John Baptist Snowden

By the time Snowden was a teenager he had five different owners in Anne Aundel County in Maryland. He was able to buy his freedom by selling baskets and hickory brooms he made himself; peppermint drops he distilled, and other small items he was able to sell to his neighbors. During the 1820s his owner agreed to a price for Snowden's freedom, and then he left the vicinity.[3]

Snowden was taught to read by his master's children. Snowden became a Methodist preacher in 1823 while he was still enslaved to his fifth owner. While still a slave his ministry was confined to Anne Arundel County, but after he bought his freedom he was able to preach throughout Central Maryland, including: Harford, Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties. He also traveled as far as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and Leesburg, Virginia.

After buying his freedom he moved to Westminster and in 1831 married Margaret Coone, who had also been a slave but purchased her freedom. She never learned to read, but Snowden described her as "competent at the mathematics involved in business transactions."[1] John and Margaret spent the rest of their lives in and around Westminster, where they raised their 14 children, all of whom learned to read and write but the oldest daughter.[1][3] Margaret died in 1870, at the age of 60.[4]

Snowden was a member of the Baltimore and Washington Methodist Episcopal conferences during most of his life. Several of his sons also became ministers or were in responsible jobs in business. His daughters married ministers and other well-respected community members. Snowden died in 1885, and was buried at the Ellsworth Cemetery in Carroll County, Maryland.[1][2]

Scholars Howard and Judith Sacks have theorized that Daniel Decatur Emmett, a white man from Ohio, who is credited with writing the minstrel song "I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land", was really written and performed by the Snowden family, and was stolen by Emmett.[5]

Snowden, John Baptist, 1801-1885, Thomas Baptist Snowden, 1843-1918, and Houston Snowden. From Whence Cometh, 1767-1977. New York: Vantage, 1980.