“‘Slavery is doomed, the question is how it should be eliminated:’ The Long Arc of Emancipation in Maryland” A Thesis Presented To the Faculty of the Graduate School of Millersville University, Pennsylvania In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Sarah Brucksch May 2018 This Thesis for the Master of Arts Degree by Sarah Brucksch has been approved on behalf of the Graduate School by Thesis Committee: (signatures on file) Tracey M. Weis, Ph.D. Research Advisor Robyn Lily Davis, Ph.D. Committee Member Clarence V. H. Maxwell Committee Member __________May 2018______________ Date ii PREFACE Maryland’s position as a loyal Union border state during the Civil War Era has been a point of interest for me. To explore evidence of the struggle that transpired among the various populations within the state and see how individuals sought to change their own future has been extremely intriguing. Exploring Maryland’s progressive journey towards emancipation seemed to satisfy my curiosity of individualized perseverance. While researching I discovered a vast amount of evidence which proved that emancipation took place within the state in three strategies that seemed to overlap with one another: abolition/manumission, colonization, and emancipation. As a Marylander I was absolutely surprised by the evidence and I found myself wanting to learn about the struggle towards freedom and how various narratives contributed to the larger understanding of emancipation. I want to thank Dr. Robyn Davis and Dr. Clarence Maxwell for all their insightful comments, guidance, and remarks on my research. And I personally would like to thank Dr. Tracey Weis for being my mentor and counselor, who encouraged me to look beyond the evidence to dig a deeper to find the narrative and story waiting to be told. iii ABSTRACT OF THESIS “’SLAVERY IS DOOMED, THE QUESTION IS HOW IT SHOULD BE ELIMATED:’ THE LONG ARC OF EMANCIPATION IN MARYLAND By Sarah Brucksch Millersville University, 2018 Millersville, Pennsylvania Directed by Dr. Tracey Weis Emancipation is one of the greatest accomplishments in American history. It spanned two centuries creating a long arc towards freedom in Maryland, a loyal border state, through three strategies of abolitionist movements/manumission, colonization, and emancipation. Antislavery supporters petitioned to free the enslaved through the legal documentation of manumission, but some enslaved took it upon themselves to petition individually for their freedom. The continuously growing free black population in Maryland caused pro and antislavery supporters to turn to colonization, but many free blacks disagreed with forced emigration, deciding to stay and fight for freedom. Antislavery, proslavery, and free blacks struggled and debated over gradual vs. immediate emancipation which resulted in various state and federal legislation to gradually achieve freedom. Maryland experienced a long arc towards emancipation through these three strategies that resulted in a divaricate pursuit of various groups and individuals who sought to create a society built on freedom. Signature of Investigator Sarah A. Brucksch Date May 2018 iv Table of Context Preface…………………………………………………………………………………iii Abstract………………………………………………………………………………...iv List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………..vi List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………vii Timeline……………………………………………………………………………….viii Introduction and Historiography……………………………………………………….1 Abolition and Manumission…………………………………………………………....5 Colonization……………………………………………………………………………17 Emancipation…………………………………………………………………………..28 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...45 Biography/References………………………………………………………………….51 v List of Tables Table 1.1 Gradual manumission in Baltimore: Length of service between deed of manumission and date of freedom, 1789-1830 10 Table 1.2 African American Slave and Free Black Population in Maryland, 1790-1830 12 Table 1.3 African American Slave and Free Black Population in Maryland, 1840-1860 29 vi List of Figures and Map 1. Location of Monthly Meetings of Baltimore Yearly Meeting 5 2. Location of Monthly Meetings of Baltimore Yearly Meeting 5 3. Map of West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas including the colony of Liberia 19 4. “Arrival of freedmen and their families at Baltimore, Maryland – an every day scene” 38 vii Timeline of Events in Maryland and the United States 1664 Maryland legalizes slavery 1672 First Baltimore Yearly Meeting 1775 Revolutionary War Begins 1783 Maryland prohibits the importation of Slaves The Revolutionary War Ends 1796 The Maryland General Assembly liberalizes State manumission laws regarding how a slaveowner can free the enslaved 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves 