Volume 17, Number 3 Winter 2018

The 1858-60 Re-Enslavement Showdown Md. last week. Seven “Freedom Song” to it being underfunded and county and slaves worth $10,000 Jacobs wanted to take our Churches, City officials generally ignored the absconded.” This was Put the children in his clutches, enforcement clauses of the law. The General the period when Enslave the colored population free, Assembly did not do a comprehensive revisit escaped slave and And now we’d like to see him, of the subject of the free black population Dorchester County And Certainly to greet him, until the eve of the Civil War, during the born How are you Jacobs? 1860 session. In 1858 and 1859, Maryland Maryland is free.... was returning to the Old Maryland, my native home is free. slaveholders gathered in conventions on the area and guiding - author unknown Eastern Shore and Baltimore to strategize enslaved people to ways to return free blacks to slavery or to freedom on the Un- By Bradley Alston leave the state. derground Rail Road. Harriet Tubman On the eve of the Civil War, Baltimore Eastern Shore Slaveholders Convention, There was also an image courtesy of and Maryland saw an aggressive attempt November 3-4, 1858 alarming increase in Reginald F. Lewis to re-enslave its large free African American National disagreement over the slavery the number of house Museum. population. Baltimore hosted a statewide question heighten tensions particularly on burnings and poison- slaveholder’s convention in 1859 which the Eastern Shore. The slaveholders there ings of slaveholders and general insubordi- was the culmination of local and regional had been on high alert for some time. In nations. Some enslaved women were killing slaveholder’s conventions on the Eastern 1855 there were groundless rumors of slave their new infants or taking herbs to induce Shore and Southern Maryland that intro- insurrections. The next year vigilante patrols abortions rather than raise their children duced resolutions to re-enslave or deport were organized after two black men were in the slave system. Slavery seemed to be free Maryland and end arrested on suspicion of organizing a slave spinning out of control on the Eastern Shore manumissions of those enslaved. The next rebellion. On October 31, 1857 The Balti- and to restore equilibrium, the Convention year, 1860, the General Assembly placed a more Sun reported, “A Grand Stampede of of Slaveholders met in Cambridge, Md. on referendum on the presidential ballot that Dorchester slaves. 30 escaped, making 44 in November 3 & 4, 1858. Cambridge was the further limited the options of its free black two weeks.” Just nine months later on July 31, largest town on the Eastern Shore. The con- and enslaved population. 1858 the Baltimore Sun again reported an- clave had several distinguished citizens in Even before the 1831 Nat Turner rebel- other large escape of enslaved people in the attendance including Judge J.A. Stewart of lion, Maryland had decided to reduce its same county. “Slave Stampede. There was an- Dorchester County who seemed to voice slave population by private manumissions other slave stampede in Dorchester County, the general mood of (Continued on Page 4) and the sale of enslaved people to the lower South. Spurred by the bloodshed in South- The DuBois Circle and the Suffrage Movement ampton, the Maryland legislature responded to calls to revisit the issue of the burgeoning By Ida Jones to ensure that African American men were free black population. The 1831 General In 2020 the 19th amendment will com- allowed to exercise their civil rights which Assembly funded the four-year-old Mary- memorate its 100th anniversary. The suffrage were eroding throughout the deep-south land State Colonization Society to remove amendment provided all women the right through extralegal methods such as poll newly manumitted and free blacks out of to vote. Prior to 1920 this basic civil right in taxes, the grandfather clause, violence, and the state. The MSCS was provided $200,000 this democratic country was federally denied intimidation. for 20 years for the task. Measures already women regardless of race, class or previous African American women were always in place to control the free black population condition of servitude. organized in some form or fashion. Historian included prohibiting voting, holding office The 15th amendment had chosen Af- Deborah Gray White explored the female and serving on juries and various restrictions rican American and poor white men to the slave networks during the plantation age, on livelihoods, movement and assemblies, exclusion of women, driving a wedge deeper while historian Darlene Clark Hine examined including religious. The 1832 legislature addi- between activist women who birthed the the formation of women’s clubs. Birthed in tionally, made manumissions more difficult, Women’s movement - a movement already the nineteenth century African American instituted tough new vagrancy laws that al- fragmented by class, race, ethnicity and club women formed organizations within lowed for the hiring out for a year for being regional origin. In Baltimore the realities of churches, social circles and benevolent “unproductive” and the more extreme step race and class allowed the wedge along racial organizations - pooling their material and of being sold into slavery. The new manda- lines. For African American women conver- intangible resources to advance the cause tory removal law was a failure, however due sations about the franchise initially sought of the race through the (Continued on Page 2) The DuBois Circle and the Suffrage Movement -cont from page 1 betterment of family, home and community. destined for Morgan State University. The franchise for women was a logical exten- DuBois Circle does not solely engage in sion to ensure the well-being of race. discussing the vote. Similar to other African In 1905 W.E.B. DuBois and William Mon- American women’s clubs the intersection roe Trotter issued a call for a conference to of race, gender, and class required a multi- meet in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. faceted approach. Education, school safety, Twenty nine African American professionals health/wellness, and public policy among – including ministers, newspaper editors/ other topics are evident in the meeting min- publishers, and educators joined him forming utes. the Niagara Movement. The Niagara Move- The DuBois Circle focused on conscious- ment issued a call to improve the conditions ness raising and information sharing, seeking of African Americans. The Declaration of to remain informed and connected to issues Principles echoed their desire for political, that impacted the lives of African American social and economic inclusion for African people. The presidents of the Circle were in- Americans. Baltimore’s local leaders of the structive in the directions of the membership Niagara Movement were Reverend Garnett during their administrations. The first three Waller of Trinity Baptist Church and Dr. Mason DuBois Circle presidents and their respective Hawkins of Morgan College, both of whom terms of service were Mrs. Margaret Hawkins took an active part in organizing the local 1906-1913, Mrs. Minnie L. Gaines 1914-1919, branch of the movement. To sustain interest Mrs. E.L. Stepteau 1920-1921. They are cru- W. E. B. Du Bois in front of Baltimore home, ca. mass meetings were arranged at the Lyric cial to understanding the involvement and 1945. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Theater by Reverend Waller. intricacies of club work, suffrage and com- Collections and University Archives, Univer- In response to this invitation Mrs. Mar- munity awareness. Moreover, these women sity of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries garet Hawkins, Mrs. Minnie Gaines, Mrs. Eva were married to well-connected men whose Jennifer, Mrs. Garrett Waller and Miss Caroline civic involvement included Baptist and A.M.E. Circle members took individual membership Cook met and were organized as an auxiliary church leadership, benevolent groups and in the new Association. The Circle by means to the Baltimore Niagara Movement Branch. higher education. of [sales and personal donations] was able Their earliest activity was serving as ushers Viewing these women as partners in to help not only in the expenses of the local at the Lyric during the 1906 the Constitution agency with their husbands broadens the Niagara Movement, but also to contribute to League meeting. The League was composed basic understanding of how impactful their [a variety of] uplift agencies.” of all citizens regardless of sex, race, political “woman’s work” was to the larger dismantling The third president Mrs. E.L. Stepteau or religious creed. The Constitution League of segregation as well as the franchise. The was married to Dr. C.H. Stepteau, pastor of sought to interpret the American ideal as women understood the intersection of all Bethel A.M.E. C. Harold Stepteau pastored one of devotion to law and order, a sense of race-based injustice. The DuBois Circle’s first Ebenezer A.M.E. in Baltimore. justice and contempt for intolerance. president was Mrs. Margaret Hawkins, wife An examination of the DuBois Circle has The Niagara Movement evolved into the of Morgan professor Mason Hawkins. Mr. to include the leadership of the Cooperative National Association for the Advancement of Hawkins was the principal of Douglass High Women’s Civic League, whose leadership mir- Colored People. Within a year the Baltimore School and professor in the department of rors the leadership of the DuBois Circle. Niagara Movement formerly became the education at Morgan State College. Mrs. In February 1915 the League held its Annual DuBois Circle February 17, 1907. The DuBois Hawkins was the first “colored woman to Banquet where 250 women were present. Mrs. Circle is one of the oldest, surviving African serve on the central branch of the executive B.K. Bruce of Washington, D.C. delivered an American women’s organization in Balti- board of the YWCA.” Hawkins kept an active address outlining the work that women may more. Over the course of its 112 year history life in civic affairs indirectly through her hus- do for civic uplift. Among the other speakers the membership reads like a who’s who in band’s connections, her church’s involvement was