In 1884, Isaac Queen, 83 years old, told the Baltimore Sun (see image below) “of the days when he played with the late Johns Hopkins, with whom he was reared on the old family place in Anne Arundel county.” Isaac said he “worked side-by-side the great philanthropist at the plow, with the hoe, and at other agricultural duties.”

Who was Isaac? Could this story be true? Turning to the census records, I found that in 1810 three free Black families - led by Nelly [Hopkins], Jane Brice, and Philis Queen – lived near Samuel Hopkins (see image above). Isaac, who would have been 9 years old in 1810, was likely among the people living in Philis’s home. Johns was 15 that year and still living at White's Hall with his parents and siblings. Philis Queen appears again on the 1830 federal census living alone but still in the vicinity of White's Hall. In 1830 she is between 55 and 100 years old.[1]

So Isaac’s testimony checks out. It also helps to correct the idyllic image of life at White's Hall presented by Helen Hopkins Thom, showing that Johns assisted with the hard work of harvesting the farm's crops, mainly tobacco, and caring for the family's livestock. Isaac Queen added that “Mr. Johns knows what it was to work hard.” The Hopkins family was hardly poor, but life in the strict Quaker household was not nearly as glamorous as Thom intended to portray in her 1929 biography of the late philanthropist.

The 1810 census evidence also confirms that Isaac was a free Black laborer at White's Hall (though possibly under contract as an indentured laborer) and not enslaved, which validates other census records that indicate Samuel Hopkins did not own an enslaved workforce in 1800. Philis Queen may be the woman named Philis who was manumitted by Johns the Elder's freedom deed of 1778; same for Nell. Both women would have been about 40 years old in 1810 (Nell's COF, dated 1806, can be seen below.)

Finally, the Isaac Queen interview provides a tantalizing clue to the genesis of the four enslaved people who lived at Johns Hopkins’ Clifton estate in Baltimore in 1850. The Sun reports that “when Johns Hopkins has become a wealthy business man Isaac was called to perform duties at Clifton and other places owned by Mr. Hopkins.” Perhaps the 1850 group of four men were “called up” from Anne Arundel County to work at Clifton? If so, the men listed on Schedule Two of the 1850 Census for Clifton may have been misenumerated as enslaved people when they were instead free Blacks. One of them, in fact, could have been Isaac Queen. His age in 1850, about 49, matches the age of the oldest Black male enumerated at Clifton.

Isaac may have considered Johns Hopkins a friend, but he did not necessarily enjoy working for him. "He was changed about so much," the article reports, that Isaac quit and went to work at James Bates' foundry. During the Civil War, he assisted in "freeing his race" by helping to build fortifications on McKim's Hill where there was a military hospital. He then went to Virginia to help build roads to facilitate troop and armament movements. We also learn that he was a member of Baltimore's historic Bethel Church on Saratoga Street. Isaac's life, which spanned almost the entirety of the 19th century, was nothing if not eventful. 

Revision history:

7/15/2022: Added the sentences "Or perhaps the men listed as slaves on Schedule Two of the 1850 Census for Clifton were misenumerated as enslaved people when they were instead free Blacks? One of them, in fact, could have been Isaac Queen."

7/19/2022: Added "after 1884" to title.

2/29/2024: Made stylistic edits. Added image of Nell's COF and final paragraph.