“Why is this park named after the Pinkneys?” I asked this question to my aunt at Pondtown’s annual Community Day on September 14th, 2019. The Pinkneys are my maternal grandfather’s family, his father was Neman Pinkney. I was hoping at some point during the event, we would learn the history of the park, but I quickly realized I would have to go digging. I found out that the Downes family donated the land for the park and named it in honor of their cousins, the Pinkneys, but why? Everyone told me to go find Janie Downes, unfortunately, she had left before I could talk to her. There is no sign or marker that tells you any history of the park or the town. A google search on the history of Pondtown reveals little about this historically black community, yet perhaps 100 families have called it home. Sadly, this story is all too familiar, when I think about black communities on the Eastern Shore, but my goal is to change this narrative.   

One of the reasons for taking a month-long break from social media and streaming apps was so I could focus on organizing the Black Eastern Shore Project. I announced the start of this project in late December (follow us on Instagram @black_easternshore) and during the month of January, started the research process in preparation for grant applications. Securing funding would allow me to focus solely on creating this resource over the next two years, however, this project will be completed regardless. There is so much history here that needs to be told by us and for us. Did you know that Maryland’s Eastern Shore is possibly the home of the United States’ first free black community, The Hill? Archaeologists, led by our own Eastern Shore native and Morgan State Professor, Dale Green, have uncovered artifacts dating back to the late 18th century, decades prior to Treme, New Orleans, previously thought to be the oldest black community. The Hill is not alone though, so far I’ve found over 30 black communities, some I knew about, but many new to me, and I haven’t even scratched the surface yet.

The project will focus on the social networks of these communities as they are the backbone. Churches, schools, and social organizations will be featured along with oral histories. Oral traditions such as storytelling, and signifyin’ are foundational to the black cultural experience worldwide and it allows us to tell our stories in our own ways and words. There is a wealth of knowledge among our elders and it deserves to be documented. My research will focus specifically on the 20th century because little has been written about it, but here are several books, some written by black authors, you can read to begin understanding the history of the Black Eastern Shore:

1. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass. (1855)

2. The Underground Railroad by William Still. (1871)

3. A History of African Americans of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore edited by Carole C Marks. (1996)

4. The Chesapeake Bay Through Ebony Eyes by Vincent O. Leggett. (1999)

5. Men of Color from the Lower Eastern Shore who served in the Civil War by Clara Small. (2010)

6. Compass Points: Profiles and Biographies of African Americans from the Delmarva Peninsula, Volume 1 by Clara Small. (2014)

7. Compass Points: Profiles and Biographies of African Americans from the Delmarva Peninsula, Volume 2 by Clara Small. (2017)

Here are some additional sources worth noting:

1. Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South by Ira Berlin. (1975)

2. Free Blacks on the Lower Eastern Shore: The Colonial Period 1662-1775 by Thomas Davidson. (1991) 

3. The Road to Jim Crow: The African American Struggle on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, 1860-1915 by C. Christopher Brown. (2016) 

4. Women in the World of Frederick Douglass by Leigh Fought. (2017)

5. Free African Americans of Maryland, 1832: Including Allegany, Anne Arundel, Calvert, Caroline, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Kent, Montgomery, Queen Anne's, and St. Mary's Counties by Jerry M Hynson. (2019)

6. Plantations, Slavery, and Freedom on Maryland by Jacqueline Simmons Hedberg. (2019)