Gilliams, John Jacob (1831–1911), Portrait of Aunt Sukey, St. Mary County, Maryland, circa 1850. Watercolor on paper, 11½ x 7¼ inches. Paper somewhat foxed. With the original period wooden frame, which has labels on the verso establishing the provenance.

A well-executed and superbly provenanced vernacular painting of an enslaved woman who might be positively identified with further research. A note from the grandson of the artist on the back of the frame describes the subject:

“Aunt Sukey” a slave on Sothoron Plantation in St. Mary Co. Md. Done about 1850 by Jacob Gilliams, whose mother was a [member of the] Sothoron [family].

The artist was the son of Ann Sothoron (1788–1858) and Jacob Gilliams (1784 – 1868), the latter a prominent physician and dentist from Philadelphia who helped to found the Maclurian Lyceum and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. The Sothorons were long established and prominent slaveholders in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and zealous defenders of “the peculiar institution.” One of Ann’s cousins, Colonel John H. Sothoron, shot and killed a recruiter who came to his plantation to enlist recruit slaves into the Union army. Her brother William H. Sothoron (1786–1851) held people captive until the bitter end, and when the state finally abolished slavery in 1864 he applied for restitution.

A runaway slave advertisement placed by the artist’s uncle, 1858. The ad ran for at least two years.

According to a tax audit of 1798, Gilliams’ late grandfather Richard Sothoron, Jr. (1763–1794) enslaved at least thirteen persons, six of whom were between 12 and 50 years of age. When his mother was 25, she was the proud owner of eight slaves of her own, aged between 1 and 45 years old.

Because Gilliams’ parents lived in Philadelphia, they relied on family members to manage their holdings of land and human chattel in St. Mary’s County but they visited the area frequently. Jacob Gilliams’ much younger brother, Lewis Say Gilliams (1816–1875) would also marry a woman from St. Mary’s, a member of the extensive Gough family, and by 1850 counted nine enslaved persons as his property. Transactions between these interlinked families were common. In 1828 the Gilliams purchased extensive properties from Ann’s brother William, including the plantations “Sothoron's Desire,” “Sothoron's Venture,” “Long Looked for Come at Last,” and “Skegby,” (or “Scegby”) all in Resurrection hundred. In 1845 they sold these properties to a cousin, Benjamin H. Sothoron. In 1851, the young John Jacob Gilliams was party to the purchase of land from one of the Goughs and its sale to neighbors several months later.

Sukey may have been the 84-year-old enumerated in the 1850 census of the enslaved members of Jacob Gilliam's household

The Gilliams family’s links to the Sothoron and Gough families and the lively trade in real estate and human chattel makes tracing the woman depicted in this painting difficult. There is the added problem of inconsistent orthography and the possibility that “Sukey” might be a familiar form of a name like Susannah. Nevertheless, the ample documentation that exists for African American history in St. Mary’s County offers possibilities for a skilled genealogist.  We note, for example, that John Sothoron held a woman listed as “Sucky” who was 40 years old in 1821. There are also several possibilities among the people enslaved by the Goughs. The slave schedule accompanying the 1850 census notes that John Jacob Gilliams’s parents counted ten captives on their estate near Leonardtown. The census lists no names, regrettably, but it does offer details of sex and age. If Sukey was among them, then she must have been the 84-year-old woman enumerated on the schedule -- the only other adult woman listed was age 27.

Slave quarters at “The Plains,” a Sothoron family property in St. Mary’s (from Linda Davis Reno, St. Mary’s County, p. 17)

The son of her enslavers executed a lively portrait of Aunt Sukey, capturing her humor and strength. Hunched after a lifetime of labor, she leans on a makeshift wooden cane, bent but not frail. She is clad in simple linens, a headscarf, and sensible shoes, and smiles around her corncob pipe. Behind her stands what is surely her home, which bears a close resemblance to the slave quarters at one of the Sothoron family’s most notable estates in St. Mary’s County.

Sympathetic portraits of the enslaved are rare and those of identifiable individuals rarer still. This is an excellent example.

Provenance: By descent through the family: from the artist to John Farr Gilliams (1854–1905), to John Farr Gilliams, Jr. (1886–1973), to Edward Earl Shumaker, Jr. (1914–1984), to John Gilliams Shumaker, and from his heirs to the trade.