Adam F. Plummer

Born into slavery to the powerful Calvert family, Adam Francis Plummer was literate and educated and rose to become the foreman for Charles Benedict Calvert, founder of the University of Maryland and a member of Congress. While working on the nearby Riversdale plantation, he kept a diary of family life and attempted several escapes without success. At the close of the Civil War, Plummer and his wife Emily set out to reunite his family after several had been sold to the Deep South during slavery. In 1870, Plummer purchased 10 acres on the south end of the plantation, present-day Edmonston, to establish a settlement for his newly freed family. With expertise in horticulture and a fondness for roses, he named the community Mt. Rose after the gardens established there. A century later, Adam Francis Plummer became a figure of major historical significance when his diary was found to be the only diary of any slave in U.S. history, and it is now in the care of the Smithsonian.

Edmonston, Maryland · United States