Charity Folks was born to Rachel Burke, an enslaved woman who was owned by Governor Samuel Ogle until she was passed to Colonel Benjamin Tasker, his brother-in-law. Charity’s father is unknown to history, which was not uncommon among slaves but as she was considered a mulatto, some believe that he might have been the plantation manager. It is probable that she lived with her mother and brother, James, in the cellar of Governor Ogle’s home, Belair House during the years that she lived on that plantation. When she was between 10 and 12 years old, she left Belair House to live at Whitehall plantation, which was owned by John Ridout, who married Mary Ogle, Samuel Ogle’s daughter, in 1764. Charity might have come as part of Molly's dowry when she married John Ridout. Charity spent most of her life with the Ridouts at their in-town residence on Duke of Gloucester as a domestic house servant. As such, she would have helped the Ridouts entertain important guests such as Governor Robert Eden and George Washington. As a domestic servant in town she would have had much more freedom than plantation slaves since she was expected to buy supplies for the house. This gave her a certain amount of freedom to interact with other domestic slaves as well as free blacks and immigrant whites as she dealt with the shopkeepers of Annapolis. This is probably how she met her second husband, Thomas Folks. It is likely that she kept a kitchen garden on the Ridout in-town property where she would have tended gardens containing vegetables as well as herbs, both for cooking and for medicinal use. These she would have traded in town for other goods.
Charity had at least five children. The eldest were Harriet (1780) and James (1786) Jackson, whose father was either a slave who ran away or a free black man who died early. Later she met and married Thomas Folks, who was owned by John Davidson, a shopkeeper and tavern owner. They had three children together, Hannah (1787), Mary (1788), and Lil’ Charity (1793). While Lil’ Charity was the only child who lived with Charity in town, the other four children lived out on the other Ridout properties. Charity seems to have had limited time with her children who lived on the plantations, and so she seems to have developed a special relationship with Lil’ Charity.
Thomas Folks was able to buy his freedom in 1792 and subsequently became a shopkeeper who owned land in town. Meanwhile, Charity, who remained enslaved, was able to negotiate with the Ridouts for the freedom of three of her children, Harriet, Hannah, and Mary. These three went to live with Thomas and Charity’s mother Rachel, who had been freed from slavery. The Folks family settled in Annapolis and it can be assumed that Charity was able to visit with them on a regular basis even though she lived in the Ridout household.
John Ridout died in 1797, leaving a deed of manumission that was not to be executed until after Mary Ridout’s death in 1807. Just before Mary died, Charity accompanied her to the County Courthouse, where she paid $1 to execute the manumission document, which released James Jackson, Lil’ Charity and herself. In her will, Mary Ridout wrote, “in consideration of the faithful services and dutiful behavior of my mulatta slave named Charity Folks, do hereby liberate, manumit and set free the said Charity”. Charity was also willed half of Mary’s clothing, a feather bed and a pension. Still, three of her daughter Harriet’s children remained enslaved until the last one was freed in 1822. These three children were allowed to live with Harriet and her husband William Calder, a white man. Under the agreement, the Calders were expected to be their children’s guardians until the term of their enslavement ended. This meant that they were to “feed, clothe, support and maintain” them. During this time Harriet was bound by law to either hire them out or have them trained as apprentices if she could not provide for them.
Upon her freedom, Charity moved in with her family but continued to work for the Ridouts, as did Lil’ Charity. She must have been quite a businesswoman because in 1832 she purchased property at 42 Franklin St., which was the majority of what currently composes the tract known as the “Courthouse Block”. She subdivided it into smaller lots that became a neighborhood of her descendants and other members of the African American community in Annapolis. Charity died in 1834 after having a stroke and left a comfortable legacy to her children in her will. Lil’ Charity married William Bishop Jr., a wealthy African American businessman, had seven children, and became quite wealthy in her own right. They built a house on Church Circle where the Bank of America is today and were active members of St. Anne’s Parish. They later helped to start St. Philip's Episcopal Church.
The Bishop family continues to be prominent members of the Annapolis community to this day. Many of their descendants became prominent members of the Episcopal church as vestrymen and clergy here, in Baltimore and in New York City. One of their descendants was the Reverend Dr. Hutchens Chew Bishop, who was rector of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Harlem for 42 years. St. Philip’s is the oldest black Episcopal Parish in New York City. Members of the early Bishop family are buried in St. Anne’s Cemetery as is Charity, though no marker is left marking her grave.