Soon, other traders followed Samuel Reynolds' example. In 1831, Reynolds advertised in the Easton Republican Star that he was willing to purchase 100 enslaved Africans from ages twelve to twenty-five, claiming he would pay higher prices than any other buyer in the market.

"He wouldn't leave the Easton Hotel until he bought '100 NEGROES,'"

Reynolds' activities reflected the aggressive and competitive nature of the slave trade in Maryland's Eastern Shore during that period. Young Frederick Douglass, who had secretly learned to read in Baltimore, was among those affected by the brutal system of slavery that Reynolds and others perpetuated.