Nassau Selters

c. 1870s - 1890s

This broken stoneware Nassau Selters jug was found on a tract of land once owned by Charles Carroll, a slave owner, Maryland Senator, and the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Carroll was one of the wealthiest men in America and owned 1000 slaves who worked at various properties he had spread around Maryland. Strangely Carroll would fight for the freedom of slaves while holding political office but never freed the slaves he owned. He was also a member of the American Colonization Society, an organization fighting to return black Americans to Liberia to live as free people.

Carroll also played a key role in the founding of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1827 and he commissioned Baltmore's Phoenix Shot Tower in 1828, which would be the tallest building in America until the Washington Monument was completed in D.C. in 1884.

Carroll's massive properties, which were located throughout multiple counties in Maryland and Baltimore City, have been split up numerous times since his death at the age of 95 in 1832 by his descendants. Most of Carroll's land has since been sold to real estate developers by his descendants. And some of the many mansions built by Charles Carroll and his family were later purchased by educational institutions, like Homewood at Johns Hopkins University and Brooklandwood at St. Paul School for Boys.