Damaged memorial dedicated to former slave has residents upset
WJZ
By Caroline Foreback
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ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (WJZ) — A memorial in Anne Arundel County dedicated to former slave Jason Asbury Pack was mysteriously destroyed.
The Pack family is one of a handful of Black families who played a huge role in the early development of Severna Park. Residents hope the memorial, a bench along McBride Lane, can be restored.
The bench reads, “We, the Pack family, welcome you to take a load off your feet in this community, now called Northridge.”
“It was Pack property that that bench was on, well, it was until they sold it,” said Anne Arundel County resident Furman Carr.
Carr, 84, calls himself one of the originals on the hill on McBride Lane.
Carr is a member of one of the founding families who formed a free Black community in the area, now known as Severna Forest, in the 1800s.
“The Carrs and the Packs, that was all who lived back here,” said Carr. “I was born and raised right here with them. They lived down the hill, and I live up the hill.”
What’s the importance of the memorial? A memorial erected by the Pack family in a peaceful clearing along McBride Lane long served as the only marker of that community, until a few weeks ago, when Carr noticed it was destroyed.
“I was totally pissed when I saw that the thing was broken and I saw that the back was off of it,” Carr said.
The bench is dedicated to the memory of Jason Asbury Pack, a former slave who acquired the tract of land formerly known as Pack Town.
No one seems to know how the bench ended up in pieces. But Carr, and his wife Linda, said not only was it an important marker of their past, but it was also a nice place for people to sit and enjoy nature.
“It wasn’t their bench in the first place, but they had somewhere to lie if they needed it,” Linda said. “And now whoever it was broke it and left it.”
The bench is not maintained by the county so it might be up to neighbors to get it fixed. The Carrs said it’s too important to leave in that condition.
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