Ida R. Cummings, Morgan graduate and African American Baltimore. Moreover, their and through the DuBois Circle. the first woman on the Board of Trustees at organizational records and meeting minutes Mrs. Minnie L. Gaines, the second Morgan College. Cummings was also the first chronicle their interest in local, regional president, was involved in the Women’s African American woman licensed to teach and national issues pertaining to African Civic League, Federation of Women’s Clubs, kindergarten in Baltimore City. Her brother American history and culture. The records and Equal Suffrage League. The Federation Harry Cummings would become the first Af- of the DuBois Circle are in the possession of of Women’s Clubs was the nation’s oldest rican American elected to the Baltimore City the Circle’s archivist Mrs. Beverly Carter and coalition of African American women’s group. Council. The president of the League was Mrs. Their advocacy challenged racism and sex- Sarah C. Fernandis and Mrs. Margaret (Mason Correction ism while providing resources for poor and A.) Hawkins was vice president. On page 5 of the Fall 2018 Gaslight, the working class women. On June 3, 1916 an With regards to the DuBois Circle the last sentence of the Women Suffrage article Afro American article noted that this “club documentary evidence of their informa- should have read, “And with the ratification choose to make its endeavor the mental tional pursuits into suffrage is evident in of the 19th Amendment in 1920, women improvement of its members by the pursuit the program books. Notables presented on in Maryland were given the right to vote.” of literary studies…When the Niagara Move- a varied array of topics. Pioneering social ment was merged into the NAACP, the DuBois worker Mrs. S. Elizabeth (Continued on Page 3) 2 The DuBois Circle and the Suffrage Movement -cont from page 2 Fernandis became interested in social work regret very much that this action is necessary, and volunteered in numerous campaigns but I feel that my place ought to be taken by throughout New York, Washington, DC and someone who can be present at the meet- Baltimore. She opened settlement homes ings and get the benefit of the exchange of for white and colored youth. After WWI she opinions there. I find it increasingly difficult lectured throughout New England and the to be present at the meetings and consider Middle Atlantic states about food conserva- it unfair to the Circle.” tion, racial relations and hygiene. In 1920, In February 1917 the League’s An- Fernandis became the first African American nual Banquet sought to address social and employed in the City Venereal Disease Clinic civic lines through strong speeches. The Afro of the Baltimore Health Department as a American reported “[t]he work that the col- social worker. Lucy Diggs Slowe was the first ored women of the city are doing along social female scholarship winner and graduate from and civic uplift lines, the evils of segregation the Baltimore Colored School to enter How- law and the housing question among the ard University. She co-founded Alpha Kappa colored people were discussed.” The conclu- Alpha Sorority, Inc. and graduated class sion that poor housing impacted colored and Augusta T. Chissell, a Suffrage Club leader, valedictorian. She continued her education white citizens of Baltimore attracted the at- exemplified this far-reaching commitment at and became the first tention of white civic workers in attendance to reform. She was a vocal supporter of the Dean of Women at . Her at the luncheon. Issues of sanitation, alley suffrage movement and continued work- career in education migrated through the housing and undesirable conditions im- ing hard even after women won the vote to classroom to administration to writing policy. pacted all who lived within the city limits. The educate and activate new women voters. She sought to optimize the potential of Negro solution would only come through repealing Her activism was recorded in the pages of women through education, exposure and unjust laws. The League issued a resolution the Baltimore Afro-American, where she au- organization. She also created the Associa- attacking issues of unsanitary/overcrowded thored a recurring column entitled “A Primer tion of Deans of Women and Advisers to Girls housing, provisions for delinquent/feeble- for Women Voters.” She used the column to in Negro Schools. The Association provided minded colored youth, economic disparity answer readers’ questions about navigat- viable connections and communication be- in city resources in educational institutions ing their new civic role, including: “Should a tween all of the HBCU campuses where Deans and facilities. woman register as an ‘Independent’?” and and Advisers worked with students and other The DuBois Circle and Cooperative “Where may I go to be taught how to vote?” women’s groups. In October 1935 two years Women’s Civic League did not know in In the years following the suffrage movement, prior to death Slowe paid her back dues of February 1917 that by August 1919 women Chissell served as Chair of the Women’s Coop- $8.00 and tendered her resignation from the across America would