An Excavation of Margaret and Jerry Morgan: How The Architecture of Black Liminal Spaces Shaped Antebellum Conflict between Maryland and Pennsylvania

Author

Felicia A. Appenteng, CUNY City CollegeFollow

Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Department

History

First Advisor

Anne Kornhauser

Second Advisor

John Blanton

Keywords

Prigg v Pennsylvania, Margaret Morgan, Jerry Morgan, Black History, Pennsylvania, Maryland

Abstract

In the 1830s, Jerry and Margaret Morgan and their six children were living as a free Black family in rural Pennsylvania, one of a growing number of such families in a part of the state that bordered Maryland. Suddenly, their lives were violently disrupted in 1837 when a group of men from Maryland, led by Edward Prigg, entered into Pennsylvania to seize Margaret and the children so that they could be enslaved. Although the most dramatic, this was only the latest twist in the unusual lives of the Morgan family. Jerry Morgan was born into enslavement, gained his freedom, and then lost it. Margaret Morgan was born into uncertainty, reached at freedom, and then lost it along with her family. Their children were born into freedom, but it was taken from them. The broad outlines of their story were not unique - this was a period of history characterized in large part by the rise of escapes in fugitives from slavery. However, what was unusual is that the Morgans ended shaping one of the most consequential Supreme Court cases leading up to the Civil War, Prigg v Pennsylvania (1842).

But the lives of the Morgans are not what established Prigg’s prominence in history. While tragedy usually defines narratives, the Morgans’ experience was so nuanced that it has been largely relegated to a tragic footnote in the shadow of the Supreme Court and the machinations of the white elite. John Quincy Adams famously remarked on the complexity of the ruling - he only knew the half of it. In order to capture the full story, we have to analyze the choices that the Morgans made in their lifetimes which never made it to the Supreme Court.

This work is a study of the structure of Black liminality and how its architecture drove conflicts between Maryland and Pennsylvania in the 1830s and even shaped the national law of slavery. Specifically, it is a social history of Prigg. It explores, through the Morgan family, how the spatial liminality (shared borders, and ease of crossing) and the social liminality (interdependent family structures that were not recognized by mainstream institutions) were slowly and urgently creating an intractable problem for lawmakers and citizens alike - emergent Black self-determination.

Recommended Citation

Appenteng, Felicia A., "An Excavation of Margaret and Jerry Morgan: How The Architecture of Black Liminal Spaces Shaped Antebellum Conflict between Maryland and Pennsylvania" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1228