In April 1858, the St. Mary’s Beacon reported that a man named Rimus — also referred to in some records as George — had escaped from the Old Jail in Leonardtown. He had been enslaved by William B. Hill of Prince George’s County.

Much of the original newspaper account is no longer legible, so the details of how Rimus came to be held at the jail, and how he managed to escape, are lost to us. What the record does tell us is that at the time of publication, he had not been recaptured, and that a reward had been offered for his capture and return.

Rimus or George is the earliest of the five men whose stories are connected to this jail. That his name survives at all — even incompletely, even as recorded by those who sought to return him to bondage — is itself significant. He escaped. What happened next, we do not know.