In August 1831, Nat Turner's rebellion shocked slaveowners in the South, but the reverberations of his massacre were also felt throughout the Chesapeake region. Maryland slaveowners reacted to the rebellion through legislative action that limited the freedoms of slaves and free blacks in the 1830s. However, restrictive legislation that would have completely revoked slaveowners' rights to manumit their slaves did not pass. This thesis examines records from Queen Anne's County in order to explain why slaveowners would support the existence of manumission throughout their state. In this thesis, slaveowners' relationships to and uses of manumission are made clear using personal collections, newspapers, and land records. This thesis examines documents in the Poplar Grove Collection at the Maryland State Archives, to suggest the value of community studies and analysis of documents from a specific place and time. This thesis reveals the economic and social control manumissions provided for Maryland slaveowners, which was exerted over slaves and free blacks, in the aftermath of one of the most remembered slave rebellions in American history. Finally, Queen Anne's County records create a more nuanced picture of how Maryland slaveowners thought of freedom and citizenship, particularly through their use of paternalistic and proslavery rhetoric
