In May 1862, the St. Mary’s Beacon reported that a man named John had been brought to the Old Jail in Leonardtown. He was approximately 21 years old and had escaped from J. W. and Margaret E. Raley of Washington City, D.C., though he had originally been enslaved in the St. George area of St. Mary’s County.

The notice, placed by Sheriff Thomas L. Davis, instructed the Raleys to come forward, prove ownership, pay the charges, and take John away. It was a legal transaction — the jail functioning not as a place of justice, but as a holding pen for people the law still considered property. The notice made clear that if no one came to claim him, John would be sold under the Act of Assembly.