“22 – Fine day but very cold, went to Town & din’d at Gadsbys with Mr. Jas. Sanderson – A Lamb last Night
From the journal of Captain Henry Thompson, January 22, 1814. Courtesy the Friends of Clifton.
Daily Archives: January 22, 2014
Jan. 22nd
At half past 11 A.M. lat. 31, 48, long. 70, 20, discovered a sail from mast head, distant about 15 miles; made all sail in chase, it blowing fresh and squally. – At 5 P.M. the chase hoisted the American ensign at the main peak; at the same time made her out to be a foretopsail schooner – shewed our American ensign and continued under a press of sail to chase, coming up very fast, the chase at this time being distant about two and a half miles. At half past 9, lost sight of her in a squall, when about to fire a chase gun.
From the journal of the Chasseur, excerpted in Baltimore American, June 2, 1814. Maryland Historical Society.
January 16-22: “this morning presents a most violent Snow Storm” and other familiar stories from 1814
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John Gadsby, the English-born proprietor of the Indian Queen Tavern, had arrived in Baltimore from Alexandria, Virginia in 1808. On September 29, 1809, traveler Samuel Breck stopped in Baltimore and stayed at the Indian Queen, observing:
“We alighted at the Indian Queen in Market street, kept by John Gadsby in a style exceeding anything that I recollect to have seen in Europe or America. This inn is so capacious that it accommodates two hundred lodgers, and has two splendid billiard-rooms, large stables and many other appendages. The numerous bed-chambers have all bells, and the servants are more attentive than in any public or private house I ever knew.”
In 1813, John Gadsby held thirty-six enslaved people at the Indian Queen to support the “attentive” service of his establishment. According to the 1813 Baltimore tax records, the value of the enslaved people held by just twelve tavern or innkeepers exceeded the total value of their real estate.
Sources: Breck, Samuel, and Horace Scudder. 2007. Recollections of Samuel Breck. Applewood Books. p. 266; Rockman, Seth. 2010. Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore. JHU Press. p. 112.