This 19th-Century Diary Written by an Enslaved Maryland Man Is a Crucial Record of His Life and Family History—and the Only One of Its Kind Found in the United States

Adam Francis Plummer’s chronicle is believed to be the country’s sole known example of a multigenerational journal begun by an enslaved person. It’s now on view at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum

Michelle Mehrtens | Arts and Culture Correspondent

July 17, 2026 2:30 p.m.

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In 1841, Adam Francis Plummer decided to keep a diary. Born into enslavement in 1819, he labored primarily at Riversdale House, a plantation owned by the Calvert family in Prince George’s County, Maryland. It was there that a Black preacher named John Bowser taught him to read and write, a decision that would have likely cost them dearly if discovered.

Plummer diligently journaled for more than 60 years, recording everything: birth dates, death dates, lists of household goods, debts owed and paid.

When his wife, Emily Saunders Arnold Plummer, and their eight children were sold to a plantation in Howard County, dozens of miles north, Plummer tried fruitlessly to locate their whereabouts. After several months, his wife contacted him. Plummer followed up with letters and stayed apprised of his family’s movements.

In one entry, Plummer summarizes this difficult reality:

Brokeup and parted in the end of the your of 1855 December 22. I have a longtime looking. After five month loocking I get a letter [from Emily] date March 2nd 1856 Deziers to see me at Mont Hebron Ellicotts Mills, 20 milds an to and form we of think that I shall never be commeable [comfortable] again but o my God.

Plummer later became plantation foreman of Riversdale House, a job he continued to work after his emancipation. By the 1870s, Plummer was able to purchase a ten-acre homestead, Mount Rose, near Hyattsville for his entire family.

When Plummer died in 1905, his daughter Nellie Arnold Plummer took possession of his diary and continued with her own entries. An educator with an eye for exactness, she also corrected her father’s previous records and added personal commentary.

Nellie would later self-publish her own book, Out of the Depths; or, The Triumph of the Cross, and celebrate her father’s resilience. “But for his having improved that ONE opportunity to learn how to read and write, we would know very little of our family history,” she wrote.

On May 30, the 185th anniversary of Plummer’s first entry, the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum debuted its newest exhibition, “We Make History.” Interactive displays feature letters, photographs and other historical records from the Washington, D.C. area. Plummer’s leather-bound diary, donated to the museum in 2003 by Lucille Betty Tompkins-Davis, is the exhibition’s centerpiece. Tompkins-Davis—a descendant of Plummer’s brother-in-law, according to WAMU—chose to give the artifact to the museum after storing it for years in her Maryland attic. Currently, it is the only known example of a multigenerational journal established by an enslaved person in the United States.

“We Make History” is an ode to the local community, an acknowledgement of how both big and small stories contribute to the nation’s larger history. This type of “history-keeping” brings the past to life, humanizing everyday people and places, says Jennifer Sieck, who curated the new exhibition.

Sieck notes that it’s “remarkable” that Plummer was “so forward-thinking to record his experiences,” including those of his family and the nearby Black population. Along with daily tasks and routines, he charted their moments of upheaval, describing their forcible separation and prolonged years of enslavement.

“It is not only a story of D.C. history, but also it’s a story of American history,” says Sieck.

In Out of the Depths, Nellie applauds her father’s text, writing, “Next to his good example, we prize his ‘Diary’ as a legacy, indeed!”

Born in 1860, Nellie learned to read and write from Plummer and later set her sights on higher education. She was the first woman to attend Wayland Seminary, a college for formerly enslaved people, and eventually became a teacher and principal in public schools around Washington for decades.

By the 1920s, Nellie decided to share her family’s letters with the famed historian Carter G. Woodson, who originated “Negro History Week,” a predecessor to Black History Month. Woodson published the Plummer correspondence in the Journal of Negro History. Soon after, in 1927, Nellie released Out of the Depths. Some relatives, including her twin brother, Robert, were apprehensive about publicizing the more painful details of their prior enslavement. Nellie, however, was determined to tell their story and had mortgaged the family’s home to raise funds for publication.

Nellie sent copies of Out of the Depths to relatives countrywide, including whole boxes to towns she had never visited, commanding postmasters to pass along her work to all Arnolds and Plummers. Many of her descendants saved these valuable printings and affectionately referred to them as “The Book.”

“A huge project for formerly enslaved people and, still, for descendants of formerly enslaved people today is reunification,” says Sieck. “And so, part of what this book does is to connect—or reconnect—people.”

The writings of Plummer and his daughter have become valuable historical accounts. During a 2003 interview with the Washington Post, Tompkins-Davis said that Plummer’s diary introduced her “to a wonderful world of relationships that I wouldn’t have been privy to if not for these extraordinary people who realized that writing things down would be so important for the next generations.”

Jennifer Morris, an archivist at the Anacostia Community Museum, says that the institution recognized the importance in “preserving that story.” “That’s kind of what we are known for,” she explains, “looking at those undiscovered stories.”

When the museum received the diary, “it was extremely fragile and in vulnerable condition,” Morris says. “The binding was broken in several parts, with detached covers.”

With support from the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, the museum successfully preserved Plummer’s journal, not only fixing its physical structure but also setting it in the proper page order.

“We want visitors to know that everyone can make history,” says Sieck. “We can all participate in making history, and it can be as simple as keeping a diary like Adam Francis Plummer did.”

Michelle Mehrtens | Read More

Michelle Mehrtens is the manager of programming for Smithsonian Enterprises, where she oversees the production of original digital series for Smithsonian magazine.