Existing comment:
Maryland Divided:
Maryland was a slave state. In the election of 1860 it voted in favor of Southern Democrat and secession advocate John Breckinridge (Abraham Lincoln came in last.) [sic] Even so, Maryland remained in the Union.
Maryland's tidewater counties along the Chesapeake Bay had strong ties to the plantations and slavery that had long been central to the economy.
Many who settled Western Maryland -- from Frederick westward -- came from Pennsylvania. They worked smaller farms and established mills and other industries. Slaves lived and worked here, but in far fewer numbers than in eastern Maryland.
Though Maryland tried to steer a neutral course, its economic and social divisions resulted in a raging debate over secession that continued throughout 1861.
Although Maryland did not secede from the Union, it remained a slave state.
Frederick County --
Slaves: 3,243 [7%]
Free Blacks: 4,967 [11%]
Total Population: 46,591
State of Maryland --
Slaves: 87,189 [13%]
Free Blacks: 84,000 [12%]
Total Population: 687,049
Like most Southern states, Maryland had laws in place that limited the freedom of both slaves and its 84,000 free blacks. They could not possess "paper of inflammatory character" that advocated abolition nor could they assemble. Some counties required free blacks to register. In 1860, free blacks convicted of assisting fugitive slaves were sold back into slavery from the jail in Frederick. |