receive the franchise. erative Civic League and as a Vice President in DuBois Circle, noting “[O]n account of my The long cherished symbol of full citizenship the Baltimore branch of the NAACP. inability to come to Baltimore to meetings. I did not come without a cost. Within the same summer July to September of 1919 African civil rights, the DuBois Circle remained com- 2019 Baltimore History Evenings American servicemen and civilians would be mitted to its mission to carry out the Niagara Baltimore History Evenings at Village attacked, lynched and shot at from Arkansas spirit of agitation and perseverance. The Learning Place will have a 7pm start on the to Washington, DC to Illinois, in what would leadership of the DuBois Circle utilized their 3rd Thursday of January through June. For be a decade of domestic atrocities through- meetings to cultivate understanding, raise a complete schedule, please visit our web- out the country. These women agitated for awareness of select issues and agitate for page baltimorecityhistoricalsociety.org. change and fought for suffrage through full citizenship. Their longevity is indicative Board member Ida Jones has agreed to galvanizing themselves in local affairs while of progress made, ground yet to be covered speak about Victorine Adams, the subject remaining informed about national events. and a persistent need to remain vigilant on of her new biography, to be published in Moreover, their churches, sororities and be- behalf of those gone on before and those yet the new year. One session will be devoted nevolent organizations worked in tandem to come. to the late Hazel Dickens, an Appalachian through sharing successful strategies while migrant to Baltimore and a very important dismantling segregation and unfair treat- HSBC - BCHS person in American musical history. Her ment in any form and in any location. The The Baltimore City Historical Society life also illustrates themes in women’s and DuBois Circle members believed themselves congratulates Historical Society of Baltimore labor history, and many other aspects of carrying out the Niagara spirit of agitation County on celebrating 60 years of continu- American life. This will be a multi-media and perseverance. Through their interest in ous operations in 2019. BCHS has been for- evening, featuring talks by experts, video school conditions, Provident Hospital, Ba- tunate to be able to share a joint program of Hazel, and live performance. The plan- zaar/Flower carnival, day care financial aid, with HSBC for the past seven years covering ning committee for this session consists selling John Brown portraits to raise money changing jurisdictional and political bound- of Board members Bradley Alston, Betsy for a grave marker, YWCA playgrounds, and aries, waterworks, suburbanization, sewage, Nix, and Mike Franch, as well as Tim Newby Frederick Douglass home preservation, they the history and culture of the Patapsco River, (author of Bluegrass Baltimore: The Hard knew every victory contributed to the prog- the history of policing and the historic work Drivin’ Sound and its Legacy), and historians ress of woman in obtaining the ballot. of firefighters. In 2019, the 8th annual joint and activists Bill Harvey and Bill Barry. Incubating during the early struggle for program will focus on local suffrage history. 3 The 1858-60 Maryland Re-Enslavement Showdown - cont from page 1 live to fight another day. Just four months the gathering when he offered that, “The wanted to know if members of the Baltimore later, John Brown attacked the United States manumission of slaves has been a great error, City delegation were chosen “by a bona fide Armory at Harpers Ferry and the pro and an evil to themselves as well as master meeting” or if they were selected by the “ac- slavery Democratic Party swept the Maryland and slave. The free negro must therefore… tions of a few self-constituted individuals.” General Assembly November elections the be brought back to their original condition.” He complained that “the city had six months’ following month. The convention declared that they were notice and had no excuse for hasty action on 1860 General Assembly Session under sustained attack from three fronts: an the matter.” The chair responded that a simi- When the General Assembly convened in outdated legal system from within coupled lar examination of the delegation from the 1860, the counties of Southern Maryland and with “the influence of abolition from abroad,” counties had not been done, and the matter the Eastern Shore held over half of the seats, and “free negroism in our midst.” They called was dropped. Curtis Jacobs was appointed to even though they had less than half the white on the Maryland General Assembly to act on the business committee. Unlike the Eastern population of the counties of northern Mary- the incompatible existence of “free negroism Shore conclave, at Baltimore his was a minor- land. The percentage of slaveholders among and slavery.” Arguing in his 1959 missive, “The ity position. Jacobs had been the chair of the the delegates was also way out of proportion Free Negro Question in Maryland,” Curtis W. Committee on the Free Colored