Existing comment:
Maryland: Confederate or Union State?
Slavery in Maryland lasted for 230 years, beginning with the earliest colonists and persisting through most of the Civil War. During the war, Maryland remained in the Union. Like other border state residents, Marylanders were sympathetic to -- and even joined -- the Confederate cause. The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation only abolished slavery in rebelling Confederate states and those enslaved in Maryland remained in bondage. The voters of Maryland finally outlawed slavery through an amendment to the state constitution on November 1, 1864.
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By 1860, 32 percent of the population in Montgomery County, Maryland was enslaved. |