Events

This exhibit panel tells the story of Wally, a boy born circa 1775 who was enslaved at Catoctin Furnace. While he was only 8 years old when the Treaty of Paris was signed to end the Revolutionary War, he likely worked in the casting shed during the war.

In October 1780, Catoctin received an order from the Continental Congress to cast 31 tons of ten-inch shells to be shipped to Baltimore and delivered to the Continental quartermaster. The shells were sent to Yorktown and were essential to the ensuing success of the Continental army.

Wally and other enslaved ironworkers at Catoctin produced armaments for “liberty” while unable to experience it themselves. Through DNA analysis, Wally’s son Hanson (born 1816) provides a direct link to the Summers family. Their people, buried in the Catoctin Furnace African American cemetery, share with them more than 130 centimorgans of identical DNA.