You might find this summary of books on manumission (and related topics)interesting:
Throughout the antebellum period, though the majority of Africans in Maryland and their African American descendants were enslaved, there was a growing free black population. Historian Ira Berlin, author of Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South (1974), discusses Maryland, and the Upper South in general, in order to emphasize geographic distinctions that impacted the status of free Negroes. He finds that the treatment and status of free blacks foreshadowed the treatment of black people in general after Emancipation. In addition, the author examines various classes of free blacks to understand how different groups viewed their social role. For the elite, positions of leadership continued after the Civil War. Maryland is of particular interest, since by 1810, almost one-quarter of Maryland's black population was free.
While not focusing exclusively on the state of Maryland, Berlin's Slaves without Masters offers considerable insight into the lives and characteristics of Maryland's free black population. Most endured poor economic circumstances and deteriorating health, encountering numerous legal restrictions. Moreover, they faced the very real threat of being kidnapped and illegally forced into slavery. Laws forbidding free blacks from assembling, whether for religious purposes or not, severely limited the ability of African Americans to organize churches, schools, and mutual aid societies.
Another book that examines the lives and treatment of free blacks is James M. Wright's The Negro in Maryland, 1634-1890 (1921). Baltimore was home to a sizeable portion of the state's free black population. Information about the lives of antebellum free blacks in Baltimore can be found in Richard Wade, Slavery in the Cities: The South, 1820-1860 (1964), and Bettye Gardner's 1975 dissertation from George Washington University, "Free Blacks in Baltimore, 1800-1860."
Thomas E. Davidson's 1985 article, "Free Blacks in Old Somerset County, 1745-1755," reveals how extensive the county court records of Somerset County, Maryland are for the eighteenth century, allowing for detailed studies of the county's population during that period. In addition to examining court records to determine the numbers of free Negroes and mulattoes, the author also attempts to determine how members of these populations obtained their free status, that is, through manumission or as the result of being children of free mothers (free-born).
Barbara Fields in Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland during the Nineteenth Century (1985) explores how free populations in Maryland - both black and white - challenged the notion of a slave society. The free black population, very much interconnected with the slave population in terms of kinship ties, also provided a threat to the underpinnings of the system. Once freedom arrived, social relationships also had to be redefined. The author writes that "free blacks did not occupy a unique or legitimate place within Maryland society, but instead formed an anomalous adjunct to the slave population" (3). By 1840, free blacks in Maryland composed 41% of the total black population of the state, or the largest free black population of any state in the nation.
Runaway slaves lived with the constant feat of being recaptured, even in nearby free northern states. This fear, however, did not prevent them from running away or assuming active roles in the black abolitionist movement. None were better known than Maryland natives Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. The story of Douglass's life is chronicled in a number of biographies and histories of blacks in the state. See, for example, Dickson J. Preston, Young Frederick Douglass: The Maryland Years (1980). Douglass, an articulate, largely self-taught former Maryland slave, best tells the story of his life as a slave, free black man, and tireless fighter for justice in the United States in his three autobiographical works, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (1845); My Bondage and My Freedom (1855); and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass...(1881).
In the midst of the American Revolution's pleas for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," there was no groundswell of support to abolish slavery in Maryland. Most of Maryland's Revolutionary leaders and signers of the Declaration of Independence, including Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll, were slaveholders and remained so after they had earned their independence from the English monarchy. Maryland native, almanac maker, and scientist Benjamin Banneker joined a host of other blacks and whites using the Revolutionary calls for liberty and justice to call for the end of slavery, as outlined in Silvio A. Bedini, The Life of Benjamin Banneker (1972; rev. ed. 1999) and Benjamin Quarles, "Antebellum Free Blacks and the 'Spirit of '76'" (1976). Robert J. Hurry writes in "An Archeological and Historical Perspective on Benjamin Banneker" (1989), about the Banneker family farm in southwestern Baltimore County. While most scholarship before the 1970s focused on Benjamin Banneker's career and achievements as a mathematician, surveyor, and astronomer, more recent work has helped to illuminate his life as a land-owning farmer. The Bannekers were one of the first African-American families to own land in the Piedmont region of Maryland; Benjamin's father Robert purchased one hundred acres in 1737.