Population to their actual size in the electorate. One Jacobs (1815-1884) a prominent Worchester at the 1851 constitutional convention where could predict that Jacob’s draconian anti- free County slaveholder and intellectual impetus he declared then that the free black popu- black proposals would find fertile ground. behind the re-enslavement movement was lation was a growing menace and in 1859 Jacobs won the chairmanship of the Com- particularly incensed by the reluctance of he was even more adamant. The Baltimore mittee on Colored Populations which had a free blacks to commit to yearlong agricultural Slaveholders Convention, however rejected membership with six out of seven members contracts. It was not that he was universally the calls for expulsion as counterproductive being slaveholders who held in bondage a opposed to free labor’s prerogative of ne- to the economic needs of the state. The final combined 162 individuals. Early in the ses- gotiating better terms for their labor, he just resolution stated,” That this Con- sion Jacobs offered a resolution felt that free blacks had no right to do so. The vention considers any measure to place a bounty on the head convention accepted the resolutions calling for the general removal of free of the Wilmington, Delaware for even more restrictions on the lives of free blacks an impolitic, inexpedient abolitionist and leader of the and enslaved blacks, declared the presence of act uncalled for by any public Underground Railroad move- free blacks a detriment to a slave society, and exigency which would justify ment, Thomas Garrett. The word asked for ways to return them to slavery or it.” The majority report of the quickly circulated that legisla- expel them from the state. And ended with a slaveholders further called for tion was coming aimed at free call for a statewide Slaveholders Convention tougher application of exist- blacks in the state. The black the next year, in Baltimore, with its 25,687 free ing laws and the continuation community response included blacks compared to only 2,218 slaves. of the state’s colonization’s church meetings where the Baltimore Slaveholders Convention, June efforts. Jacobs issued a minor- proposals were assailed. White 9-10, 1859 ity report that called on “the allies were enlisted to raise their Not one delegate from Baltimore at- legislature at the next session voices in opposition. The eco- tended when the convention, meeting at the to terminate free negroism nomic impact of the loss of free Rechabite Hall on Gay and Fayette Streets, in Maryland at an early date, black labor to the economy was opened on June 9, 1859, and the organiz- and on advantageous terms to emphasized by black leaders. ers gave thought to moving the conclave our white population.” Jacobs However, the black community to Frederick City. Nathaniel Duke of Calvert went on to lambast Maryland’s State House Dome, An- also took precautions. Many County said, “That, as Baltimore City did not colonization record. He called napolis, Maryland (Annap- moved out of state taking their see fit to meet the counties of the state in this on the state legislature to set a olis Illustrations Collection, often-meager possessions with important matter, that the counties at once time limit for free blacks to leave MSA SC4314-1-1, Maryland them. African American ben- adjourn to Frederick City!” Beale H. Richard- the state and offered them the State Archives). eficial associations were seen son Esq. came from the city and apologeti- opportunity to select a master withdrawing savings accounts cally shared that a meeting was recently held and re-enslave themselves. Otherwise, if they from banks and distributing the funds to to choose delegates for the convention and were still in the state after the prescribed departing members. On February 22, the offered the use of the Temperance Temple, time, they and their children would be sold president of the Maryland State Colonization located on Gay Street near Frederick Street, into slavery for life. Society Charles Howard sent a letter urging that he said, “was a much larger and more Jacobs resolutions were defeated 53- “if the General Assembly intends to impose pleasant room.” The delegates took him up 33. The vote against Jacob’s resolutions was further hardships on free peoples of color” it on the offer. Shortly afterwards, nine other a snapshot of the diversity on the subject should reconsider. Over one thousand prom- city delegates joined Beale H. Richardson. among Maryland slaveholders. One western inent Baltimore citizens signed a petition pro- They were; Francis Neale, S.D. Coulbourn, Maryland editor dismissed Jacobs recom- testing harsh measures. Another resolution J.W. Luckett, H.R. Robins, James McConkey, mendations as “a batch of the most absurd in support of the free black population came Lemuel W. Gosnell, E.R. Dallam, and John nonsense- the grossest unconstitutional- from one Elijah J. Bond and eighty citizens of F. Richards. Suspicious, Calvert County Del- ity- the most barbarous inhumanity that Harford County “to remonstrating against the egate Nathaniel Duke, who had proposed ever emanated from the mind of a