The Maryland 1864 Constitution: A Border State's Soldiers Stand for Freedom

Join Peerless Rockville as we mark Maryland Emancipation Day and Veterans Day with psychiatrist and author Dr. Stephen A. Goldman. In this presentation, he will discuss the 1864 Maryland Constitutional Election that emancipated enslaved Marylanders, the only state in the Union to end slavery through the state consititution. The soldiers' vote in Maryland would greatly determine the state’s future, and their overwhelming support for slavery’s abolition exemplified how the war radicalized so many white servicemen throughout the Union.

Of all the states involved in the Civil War, Maryland epitomized its harsh “brother against brother” reality, and the complicated prewar circumstances of slavery and freedom. While a border slave state, Maryland remained in the Union, and contributed 63,000 soldiers, sailors, and marines to its war effort, including ten thousand African Americans.

By 1864, the state had reached a crossroads that the entire nation was confronting – a Civil War that had turned savage, whether Abraham Lincoln would be re-elected, and what would be the fate of four million human beings held in bondage. On November 1, 1864, the Maryland electorate voted to end slavery in the state.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Stephen A. Goldman, M.D. is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, war historian, and the only physician to serve on the Abraham Lincoln Institute Board of Directors. His having treated and worked with those who have been in combat, in-depth study of America’s veterans that spans 160 years, and their ramifications are all exemplified in the groundbreaking book, One More War to Fight: Union Veterans’ Battle for Equality through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Lost Cause.

Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation Ltd. is supported in part by a grant from the City of Rockville and funding from the Montgomery County Government and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.

Host or Publisher Peerless Rockville