Marietta House Museum

Marietta is a historic plantation house built in 1813 by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Duvall (1752-1844), who served on the court from 1811 to 1835. Before that, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as U.S. Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury, and in the Maryland legislature. The house is now a museum offering exhibits, guided tours, and a variety of educational programs including lectures and events exploring 300 years of county history. The Natural and Historical Resources Division Library of County History is located here as well. Marietta is a late Federal-style brick building featuring windows with flat stone lintels and a two-story addition built around 1832. Enslaved people (as well as indentured servants and wage laborers) worked at the plantation and lived in a building behind the house. Only two outbuildings remain—the brick law office and a stone and brick root cellar and harness structure. A small cemetery is also located on the grounds.

Gabriel Duvall (1752-1844)

Settlers began to arrive in this part of the county in the late 1600s. At that time, it had not yet been surveyed and was undeveloped. Over the course of the 1700s the population rose as tobacco plantations were established. Among the settlers who arrived in the 1700s was Duvall's father, Benjamin Duvall, who acquired a 150-acre tract of land in 1752. One of six children, he likely received a classical education from a tutor, which was common for wealthy families at the time. In 1771 he moved to Annapolis to further his education study law. The Revolutionary War prevented him from continuing, however, and he served in the Maryland militia. He also became a clerk for the government that took over Maryland after the British left. Finally in 1778, Duvall was admitted to the bar and opened a practice in Annapolis where he earned a reputation for being a skilled lawyer. In 1782, he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates.

Duvall married his first wife, Mary, in 1787 and it was then that he inherited his father's 150-acre property. Over time the plantation grew to between 600 and 700 acres. He and Mary had one son, Edmund, who was born on January 25, 1790. Sadly, Mary died two months later.

Duvall was appointed to Maryland's vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1794. Congress met in Philadelphia and it was there that he met his second wife, Jane, whom he married in 1795 (they did not have children). He served until 1796 when he left to become Chief Justice of the General Court of Maryland. In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Duvall as Comptroller of the Treasury and remained in that position under President James Madison. Madison appointed Duvall to the U.S. Supreme Court in November 1811. He served for 23 years and usually sided with Chief Justice Marshall on most of the court's rulings. As such, Duvall did not have much impact on the court, writing only seventeen opinions. He spent the rest of his life at Marietta, dying peacefully in 1844. He was buried in the family cemetery located on the property.

Duvall's grandsons (his son, Edmund, and daughter-in-law died in 1832; their children were sent to live at Marietta) inherited the property and the family owned Marietta until 1902. During the Great Depression, tenant families lived in the house and by then it and the outbuildings had fallen into disrepair. The house was restored and a modern addition was built in the 1940s. In 1978, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission acquired the house, which is operated by the Prince George's County Division of Natural and Historical Resources. Marietta was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Enslaved Labor at Marietta

Successive generations of enslaved families (African and African American men, women and children) lived at Marietta, including the Jackson, Duckett, and Butler families. Visitors to the museum will learn about the lives of the enslaved people at Marietta and about slaves codes, discrimination, and how enslaved people persevered and overcame racism. The Butler family was one success story. Duvall acquired Thomas and Sarah Butler and their infant daughter, Sally, in 1805 (by then two of their older daughters were sold off) and by the 1820s, three generations of Butlers were enslaved at Marietta. In 1828, Thomas and Sarah filed a freedom petition for their family (including their grandchildren) in a Washington D.C. court and won their freedom in 1831.

Paradoxically, when Duvall practiced in Annapolis he defended and won over 120 freedom petitions. As a result, hundreds of enslaved men, women and children gained their freedom. Yet he enslaved more than 100 people in his lifetime (mostly at Marietta) and did his best to prevent the Butlers from becoming free. A Supreme Court ruling illustrates this contradiction in Duvall's life as well. In 1810, Priscilla and Mima Queen filed a freedom petition that reached the court in early 1813. The court, which was led by Chief Justice John Marshall, denied the request. Duvall, who defended Queen family members ten years earlier, disagreed and wrote one of his few dissenting opinions, stating "It will be universally admitted that the right to freedom is more important than the right of property."

"Gabriel Duvall." Oyez. Accessed May 3, 2023. https://www.oyez.org/justices/gabriel_duvall.

"History." Marietta House Museum - Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Accessed May 3, 2023. https://www.pgparks.com/2022/History.

Mima Queen & Louisa Queen v. John Hepburn. In O Say Can You See: Early Washington, D.C., Law & Family, edited by William G. Thomas III, et al. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Accessed May 3, 2023. http://earlywashingtondc.org/cases/oscys.caseid.0011.

Pearl, Susan G. & Wolfe, Susan. "Marietta." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. July 25, 1994. https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/NR_PDFs/NR-1120.pdf.