While agriculture was the dominant economic activity in early Maryland, there were manufacturing centers that played a large role as well, as Ronald L. Lewis reveals in his essay, "Slave Families at Early Chesapeake Ironworks" (1978) Looking at such ironworks as Northampton Furnace and Patuxent Iron Works, the author examines the self-determination of blacks enslaved as ironworkers, countering the view of the fragmented black family espoused by scholars such as E. Franklin Frazier and Daniel P. Moynihan. Ironworkers were provided opportunities for "overwork" - that is, working overtime in return for cash or supplies. The money allowed ironworkers and their families an improved standard of living. In addition, ironworkers did not experience strict controls over their free time, home life, or leisure activities. Lewis argues that these factors contributed to a stable family structure among enslaved ironworkers.
In the closing decades of the eighteenth century and the opening decades of the nineteenth century, the expansion of manufacturing led to the diversification of the state's economy, yet slaveholders held on to their slaves. Slaveholders contracted their slaves out to shipbuilding and other manufacturers in Baltimore and elsewhere in the state. Enslaved and free African Americans provided a significant portion of the labor in Baltimore-based shipbuilding companies, especially in jobs, like ship-caulking, that were the most dangerous and demanding. Undoubtedly, the most famous of the black ship-caulkers was Frederick Douglass, an experience he describes in his autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom.
In her ground-breaking study of 1974, Bettye C. Thomas, in "A Nineteenth Century Black Operated Shipyard, 1866-1884: Reflections Upon Its Inception and Ownership," examines the founding, organization and ownership of a black-owned and operated business of national prominence immediately following the Civil War. The Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company, located in Baltimore, was one of the best known of these companies.
Once the Revolution ended victoriously, and white Marylanders earned their freedom from England, the limited power that free black male property holders had, particularly the right to vote, was taken away by the state. As historian Roland C. McConnell, editor of Three Hundred and Fifty Years: A Chronology of the Afro-American in Maryland 1634-1984 (1985), informs us, the state constitution was changed in 1810, denying African American males the right to vote. (Women, white or black, could not vote until 1920.) The courageous efforts of black soldiers during both the American Revolution and the War of 1812 were not enough for slavery to be abolished in Maryland or any other southern state, although most northern states had abolished slavery by 1820.
In "Mirage of Freedom: African Americans in the War of 1812," Christopher T. George (1996) describes the courageous actions of black men who fought for both the American and British forces during the War of 1812. For example, free blacks who constructed earthworks, and black sailors in the U.S. Navy helped to deflect the British attack on Baltimore in 1814. Other free blacks and slaves decided to help the British, hoping to secure freedom in return for their services.
Beginning in the 1830s, with the support and encouragement of some white Marylanders, hundreds of free black Marylanders emigrated to West Africa, establishing a "Maryland" settlement that was eventually annexed to the Republic of Liberia. Penelope Campbell documents how the changing racial climate in the state led whites and free blacks to support the colonization movement in her book, Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1837 (1971).
Christopher S. Brown, author of "Maryland's First Political Convention by and for Its Colored People" (1993) reveals that in 1852, forty-one African American delegates formed the first Colored Convention in Baltimore. Given the increasing restrictions on the mobility and employment opportunities available to free blacks since the early nineteenth century, the convention addressed the possibility of emigration to Liberia. For many black Marylanders in the 1850s, emigration appeared to be the only real political choice left to free blacks. Discussion of colonization before 1852 had been mostly a white concern, although there had been several black colonization societies as well. In the end, however, few Maryland blacks embraced colonization. The vast majority of free blacks in Maryland and elsewhere refused to emigrate, despite the deteriorating racial climate prompted, in part, by the rise in the number of slave rebellions and runaways.