cracked- enactment of any laws enslaving Negros now the convention’s move to Frederick City, brained mono maniac.” But Jacobs would free in this state.” (Continued on Page 5) 4 The 1858-60 Maryland Re-Enslavement Showdown - cont from page 4 ored Population held The decades long struggle to drive black combined the various plans for hiring out free an average twenty- caulkers from the ship yards in Fells Point unemployed blacks to the counties. A board seven individuals in came up early in the session. On February 17 of commissioners of three prominent citizens bondage, the aver- “On motion of Mr. Kraft, Leave was granted from each county whose job it would be the age slaveholder in the Committee…to introduce a bill entitled, “control and management of the free blacks,” Maryland held one or an act to protect white persons who are was tacked on. As it passed the senate the bill two. Those in agricul- caulkers, and to prevent the employment of applied only to Baltimore, Calvert, Howard, ture still needed the negro caulkers as such by ship builders or Kent and St Mary’s counties. The House added labor of free blacks. owners of vessels in Baltimore City.” Another Anne Arundel, Caroline, Charles, Dorchester, Some supporters of proposal forbade free blacks in Baltimore Prince George’s, Queen Anne, Somerset, Tal- the slavery ideology from working as mechanics. Preceding a bot and Worcester, but at the request of the also saw a danger resolution to protect rabbits in Baltimore Senate, struck out Anne Arundel, Caroline in the deportation of free, disenfranchised County was “a bill entitled, an act to amend and Dorchester. The assembly voted to send black labor that would be replaced by free the code of public laws which fixes the pay the bills out to the electorate in the form of enfranchised white labor. It was just that fear for the support of pauper lunatics, in the a referendum to be included on the ballot of an empowered white agricultural prole- Maryland Hospital, by reducing the amount during the 1860 Presidential election. Eleven tariat that engendered key opposition to the to be paid for Negro lunatics in the hospital.” counties voted on the “Jacobs” bill. It was Jacobs bill. Better free blacks, the Planter’s Curtis Jacobs and his Committee on Colored resoundingly rejected. The final referendum Advocate newspaper warned than “a class Population’s report, recommended that the tally was 4,671 For, 15,874 Against. Even the of free white labor that would be hostile to legislature forbid all future manumission. home county of Curtis Jacobs, Worcester slavery, would be entitled to vote, and finally Free black people were to be hired out for voted against the bill. Only Somerset County dictate terms to slavery itself.” On the non- terms of ten years and any child born to them voted for the Jacobs bill and they never fully slaveholder’s side, some of the opposition would become the property of the owner of enacted the measures in the legislation. Try- was also based on a suspicion that the Jacobs the mother’s labor. Those already bound out ing to gauge the reasons for the rejection of bill was a Trojan horse to undermine their or serving as apprentice serving limited time the bill can be discerned from reading the economic and political position. Reflecting would be hired out once their term expired. newspapers from around the state and none on the referendum rejection of the bills years Free black children under the age of twelve of Baltimore’s newspapers endorsed the leg- later, Judge Hugh Lennox Bond of Baltimore would be bound out until the age of thirty- islation. The two primary reasons were firstly attributed the defeat of the bill to that five, after which they would be hired for ten economic. A real concern, especially among suspicion. Bond stated that the free blacks years like the rest. Free blacks would have non- slaveholder and small farmer that driv- would leave the state in droves rather than the “privilege” of choosing masters and go- ing free blacks out of the state would have a be re-enslaved. The non-slaveholders thus ing into slavery at any time. Any manumitted negative impact on the state’s economy. The “regarded the law as an attempt to deprive slave who was supposed to leave the state second was a sense that the measures were them of the services of the free population and did not, would be restored to their for- excessive, inhumane and cruel. Especially and compel them to hire the surplus slave mer owner or their heirs. His children would when Jacobs and his minions advanced pro- population”, they “indignantly rejected” it. become slaves without restrictions. The posals to confiscate the property of black Primary Sources proposal also included strict police regula- churches and give it to white congregations, Journal of the Maryland House of Delegates tions, including the right of postmasters to strip free blacks of their property and use it Session, Dec 27, 1831-March 14, 1832; Journal of the Maryland House of Delegates Session, withhold from African Americans any mail to educate illiterate whites, eliminating aid for Jan 4 -March 10, 1860 ; Maryland Coloniza- addressed to them. Public reaction