Harriet Lawson’s Travel Pass

1832

African Americans needed documentation to travel freely.

After Nat Turner’s rebellion, African Americans faced severe repercussions. Enslaved African Americans were executed, sold, or otherwise punished. Maryland and other states enacted harsh laws that governed the movement of enslaved people, and even free men and women could not travel without a pass. This pass for Harriet Lawson, a free African American woman, permitted her to visit her husband, Caleb Lawson. Signed in Frederick County, Maryland, on May 21, 1832, it lists Davis Richardson as a witness.