Because Maryland bordered the free state of Pennsylvania which offered protection to runaway slaves, Maryland slaveholders were particularly troubled by the problem of escaping slaves. Next to Frederick Douglass, the most famous Maryland runaway was Harriet Tubman, who escaped from Dorchester County, Maryland and aided scores of blacks in securing their freedom, earning her the title of "Moses." She is the subject of these texts: Benjamin Quarles, "Harriet Tubman's Unlikely Leadership," in Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Leon Litwack and August Meier (1988); Sarah Bradford, Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People (1886; reprint, 1961); and Earl Conrad, "I Bring You General Tubman" (1970).
In "Freeing the Weems Family: A New Look at the Underground Railroad" (1996), Stanley Harold examines conventional and scholarly interpretations of the Underground Railroad by looking at the escape of the Weems family from the Chesapeake region of Maryland. By using the Weems family as a case study, the author challenges thirty years worth of scholarship on the Underground Railroad and explores both black self-determination and white assistance found in the records of this family's escape. In addition, the author examines a bi-racial network of non-Garrisonian abolitionists who raised money to purchase the freedom of slaves, or if that was not possible, to channel the money raised into effecting an escape plan.
The living conditions and housing patterns of both free and enslaved blacks in the antebellum period are the subject of essay by Barbara Starke entitled "A Mini View of the Microenvironment of Slaves and Free Blacks Living in Virginia and Maryland Areas from the 17th through the 19th Centuries" (1981). For a personal recollection of such conditions, consult Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom.
Founded as a colony where Catholics would not be persecuted, with a significant presence of Quakers, it is not surprising that Maryland became home to a number of Europeans seeking religious freedom. While Quakers and Catholics also owned slaves in the state and elsewhere, they frequently spoke out against human bondage. While Quakers were among the first to manumit their slaves, this action was not uniformly followed by others within these religious groups and, indeed, some of the most prominent slaveholders and pro-slavery advocates were leaders and members of various Christian churches. Numerous articles in the Maryland Historical Magazine examine the relationship between religion and the life of African Americans in the states. See, for example, Kenneth L. Carroll, "An Eighteenth Century Episcopalian Attack on Quaker and Methodist Manumission of Slaves" (1985).
The transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans is addressed in Barbara Fields's The Middle Ground: Slavery and Freedom. In this text, there is a detailed analysis of the economic and social conditions facing previously- and newly-freed black men and women in Maryland. Baltimore, Maryland, home to a large number of African Americans, is the focus of Bettye Collier Thomas's 1975 doctoral thesis from George Washington University, "The Baltimore Black Community, 1865-1910."
The adoption of ordinances legalizing racial segregation in schools, residential communities, public transportation, restrooms, and work places in post-emancipation Maryland and the diminishing political fortunes of turn-of-the-century African Americans are the subjects of several texts including Margaret Law Callcott, The Negro in Maryland Politics, 1870-1912 (1969); Fields, The Middle Ground; and Collier Thomas, "The Baltimore Black Community."
Callcott examines how Maryland was an exception to the history of disfranchisement following Reconstruction. For a brief period, black men in Maryland exercised the right to vote with relative freedom. Black voter participation was consistently about equal to that of whites. Maryland, therefore, provides an opportunity to study black political participation, and the effects of black suffrage on the party system and policies during this time.
Education has been and remains an important aspect of the lives of black Marylanders. During the antebellum period, Maryland was the only state in the South that did not prohibit either slaves or free blacks from being educated. Excluded by law from attending the public primary schools mandated by state legislature in 1826, a small number of antebellum blacks received their early education from either private tutors or religious organizations, ranging from the African Methodist Episcopal to Catholic churches, or through work-related apprenticeship programs. For a detailed discussion of early educational opportunities for blacks in the state, consult Clarence Kenneth Gregory's 1976 dissertation for Teachers College of Columbia University, "The Education of Blacks in Maryland: An Historical Survey;" Brackett, The Negro in Maryland; and Gardner, "Free Blacks in Baltimore."
