The Story of Ann Joice
Originally written as a special to the Prince George’s Post Newspaper
The intersection of Woodyard and Rosaryville Roads in Prince George’s County is an old colonial pathway with a rich history obscured by middle-class commuting.
What is hidden by modern development is a history that is international in scope, profound in human suffering, but encouraging in strength of spirit. The story of Ann Joice is a reflection of that history.
In 1660, Ann Joice, a child of mixed European and African ancestry, was born on the island of Barbados. During her childhood, she was taken to England. Around 1680, Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore, brought her to the colony of Maryland to serve his family as a cook and waiting maid.
Sometime after Ann Joice’s arrival in Maryland, she was sold as a slave to Colonel Henry Darnell, a wealthy planter, to serve his family as a cook. She lived and worked on his plantation at the Woodyard and never saw freedom in her lifetime.
Despite her status as a slave, Ann Joice believed that by rights she should have been a free woman. She maintained she was not a slave, but rather an indentured servant. After a term of four years, she should have been set free.
In slavery, Ann Joice would bear at least five children. Her willingness to articulate her belief allowed her descendants to make a legal case for their own freedom. In 1791, Ann Joice’s great-great grandson, Charles Mahoney turned to Maryland’s court system to seek his freedom from Rev. John Ashton, a Jesuit priest in White Marsh (now the Bowie area). He based his petition for freedom on the grounds that he was a descendant of a free woman, thereby he and his relatives should be set free.
Mahoney was represented by Gabriel Duvall, a prominent Prince Georgian and later a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, along with John Johnson, later Maryland’s attorney general.”
The case remained in the court system for years. Then in May 1799, Mahoney’s attorneys introduced a document that supported Mahoney’s petition for freedom. It was a list of indentured servants imported into Maryland in 1678, which included the name Mahoney’s great-great grandmother, confirming Joice’s contention that she was not a slave when she entered the colony, but rather an indentured servant.
With the new evidence, the court then ruled that Charles Mahoney, “be hence freed and discharged from the service of the said Reverend Ashton”. Unfortunately, the decision was overturned on appeal, sending Charles Mahoney back into slavery.
The story of Ann Joice’s plight would linger in the annals of American legal history and become a reference point in future debates.
In 1853, the plight of Ann Joice would be part of a discussion of the slave as property versus the slave in a free state. In the landmark case of Scott versus Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Dred Scott, a slave, who like Ann Joice, believed he should be freed from slavery based on the time he spent in free territory. Chief Justice Nelson, concurring with the decision to deny Scott his freedom, referenced the case of Joice, noting that “upon bring Ann Joice into this State, the relation of master and slave continued in its extant, as authorized by the laws of this state.” The Supreme Court reaffirmed Scott’s status as a slave.
Ultimately, Dred Scott would regain his freedom and although Ann Joice died in slavery, her great-great grand children would secure their freedom, as well as the freedom of other relatives by systematically purchasing sisters, brothers, and other as they could until emancipation.
From Africa to Barbados, to Britain, and the United States, the impact of Ann Joice extended beyond the borders of Prince George’s County. She dared to articulate the circumstances of her enslavement, and through the oral history of her family, subsequent generations continued her fight for freedom. For county residents, her life in Prince George’s County existed around the intersection of Woodyard and Rosaryville Road.
