Eleanor Butler facts for kids

Eleanor Butler (born around 1665), also known as Nell Butler or Irish Nell, was a white woman from Ireland. She came to colonial Maryland as an indentured servant. In 1681, she married an enslaved African man named Charles. This marriage was very unusual because of the laws at the time, which had big consequences for her and her children.

Biography

Eleanor Butler was from Ireland. She worked as an indentured servant for Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, a powerful leader in colonial Maryland. An indentured servant was someone who agreed to work for a certain number of years without pay. In return, their travel to America was paid for.

Marriage and Maryland Law

When Eleanor was about 16 years old, she decided to marry an enslaved man known only as "Negro Charles". At that time, a Maryland law from 1664 said something important: if a free white woman married an enslaved man, she would become enslaved herself. Also, any children they had would be born into slavery.

Lord Baltimore was worried about Eleanor becoming enslaved. He asked the government to change this law. In 1681, parts of the law were indeed changed. The new law also made it illegal for female servants to marry enslaved men. It said that slave owners would have to pay large fines if this happened.

Life After Marriage

Despite the new law, Eleanor and Charles got married in 1681, right before the new law officially started. Because the new law did not apply to marriages that happened before it, Eleanor and Charles lived the rest of their lives as enslaved people. They were enslaved by William Boarman, who was Charles's owner.

Eleanor and Charles had seven or eight children. Even though these children were born after the 1664 law was changed, they were still born into slavery. One of their sons, Jack, managed to escape. He later bought his freedom from the Boarman family. The other children remained enslaved.

Fighting for Freedom

Many years later, in October 1770, two of Eleanor's descendants, William and Mary Butler, were still enslaved. They went to court to sue for their freedom. They argued that they should be free because they were descendants of a white woman (Eleanor Butler). Mary Butler was Eleanor's great-granddaughter. However, the court decided against them.

Other descendants also filed lawsuits in the 1780s. In 1787, William and Mary Butler's daughter, also named Mary, successfully sued for her freedom. Her lawyer hoped the court would decide that any descendant of a white woman could not be enslaved. But the court did not make such a broad decision.

Instead, the court ruled that there was no proof Eleanor Butler and Charles had a legal marriage. Because of this, the part of the 1664 law that made her and her children enslaved should not have applied to her case. This decision allowed Mary Butler to gain her freedom without changing the overall laws about slavery in the state.