A rare and disturbing story from Cumberland County’s past is reaching a global audience through new historical research and a BBC podcast, shedding light on the life of Cloe, an enslaved teenage girl whose words survive in court and newspaper records. “For enslaved women in the United States, there’s only a handful of women whose words were actually recorded and preserved in the historical record, and Cloe’s was one of them,” said local historian Merri Lou Schaumann. Born in 1782, Cloe was enslaved by multiple people before being purchased at age 14 by the Carruthers family in what was then East Pennsboro Township.
By the time she reached her teenage years, Cloe had already been enslaved by seven different individuals, according to research conducted by Schaumann and others. Her recorded testimony and court documents provide a rare glimpse into the lived experience of an enslaved person. “That’s how we know so much about Cloe,” Schaumann said, noting that the documentation surrounding her case is unusual precisely because enslaved people’s voices were rarely preserved unless tied to criminal proceedings.
Cloe’s four years with the Carruthers family were marked by isolation and repeated abuse. She was both a house and field laborer, the only enslaved person in the household, with no family, church, or community nearby. “She endured multiple beatings,” Schaumann said, describing a system of constant punishment reinforced by the family’s children. In 1806, Cloe murdered two of the Carruthers’ daughters, a crime Schaumann described as rooted in “revenge and resistance,” adding that Cloe believed committing a serious offense might result in her being sold to another enslaver.
After the murders, Cloe was violently coerced into confessing and jailed in Carlisle for 146 days. Her trial lasted less than half an hour, and she was sentenced “to be hanged until you be dead.” Public executions were treated as community events at the time, drawing thousands of spectators. “You can’t condone what Cloe did,” Schaumann said, “but I think we can get a glimmer of understanding into why she did it.” Cloe was executed within six months of her imprisonment, and the location of her burial remains unknown.
Recent breakthroughs in land records helped historians identify the Carruthers property using 18th-century survey maps, allowing researchers to connect Cloe’s story to the present-day landscape. Lindsay Varner of the Cumberland County Historical Society said the goal has always been accuracy and care. “We don’t shy away from difficult conversations,” Varner said. “It’s important to tell the full story, even when it’s deeply complicated.”
