Susan Stoderl

05/27/2026

In 1787, the Colored Methodist Society separated from Lovely Lane Methodist Church and, in 1802, purchased land on Sharp Street to build the Sharp Street Methodist Church. However, Lovely Lane still controlled it.

Daniel Coker, formerly enslaved in Frederick County, Maryland, escaped to New York City and became ordained in the Methodist Church. He returned to Baltimore in 1801 to preach and became a deacon at Sharp Street. Coker broke away in 1815 to form the African Methodist Bethel Society. In 1816, the Society incorporated Bethel AME Church and adopted its own constitution. The enslaved could attend, but they could not become members under Maryland law.

By 1831, over 10,000 enslaved people and over 17,000 free people of color lived in Baltimore. Nat Turner’s rebellion in August that year made the churches even more important to the Maritime Underground Railroad. The church’s location in Baltimore, a major port city, made it a strategic point for aiding those escaping slavery and a beacon of hope. Other AME churches in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and New Bedford were also essential in supporting abolition and helping those escaping.

After the 1831 Nat Turner rebellion, authorities tightened restrictions on Blacks. Surveillance increased for any groups meeting, as well as for education and civil rights. The white racial hierarchy was to be preserved. Before 1831, Maryland had laws that limited how enslavers could free the enslaved; now it became more difficult.

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05/15/2026

This is the grim reality behind the story in my historical fiction/magical realism book for ages 9-12. I don’t go into this much historical detail but rather focus on what they see around them and its effects on them as the enslaved twins escape on the UGRR. I can’t help but think of the immigrant families being locked away.

During the Antebellum Years, Norfolk existed to traffic enslaved people with its integrated network of jails, shipping agents, and traders. Traders shipped enslaved people from Norfolk to the Deep South, especially Louisiana. There were at least three private slave jails in Norfolk. Slave traders auctioned the enslaved people at Market Square, on the steps of the Courthouse, and at public auctions near Newton’s Wharf, Campbell’s Wharf, and Marsden’s Wharf. Slave jails, sometimes called “repositories,” were integral to the global slave network. They were a visible, normalized part of urban life in Norfolk during the 1830s. These private holding facilities were run by slave traders or slaveholders. Local police often cooperated and profited from helping the slave jails.

Slave jails were closer to human warehouses than legal prisons. Jailers held prisoners for a few days or weeks, either awaiting auction or to complete the manifest of an outgoing ship. Locked rooms or cells were unsanitary and crowded. High walls with barred windows and ample security prevented escape. Their cries from flogging and torture mix with the sounds of the docks and shipyards. Slave “discipline” was a standard advertised service.

An infamous slave trader and jail owner was John Caphart, and his partner, Elias Guy. Caphart advertised his services as a “punisher” at the Guy and Caphart Jail in downtown Norfolk. He also sold his services as a slave hunter. By day, he worked as a police officer alongside his superior. The jails gave white owners and buyers control over the enslaved in order to maximize their sale value and to prevent and erode resistance.

Over 20,000 enslaved people went through this system of abuse.

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05/08/2026

05/06/2026

The second port on the Maritime Underground Railroad in my middle-grade fiction book is Norfolk, Virginia. Virginia was one of the largest slave-holding states, with its port city of Norfolk being the fifth largest hub in the slave trade. In the 1830 federal census, Norfolk’s Black and white population was almost half and half. Many free and enslaved Blacks worked in the maritime industry. This made Norfolk a major port on the Maritime Underground Railroad. Many smaller Black churches and neighborhoods existed to help plan and execute fugitive escapes. Workers knew which ships’ captains would transport fugitives or would do so for a fee. Shipping schedules sometimes required fugitives awaiting passage to find hiding places near the docks. Black maritime workers who worked for hire did not face close supervision. This made it easier for them to help fugitives escape.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the U.S. “hiring out” system allowed enslavers to generate income from individuals they couldn’t put to work. The enslaver signed a contract with the temporary hirer beginning on January 1 and running through to Christmas. January 1, called both “Hiring Day” and “Heartbreak Day”, depended on whether owners leased or sold the enslaved. Work-for-hire allowed someone owning a few enslaved people to generate reliable cash. It also allowed slavery to be used in urban and industrial sectors rather than just on plantations. Some skilled enslaved people could “self-hire.” They found their own work, negotiated their own wages, and then paid a fixed fee to their enslaver. This allowed some freedom, but they remained chattel property.

As immigrants poured in, and the free and Black population did not grow, immigrants became a threat to Blacks in the maritime and trade industries.

