PRESS RELEASE
Mayor Gavin Buckley
Public Information Office
160 Duke of Gloucester Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media contact: Mitchelle Stephenson, 410-972-7724 or mwstephenson@annapolis.gov
Friday’s Smith Price Homecoming and Reburial in
Downtown Annapolis to Include Rolling Road Closures
ANNAPOLIS, MD (October 30, 2019) – The repatriation, reunion and reburial of Smith Price has been a long time coming. On Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 at 11 a.m., Annapolis City, Anne Arundel County and state of Maryland officials will gather at Asbury United Methodist Church to welcome the remains of Smith Price back to Annapolis.
The event takes place on the date of the 155th anniversary of the ratification of Maryland’s Third Constitution, which abolished slavery and indentured servitude.
It was nearly four decades ago, in 1980, that Smith Price was exhumed during an “urban renewal” project in the area of Acton Lane in the City of Annapolis. At that time, the remains were removed to a location in Calvert County (at a museum) in a box on a shelf by the Maryland Historic Trust.
Smith Price was a slave who was manumitted in 1790 at the death of his owner, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Maryland’s First Senate President.
Price purchased land and helped to create a community that welcomed newly freed former slaves. It was the first Free Black community in or near Annapolis. Price later gave land for the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Annapolis in 1803. It was in this area that the Smith Price remains were found in 1980.
“The City of Annapolis is welcoming Smith Price home,” said Mayor Gavin Buckley.
The event will begin at 11 a.m. at the church. At noon, there will be a procession from Asbury UMC to St. Anne’s Cemetery for the re-interment.
ROAD CLOSURES: At noon, Annapolis City Police will have rolling road closures beginning at Asbury UMC. The procession will cross West Street to West Washington Street, make a right on Northwest Street and end at St. Anne’s Cemetery. The procession will include 50 to 75 people walking in the street with a horse-drawn carriage.
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