17–28 April 1742
Maryland condemns seven enslaved people in the Pattison murder case
Calvert County and Annapolis, Maryland
Maryland’s Council recorded death sentences passed on 17 April against Seamore, Cesar, Charles, Ben, Cooper, Mol and Marlborough in the Jeremiah Pattison murder case, and recommended execution on 28 April. A later archival reconstruction lists all seven as hanged and quartered that day.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The Council record establishes sentences and a planned execution date, not an eyewitness account of their deaths. The reconstruction uses warrants and the absence of later pardons among its evidence. It identifies Cooper and Marlborough as held by other enslavers, so Pattison was not the master of all seven; convictions do not independently establish each person’s actions.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 2, p. 34; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Council proceedings, April 1742, Archives of Maryland 28:257; seven death sentences and recommended execution date (scan checked) ↗
- C. Ashley Ellefson, Seven Hangmen of Colonial Maryland, chart 20, pp. 4–5: names, convictions, warrants, execution dates and enslavers ↗
- Ellefson, Seven Hangmen of Colonial Maryland (2009), pp. 42–43: method for identifying executions ↗