Today is journal entry #1 and the beginning of the public release of this story of the life of Oliver Cromwell Kelly, as only his family may reveal.
For the past 14 years, I have been researching the life of Oliver Cromwell Kelly (Later Oliver Cromwell Gilbert), and piecing his life together using the foundation of the gift he left us, his unpublished, handwritten memoir, which he meant for publication.
Research has revealed a treasure trove of documentation as a testament to an incredible lifetime of freedom-seeking, story-telling, and music-making.
This blog will reveal the life and legacy, and also the current-day activity of the work to protect, preserve and uncover the valiant life which changed the course of our lives as descendants.
I am inspired to pull back the curtain because……
Richland Farm has been sold (March, 2023).
Let’s catch you up:
In August of 1848, Oliver Cromwell Kelly, escaped slavery at the age of 16 leveraging an opportunity created by his attendance at a Methodist Camp Meeting in Maryland.
Oliver’s family had been enslaved by the settlers of Maryland for at least 5 generations.
Oliver‘s mother Cynthia, and Cynthia‘s mother Rachel, and Rachel‘s mother Celia, had been enslaved as cooks by the same family line since before the American revolution and the founding of our country.
Oliver, as a young boy, had been the personal property of Colonel Gassaway Watkins, a revolutionary war hero who would host lively dinners at his home in Clarksville, Maryland – then Anne Arundel County and later having become Howard County. Oliver served Gassaway’s personal waiter.
When Gassaway Watkins died in 1940, Oliver, then 8 year s old, was given to Dr. William Washington Watkins, son of the Colonel. William and his father lived on adjacent parcels of land in Clarksville, MD. William’s estate, Richland, was known as ‘The Quarter Place’, having been the living place of the enslaved people who worked the three adjacent plantations, Walnut Grove, Haylands, and Richland.
In Oliver’s unpublished, handwritten memoir, he shares that having stood his wait post in the corner of the dining room stirred a longing in his soul as he listened to the Colonel’s thrilling stories and learned about the opportunity to seek one’s freedom and liberty, and the ultimate pride and satisfaction one feels upon achieving such.
Oliver wrote that the such occasions were exactly what sparked his thirst for freedom – listening to these ‘tales of the revolution of which they thought me too ignorant to understand’.
With the help of white and black abolitionists, Oliver used the Underground Railroad network to travel toward Canada with stops at safe-houses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and ultimately, Nova Scotia.
During his time in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (his first stop), Oliver Cromwell Kelly was hidden by well-known Quaker abolitionist Amos Gilbert, who suggested that Oliver change his surname to conceal his identity. Henceforth, we’ve been Gilberts.
Richland Farm had remained in ownership by the same family for 300 years, until 2 weeks ago.
The farm and home were sold, and contents sent to auction. I participated in the auction and secured a number of relevant artifacts which had born witness to the life of my ancestors.
These blog updates will be used to keep pace with the ongoing activity around the work to finally publish the memoir, with insights now revealed by modern-day research to include ‘ the rest of the story’, from then and now.
I introduce you to the opening line from the memoir and anticipated title of the publication – Going Back to Dixie.
