Sophia Shorter

formerly enslaved woman connected to Evermay, a Federal-style mansion in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Sophia was likely born enslaved in Maryland sometime after the American Revolution. Nothing is known about her parents or early life prior to her enslavement at Evermay.

In June 1809, Samuel Davidson (ca. 1747-1810), first owner and builder of Evermay, purchased Negro Sophia and her two children, Eliza and Edward, from Robert Sewall (1765-1820), a wealthy landowner living in Prince George's County, Maryland, for $300. Sewall had inherited a large plantation, "His Lordship's Kindness," from his uncle, Robert Darnall (ca. 1728-1803), as well as "all the Negroes, Stock of Horses, Cattle and Sheep." Darnall did not leave an inventory of personal property; however, because Davidson recorded a charge of 25 cents in his account book for "removing Sophia and her children" – meaning he paid for their transportation to Evermay – it is very likely that they were enslaved, and living, at Darnall's plantation in Prince George's County.

Sophia Shorter was enslaved to Samuel Davidson for 13 months until Davidson's death in July 1810, when she passed into the ownership of Lewis Grant Davidson (ca. 1779-1832), Samuel Davidson's nephew and heir to Evermay. Except for her purchase and yearly allotments of provisions, no records exist documenting Sophia and her children, Eliza and Edward's, lives at Evermay. Sophia most likely labored as a housekeeper and laundress, maintaining the house on the Evermay property, which was very large but mostly empty, of both people and things.

Previous historians of Evermay believed that Sophia Shorter and the enslaved gardener at Evermay, Edward Diggs, were married, but there is very little evidence to support this claim. Samuel Davidson's style of bookkeeping included notes about family relationships, professions, and residences of those in his accounts, and he never connected Edward and Sophia as married, or having a familial bond, legal or otherwise. Additionally, Edward was enslaved in Charles County, Maryland, before being moved to the District of Columbia, while Sophia and her children were enslaved in Prince George's County, Maryland. The distance between Edward and Sophia's previous plantations in Maryland, "Rose Hill" and "His Lordship's Kindness," respectively, was over 30 miles, with no period of earlier geographical overlap to suggest that they met before their enslavement at Evermay.

Sophia disappears from the historic record until April 1823, when, in consideration of one dollar, Lewis Grant Davidson manumitted "mulatto woman Sophia, aged thirty-eight." Davidson's motivation for freeing Sophia is unknown, and he did not free her children, Eliza and Edward, meaning they remained enslaved. Sophia was the only enslaved person Davidson freed in his lifetime. As a free woman, Sophia was able to work for herself and have a modicum of autonomy, but local gender and racial codes made it difficult for free Black women to thrive socially and economically in the nation's capital. Additionally, knowing her children remained enslaved was likely a burden Sophia carried for the rest of her life.

It is difficult to know how much contact Sophia Shorter had with her children at Evermay after she was manumitted, and very little is known about their lives after her manumission. Lewis Grant Davidson died in November 1832, and his March 1833 inventory recorded "Negro man Ned, about 25 years old," who may be Sophia's son, Edward. Sophia's daughter Eliza does not appear in the inventory, which means she had likely been sold, or had died, before Lewis Grant Davidson's death. However, Eliza Crawford Davidson (ca. 1793-1850), Lewis's widow, kept records in her personal account book which seem to show that Sophia was permitted to maintain contact with her family.

On May 31, 1841, Eliza Crawford Davidson recorded a payment of $1 to Sophia Shorter for two cabbage plants. Sophia's race and previous relationship with the family was not noted in the entry, but it makes sense that this is the same person who was formerly enslaved at Evermay. Perhaps not coincidentally, the very next day, June 1, 1841, Eliza Crawford Davidson recorded that "This day 'Fanny' was taken to her grandmother's house on English Hill, Washgn [Washington]." Fanny, alias Eliza, was a young girl enslaved at Evermay. Eliza Crawford Davidson called her "Fanny," but her given name was Eliza. While Fanny/Eliza's grandmother could have been enslaved, the fact that Eliza Crawford Davidson noted that she was going to her grandmother's house, signifying an independent living situation, very likely means that her grandmother was a free woman, and was possibly Sophia Shorter.

The U.S. Censuses for the 19th century bear this fact out. Free black people were enumerated in the census, while enslaved individuals were not. Sophia Shorter can be found in the 1840, 1850, and 1860 censuses, identified as either "black" or "negro" and living in Georgetown. She was the head of her household in both 1840 and 1850. In 1840, Shorter was listed as the "free female" age 35 to 55, with one free male, age 10 to 24, and one free female, age 10 to 24, living with her. The identities of the unnamed people are unknown, but they are unlikely to be Sophia's children, Eliza and Edward, because no records of their manumissions exist. Eliza and Edward were also both born by 1809, when they were purchased, and so would both have been older than 30 in 1840. However, if Sophia had more children as a free woman, these children could be the unnamed young people in her household. 

A decade later, in 1850, Sophia Shorter lived with a 60-year-old mulatto woman named M. Thomas, whose relationship to her is unknown. It was common for friends, as well as kin, to pool resources and live together, especially women. In 1860, Sophia Shorter was in the household of another free Black family. Charles Day, age 30, headed this household along with his wife, Eliza, age twenty-four. Charles Day was listed as a laborer, with no real estate or personal property. A 7-year-old child, Eliza J. Craig, also lived in the house, but it is unknown how she was related to the adults in this household, if at all. Further research is needed, but Eliza Day may possibly be "Fanny, alias Eliza," who was enslaved to the Grant Davidsons as a child, who may also be Sophia's granddaughter.

Sophia Shorter is currently the only known enslaved person with ties to Evermay who lived to see the end of slavery. In 1870, she was enumerated alone, "at home," in Washington Ward 2, which was located east of Georgetown, bounded to the south where the neighborhoods of Foggy Bottom and Downtown are situated in the early 21st century, directly north to Takoma Park. In 1871, Georgetown's directory placed Sophia living at 1638 K Street, NW and "taking in washing." Two years later, D.C.'s Interments Register recorded Sophia's death on November 29, 1873, at 81 years of age. Her burial location was not recorded.

During her long life, Shorter witnessed monumental changes in American society, from the beginnings of a new republic, to the enactment and strengthening of "slave" or "black codes"; the growth of the nation's capital, to a civil war and the end of chattel slavery. She lived for fifty years after her own manumission, one of many thousands of formerly enslaved people who tried to forge a life in pre-emancipation America.