Maryland’s Emancipation of Enslaved Persons
Subtitle: November1, 1864 – A Day of Celebration
The Emancipation Proclamation issued on January 1, 1863, only applied to the territories of the Confederate States not occupied by Union forces and did not free slaves within the Union’s slave states which included Maryland. The Civil War itself however had a significant impact upon Marylanders causing many to reflect upon the institution moving Maryland forward towards emancipation. As early as 1862 we see many newspapers of Maryland to include the Easton Star and the Cambridge Democrat bringing this topic to the forefront.
Maryland Governor Augustus W. Bradford called for a constitutional convention and in April 1864 the voters of Maryland elected their delegates to the convention held in Annapolis. From this convention a new state Constitution was proposed that abolished slavery. The Maryland voters adopted this new Constitution during a statewide vote on October 12, 1864, which went into effect on the first of November. Maryland was the first of the Union’s slave states to abolish slavery after the Civil War had begun and did so a full year ahead of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery nationally.
On November 1st a large street celebration was held in Easton by the free and newly freed Black citizens of the Talbot County along with many White citizens as well. Many of the newly freed Blacks stayed on as employees with the families and farms on which they had worked as enslaved persons. Others pursued their new destinies as they saw fit.
In the journals of the Willis family farm, which was located at the mouth of Island Creek, we find a record of the event in their November 1, 1864 entry.
“I gave my hands my consent to go to Easton where there was to be a great parade of negros. But they changed their minds and shucked corn. I went to Easton took Walter with me saw a great concourse of negros, of both sexes but the female predominated largely. Friday the new Constitution goes into operation, by the Governor’s proclamation which frees the Slaves in this state. I have said to mine stay with me and I will give you such wages as are just and equal to the wages given.”