"The Black Apprentice in Maryland Court Records from 1661 to 1865" is the title of Helena S. Hicks's 1988 doctoral thesis at the University of Maryland at College Park. Based on an examination of Maryland court records related to the apprenticeship system in Maryland for the period 1661 to 1865, Hicks shows the educational and economic advantages of the apprenticeship system, including that it was one of the earliest forms of education available for blacks. Although Maryland's apprenticeship law of 1793 eliminated the reading and writing requirement for black apprentices, their contracts still contained literacy provisions. Employment in various trade was another benefit resulting from the apprenticeship system.
In an article published in 1967, "Ante-bellum Black Education in Baltimore," Bettye Gardner notes the largely unknown fact that most of the antebellum education of free blacks was provided by the numerous black churches and concerned black and white citizens. Still, free blacks were taxed even though no free public educational facilities were provided for their children. Sunday (Sabbath) schools provided much of the schooling available to free blacks, although a few day schools existed as well, most notably the African School, founded in 1812. By 1859, there were fifteen schools for blacks in Baltimore, all of which were self-supporting, receiving no local or state funding.
"'Intelligence, Though Overlooked': Education for Black Women in the Upper South, 1800-1840," written in 1998 by Mary Carroll Johansen, describes how black and white educators established forty-six schools for free black children in the early nineteenth century. These educators supported education for black women, subscribing to the nineteenth-century concept that women transmitted knowledge and morals, thus shaping a generation of virtuous citizens. In addition, leaders hoped education would help form self-sufficient and industrious free communities.
With the emancipation of African Americans from chattel slavery and the establishment of private schools by blacks and whites, plus the Freedmen's Bureau schools supported by the federal government, there was a significant expansion in the educational opportunities available to blacks. In 1865, the American Missionary Association and the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People established schools for blacks in Baltimore, Maryland and additional schools throughout the state, including Cecil, Anne Arundel, Dorchester, Kent and Talbot counties. Whites did not always welcome either these private or the Freedmen's Bureau schools or their black or white teachers. Schools in Cecil, Baltimore, Kent, and other counties were often vandalized, others were destroyed by fire. Beginning in 1866, the state legislature passed an ordinance mandating the establishment of free but racially segregated tax-supported public schools for black children.
In "The Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People, 1864-1870," Richard Paul Fuke (1971) discusses the Baltimore businessmen, lawyers and clergymen who, in 1864, formed the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People. Many of these men had been associated with earlier emancipation causes. These men coordinated the flow of money and supplies provided by the Freedmen's Bureau. Eventually, the schools founded by the Association were taken over by the state.
In addition to the works cited above, the post-emancipation education of blacks in Maryland public and private schools as well as institutions of higher learning has been covered in Gladyce Helene Bradley's article, "The Education of Negroes in Maryland" (1947), and Collier Thomas, "The Baltimore Black Community."
In recent years, Maryland has been a major center of civil rights and black power struggles. These struggles have been the focus of a number of books and articles centering on major civil rights struggles in this "upper South" state. See, for example, Peter B. Levy, "Civil War on Race Street: The Black Freedom Struggle and White Resistance in Cambridge, Maryland, 1960-1964" (1994). The author examines Cambridge, Maryland in order to gain a local perspective on the civil rights movement at the grassroots level. Cambridge has been consistently overlooked in studies of the civil rights movement, and the author suggests this has been the case because events in Cambridge do not fit neatly into typical historical narratives of the movement.
Sandra Y. Millner, in her 1996 article, "Recasting Civil Rights Leadership: Gloria Richardson and the Cambridge Movement," examines the neglect by scholars of civil rights leader Gloria Richardson. Richardson was not part of the established civil rights movement, nor has she been celebrated in the same manner as other civil rights leaders. The author examines the possible reasons for Richardson's marginalization in histories of the movement, which stem, in part, from scholars not questioning the language and the conceptions of gender and class used to describe Richardson in the press. Richardson also focused her attention on economic issues while the established civil rights leadership continued to focus on civil rights. She was also one of the first leaders to openly question the tactic of nonviolence. These additional factors also contributed to a lack of recognition of Richardson's role in the Cambridge Movement. Richardson's involvement as a free woman who could not only vote but question traditional approaches to Maryland blacks gaining their full civil rights and true freedom, shows how far African Americans in Maryland have come since 1639.
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