was” im- the black mentally ill in state asylums and the tion Journal, Vol. 9- No 18, November 1858; mediate, intense and hostile.” Some feared proto Nazi idea of mandating identification Maryland Colonization Journal Vol. 10-No. 2, that the proposals would aid the slowly awak- badges for free blacks. July 1859; Report of the Committee on Colored ening abolition movement in the state. Even Coda Population to the Legislature of Maryland, 1860 pro-slavery Democratic newspapers came Since 1831 Maryland had grappled with Session; “Speech of Col. Curtis M. Jacobs on the out against the proposals calling them “ex- ways to control its burgeoning free black pop- Free Colored Population of Maryland to the traordinary,” and that the legislature should ulation. In 1860 the Maryland slaveholders House of Delegates, February 17, 1860”; “The not “pass any obnoxious laws on the subject,” had overplayed their hand. With their over- Free Negro Question in Maryland.” Curtis Ja- One Cumberland newspaper denounced the representation in the 1860 General Assembly cobs to the States Rights Advocate Newspaper proposals as “an experiment in severe and and on the heels of the John Brown attack (Queen Anne’s County, Md.), January 10, 1859 Secondary Sources oppressive legislation.” at Harpers Ferry, they saw an opportunity Blackett, R.J.M.,” Captives Quest for Freedom: The General Assembly heard those voices to reverse the historic and economic trends Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave law, and and others as well. In the end they passed four that saw the decrease of slavery and the the Politics of Slavery,” 2018; Brackett, Jeffrey, watered down measures. The Maryland State rise of free blacks and free labor in the state. “The Negro in Maryland.” 1889; Fields, Barbara Colonization Board of Managers were done However, the “Middle Ground” that the state Jeanne, “Slavery and Freedom on the Middle away and their budget slashed. Second, man- had demonstrated in racial matters proved Ground: Maryland during the Nineteenth umission was absolutely forbidden. Thirdly, the guiding and winning countervailing force. Century,” 1985; Freehling, William, “The Road any free black over eighteen could renounce The episode also revealed a fissure in to Disunion Vol. ll: Secessionists Triumphant their freedom and become a slave for life to the slaveholder’s rank. While the six large 1854-1861,” 2007; Wright, James, “The Free any master of his choosing. The last measure slaveholders on Jacob’s Committee for Col- Negro in Maryland 1634-1860.” 1921 5 Baltimore City Historical Society Winter 2018

Joseph L. Arnold Prize for Outstanding Writing on Baltimore’s History in 2018 Thanks to the generosity of the Byrnes Family, In Memory of Joseph R. and Anne S. Byrnes the Baltimore City Historical Society presents an annual Joseph L. Arnold Prize for Outstanding Writing on Baltimore’s History, in the amount of $500. Joseph L. Arnold, Professor of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, died in 2004, at the age of sixty-six. He was a vital and enormously important member of the UMBC faculty for some three and a half decades as well as a leading historian of urban and planning history. He also played an On January 16, 2018, The Governor’s Commission on the Commemoration of the 100th Anniver- active, and often leading role with a variety sary of the Passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States held their monthly meeting in of private and public historical institutions Annapolis, Maryland. The Commission’s Chair, Major General Linda L Singh, Adjutant General in the Baltimore area, and at his death was of Maryland presided over the meeting. A special project presentation entitled “The Maryland hailed as the “dean of Baltimore historians.” Women’s Suffrage Movement” was given by Ms. Kathy Rohn, an intern of The Maryland Historical The submission deadline for 2018 en- Trust. Major General Singh recognized Ms. Rohn for the special research project of the Maryland tries is February 1, 2019. Entries should be Women’s Suffrage Movement with the “Challenge Coin” which is given to a Unit Commander or unpublished manuscripts between 15 and an individual in recognition of special achievement by that individual. 45 double-spaced pages in length (includ- ing footnotes/endnotes). To submit an entry, a “blind judging” of entries by a panel of his- will be posted on the BCHS webpage and address an e-mail message to: baltimorehis- torians. Criteria for selection are: significance, considered for publication in the Maryland [email protected]. Attach the entry as a originality, quality of research and clarity of Historical Magazine. single document in either MS Word or PC presentation. The winner will be announced For further information send a message convertible format. Include any illustrations in Spring 2019. BCHS reserves the right to to [email protected], or within the text of the document. There will be not to award the prize. The winning entry leave a voice mail at 410.706.7661.

The Baltimore City Historical Society Inc. c/o The Maryland Historical Society 201 West Monument Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201