April 22, 2026 – When the international slave trade was outlawed in 1808, other methods were tried to fill the labor void in the South. Border States like Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky began to breed slaves from the enslaved people they already owned. One such enslaved person was Jacob Broom who was owned by the Chew family from Chesapeake Beach in Calvert County. When Jacob was interviewed by a newspaper in 1890, he recalled fathering 375 children. Michael Kent joins us to discuss his book “Jacob’s Children: Black History Hidden in Plain Sight,” which discusses the horror of breeding and speculates on the plight of the children.

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Michael Kent, born in Calvert County in 1957, grew up on his family’s tobacco farm before earning degrees from the University of Maryland in College Park and Baltimore. He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserves’ JAG Corps and worked as an Assistant State’s Attorney in both Baltimore and Prince George’s Counties. His second career emerged from a passion for preserving history: beginning with his own family’s oral traditions, he expanded his research to document the full scope of Black history in Calvert County. This work culminated in his book Mulatto: The Black History of Calvert County, now used in local public schools and widely available in libraries and online. He continues to share this history through presentations across the state.

Kent’s contributions have earned significant recognition, including the 2023 Library Foundation Award, the 2023 Republican Man of the Year Award, and an NAACP leadership award, along with a nomination for the Maryland Council for Social Studies’ 2024 Professional of the Year. He has served on the Maryland Commission for African American History and Culture under Governors O’Malley and Hogan and currently sits on the Calvert County Historic District Preservation Commission. A life member and former president of the Calvert County NAACP, Kent remains deeply engaged in preserving and interpreting the region’s history. If you’d like, I can also shape this into a brief bio suitable for a program or website.