1809 Maryland General Assembly creates a law for the status of children born to manumitted female slaves 1816 Creation of the American Colonization Society (ASC) 1831 Creation of the Maryland State Colonization Society (MSCS) 1832 Maryland legislature prohibits free blacks from entering the state Nat Turner Rebellion 1850 Fugitive Slave Law 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford Court Case 1858 Maryland State Legislature enacts a law that any slave older than 45 will not be manumitted 1860 Maryland General Assembly outlaws Manumission by deed or will Abraham Lincoln is Elected President 1861 First Confiscation Act The Civil War Begins 1862 Second Confiscation Act Emancipation in the District of Columbia (D. C.) 1863 Emancipation Proclamation 1864 Slavery is abolished in Maryland 1865 The Civil War Ends The 13th Amendment Creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau 1868 The 14th Amendment 1870 The 15th Amendment viii Introduction and Historiography On March 28, 1863, almost two years into the Civil War, the Easton (Md.) Gazette declared, “Slavery is doomed, the question is how it should be eliminated.”1 This statement echoed the same sentiments conveyed in early 1863 at the Union State Central Committee by former Baltimore Mayor and Conservative Maryland Unionist Thomas Swann. Swann stated at this meeting, “We are in the midst of a revolution. We could not bring slavery back if we desired it.”2 The revolution Swann referred to was, in fact, the Civil War. The Civil War was partially caused by the political, economic, religious, and cultural debate on the topic of slavery – was it morally wrong to own another human being and how does slavery fit into the principles of freedom and democracy in the new republic? Marylanders' viewpoints on slavery gradually changed as the Civil War continued longer than anyone anticipated. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, excluded Maryland; this document stirred abolition momentum toward the destruction of slavery in the state. Maryland was a divided state, much like the rest of the nation, where abolitionists and slaveowners fought to preserve their beliefs on the issues that surrounded slavery. Was slavery wrong? What would happen if all the slaves were freed? Where would the plantation owners and farmers get their labor from? What does emancipation mean? How do anti-slavery supporters eliminate slavery? The latter question was one that Maryland would have to discover the answer to itself through the long arc toward emancipation. 1 William C. Harris, Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011), 268. 2 Harris, Lincoln and the Border States, 268. Historians have taken multiple approaches to interpreting the Civil War and the history of slavery in the United States, but only a handful have carefully examined slavery and the struggle of Maryland, a border state, towards emancipation. Charles Wagandt’s informative work, The Mighty Revolution: Negro Emancipation in Maryland, 1862-1864 (1964) and Barbara Jeanne Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century (1985)3, place Maryland’s struggle with slavery and emancipation at the forefront. Charles Wagandt focuses on the period of 1862-1864 as a political movement when Maryland debated on the grounds of freedom for enslaved men and women. He labels this political movement as a “revolution” that vibrated throughout the United States over the struggle for freedom in an old-fashioned social and economic order.4 Barbara Fields introduces the term “middle ground” to address the state's geographical, geopolitical, and social position during the Civil War Era. She further examines how the relationships among various populations (enslaved, free blacks, slaveholders, and non-slaveholders) in Maryland experienced a series of tense confrontations between slavery and freedom to reach emancipation. Wagandt and Fields have different approaches to the elimination of slavery that produced a political revolution/struggle or created a social/political middle ground in Maryland’s pathway towards emancipation. Anita Aidt Guy examines antislavery activity in Maryland by tracing the activities/movements of the enslaved seeking freedom in Maryland’s Persistent Pursuit to End Slavery, 1850-1864 (1997). Guy’s evidence evaluates the antislavery movement in 3 Barbara Jeanne Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985). 4 Charles Wagandt, The Mighty Revolution: Negro Emancipation in Maryland, 1862-1864 (Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1964), vii. 2 Maryland’s struggle against slavery that occurred in three approaches: manumission, colonization, and emancipation. These three approaches are continuously intertwined throughout Guy's argument as