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04/24/2026

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04/22/2026

The Lake Drummond Hotel (also called the Halfway House) is on the state line between Virginia and North Carolina, along the Dismal Canal. The Halfway House presented an excellent option for illegal dueling, gambling, or a lover’s tryst. A criminal needed only to cross the building’s central state line to be in the other state.

Isaiah Rogerson, the first owner and proprietor, built the Lake Drummond Hotel in 1829 and opened it on August 21, 1830. The hotel was 128 feet long, built on stilts along the Dismal Canal, and featured eight suites. Visitors could rent boats to travel the Feeder Ditch to Lake Drummond. After he died within a month of the hotel’s opening, other figures capitalized on the hotel’s unique location.

An ad posted by Amalek C. Williams in the August 27, 1832, “Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald,” states that the hotel’s specialty is hosting wedding parties. It had reasonable and good accommodations. It turns out Amalek C. Williams was a minister and business partner of the hotel’s long-term proprietor, William G. Lamb. Lamb was his brother-in-law. Together, they built the hotel’s reputation as a “Gretna Green” hotel for eloping couples and a duelist’s haven for duelists. “Gretna Green” is a historic venue, almost 300 years old, in or near the Scottish border village of Gretna Green. In 1754, the Scottish hotel opened to evade the stricter British marriage laws.

The “Mariners’ Museum and Park Catalog” states that Robert Salmon painted “Dismal Swamp Canal with Lake Drummond Hotel” in 1830. His artist’s account book then notes he lent the painting to William Pendleton for a lithograph. Pendelton entitled it “Lake Drummond Hotel, The Gretna Green of Lower Virginia, and part of the Dismal Swamp Canal.” It appears the Gretna Green tradition crossed the Atlantic!

04/17/2026

04/16/2026

Edenton Harbor in North Carolina is the first harbor stop in my middle-grade book, where two enslaved children escape with their free Black father on the Maritime Underground Railroad in 1834. Edenton Harbor, where the Chowan River meets Albemarle Sound near the Great Dismal Swamp, thrived on timber, agriculture, and fishing. It was the second most important U.S. harbor during the Colonial period until a hurricane closed Roanoke Inlet in 1795. The Chowan River, a blackwater river, flows through forested swamps and wetlands, producing clear, dark water. Tannins from decaying plants color the river and help purify it, benefiting the seaport. Ocean-crossing ships could use the Chowan’s water because it stayed fresh longer than other sources.

Between 1810 and 1860, Edenton Harbor played an important role in boat repair, shipping lumber and farm products, and supporting the fishing industry. Both free and enslaved Black people were essential to these businesses. For example, enslaved craftsmen repaired and rebuilt wooden ships to keep them sailing, while enslaved women sold fish, oysters, stew, and cornbread to sailors and did laundry for ships at the docks. Many enslaved ferrymen also carried passengers and goods along the river from local docks.

The maritime industry fostered a network of informants, messengers, and go-betweens who aided escapes from slavery, making the Maritime Underground Railroad possible. One well-known abolitionist, Harriet Jacobs, born in Edenton, escaped enslavement in 1835 on the Maritime Underground Railroad.

03/24/2026

After the Union captured the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1861, Lucy McKim Garrison (1842-1877) and her father traveled to them. About 10,000 enslaved people were now free. Lucy became enthralled by the emotions expressed in African American songs and their great diversity of styles. She began writing their words and setting them in musical notation. Between her return from the Sea Islands to Philadelphia in 1862, she published three of the songs before returning to teaching.

After personal losses from the war, she withdrew from public work, but after marrying in 1865, she returned to her most influential collaboration with William Frances Allen and Charles Pickard Ware. Both worked in Port Royal and collected songs of the Gullah Geechee people of Saint Helena Island. In 1867, the three published “Slave Songs of the United States.” This was the first and most influential publication of 136 African American spirituals collected from various sources.

African American enslaved communities used music and song to communicate their miseries and lift themselves above a horrendous life. Slaveholders attempted to destroy African culture to break and control them, yet their music sustained them and became a part of their resistance. Some songs came about after the war, but still reflected slavery as it was.

Songs differed from state to state. In songs from Virginia, the melody jumped in unexpected ways. To someone used to church hymns, the tune would sound bent, slanted, or off-center. The songs from South Carolina stemmed from the isolated Gullah Geechee culture, making their sound more uniform. North Carolina songs were different because they came from three distinct environments. Maritime labor shaped the Coastal and Tidewater songs, with a solo caller echoed by a chorus of those rowing. Piedmont plantations were smaller, and Black and white workers worked together. Appalachian folk music influenced that of the few enslaved workers in Western North Carolina. Tennessee and Florida Black songs influenced by white music.

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