In the decades before the Civil War, Cecil County had a few free black communities. One, Snow Hill, was situated just north of the Port Deposit town limits on the hillside along Route 222, which was known in earlier times as Cedar Hill. On this steep grade overlooking the Susquehanna River, free black merchants and laborers established a thriving community as early as 1847.
A team of archaeologists from the Maryland Historical Trust investigated this African-American community in 1982, while completing a comprehensive cultural resources survey of the Bainbridge Naval Training Center, as the federal government prepared to sell the former base. As archaeologists sifted through this tough rocky patch of soil in 1982 evidence, artifactual and archival, emerged indicating that it was a free black community. The study noted that “46 lots on Snow Hill . . . were leased to free blacks from 1840 to 1900,” according to the Cecil Whig. “The lots were owned by whites and leased to blacks under 99-year renewable lease agreements,” the Trust reported.
The largest landholder in Snow from the mid-1800s was Ann Archer and her heirs. Thomas Ringgold was identified as a resident of the community. The site once was part of tracts known in colonial times as “Lucky Mistake” and “Mount Ararat.” The archaeological investigation turned up 19th-century artifacts and foundations of several buildings, surviving remnants of this antebellum free black community in Cecil County.
Martenet’s Map of 1858 identified Snow Hill as a colored community and shows eight residents and one church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Atlas of Cecil County (1877) show the Colored Methodist Church, some 20 homes and 46 lots.
For additional maps, see this post on Cecil County History on Facebook
Source: Cecil County Land Records Online
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