in threats of violence towards her and consideration of having her sold off, but she stood her ground.[14][1] In 1855, the Thompsons relocated to Mt. Hebron in Howard County, Maryland. The move meant the distance between Adam and Emily grew from around eight miles to twenty-six, and he could only visit his wife and children twice a year, on Christmas and Easter. Emily's problems grew further when her oldest daughter, Sarah Miranda Plummer, was caught attempting to escape from the Three Sisters plantation and was sold to an owner in New Orleans.[15][12][6] It was during this period that Adam's ability to read and write became critical in keeping the family together. He was able to send letters to Emily by using a friend as a messenger, and Emily in turn relied upon her masters to both read and deliver letters on her behalf.[16]

Emily's oldest son, Henry.

The last remaining outbuilding of the Riverdale Plantation. It was recently restored, and serves as a museum for the Plummer Family.

When Emily and Adam received their marriage license in 1841, they almost certainly saw this as a stroke of good fortune. Because it was not a common practice to allow slaves to legally marry, the Northern United States and Canada generally recognized marriage licenses as proof of freedom. The Plummers were aware of this, and in 1845 they planned to escape with their children to a free state. This attempt was foiled when Emily's Aunt provided details of the plot and handed over the marriage license to Mrs. Hilleary. In response, Mrs. Hilleary had Emily, who normally worked as a cook, perform duties in the fields as punishment.[1][10][12]It was not until after Emily had been relocated to Mt. Hebron with the Thompsons that another escape attempt was launched. On January 1, 1863, in the midst of the American Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, legally rendering all slaves in the Confederate States of America as free. It did not, however, free slaves living in states which had remained loyal to the Union, including Maryland. This did not discourage Emily, who soon had her oldest son, Henry, flee the plantation on his own. Emily made the next step in October 1863, taking along the remaining five children under her care, and running off to Baltimore. They were caught and kept in a Baltimore jail for two months. Fortunately for Emily, she was able to befriend the warden by working for him as a cook, and Colonel Thompson failed to pay the fees necessary to retake possession of her and the children. This provided Adam the opportunity to take custody of them instead. With most of the family finally together, Adam and Emily tasked Henry with bringing Sarah back from New Orleans which he did in October 1866.[1][17][12]

In 1870, Adam was able to gather together the funds necessary to purchase a ten-acre homestead near Riverdale. The homestead, nicknamed "Mt. Rose", would be where Emily and Adam would live for the rest of their lives.[12][18][6] Sarah meanwhile managed to convert the rest of the family into Baptists and started the First Baptist Church of Bladensburg. It was here, on New Year's Eve of 1875, that Emily watched her son Henry give his first sermon. Shortly afterwards, Henry's wife became ill, and Emily committed to caring for her, choosing to sleep on a pallet resting on the floor. This seemed to cause a deterioration in Emily's own health, for she began showing symptoms of pneumonia on January 9th. Her condition soon worsened, and Emily Plummer died surrounded by her loved ones on January 17, 1876.[1][19]