Partly-printed document, 1p, 2 x 7 1/2 in. (toning). Docketed on verso. Document indicates that Richard L.T. Dutrow of Frederick County made an oath that he knows "William Henry Shorter the negro man" and that "he is the son of Maria Shorter, a Free negro woman; that the said William Henry Shorter is as born free and has always passed as such, to the best of his knowledge and belief." Witnessed and signed by the Justice of the Peace for Frederick County, Maryland.

From 1830 to 1860, Maryland ranked first among all states in population size of free Black residents. Maryland was home to nearly 84,000 free African Americans in 1860, or 49.1% of the total number of African Americans in the state. Yet Maryland enslavers and politicians placed cumbersome restrictions upon free Blacks, including a law that required free persons of color and manumitted slaves to register with the county in which they resided and show their "freedom papers" upon request.

The 1850 U.S. Federal Census locates a "William H. Shorter," of Frederick, Maryland, identifying him as a 17-year-old "Black" "Laborer." Freedmen's Bureau Records, 1865-1878, also locate a "William Shorter" residing in Washington, D.C. in 1867. It is possible that Shorter served in the United States Colored Troops as well, as a "William Shorter" identified as a 25-year-old "Black" male from Frederick, Maryland, registered for the Civil war draft in 1863, and a "Wiiliam Shorter" enlisted on 6/30/1863 at Washington, D.C. as a corporal in Co. B, U.S. Colored Troops 1st Infantry.