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The Maryland History and Culture Bibliography

Berlin, Ira, et al., eds. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867. Series I, Volume II. The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Notes: Based upon the Freedman's Papers collection at the National Archives, this volume focuses on the genesis of free labor. Chapter 4, which presents an essay followed by original documents, is devoted to the Maryland experience. Although slavery and free labor co-existed throughout the 19th century, slavery had been concentrated in Southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore, and it was here that the greatest tension existed during the Civil War era. Runaway slaves quickly appeared at unionist camps, such as Point Lookout, or escaped to the national capital, in search of freedom and employment. By 1864 several government farms were created along the Patuxent River from abandoned property which was home to over 600 former slaves. Former slaves discovered that emancipation did not mean freedom. The state legislature, still under the influence of former slave owners, passed restrictive laws circumscribing their freedom, including an apprenticeship law which allowed white landowners to forcefully "apprentice" black children. The Union commander, General Lew Wallace, attempted to counteract this program by issuing General Order 112, but the effort was not supported by the national government.

Berlin, Ira, et al., eds. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867. Series II. The Black Military Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Notes: Based upon the Freedman's Papers collection at the National Archives, this volume focuses on the black military experience. Unlike most of the previous volumes, where there was an entire chapter devoted to Maryland, references to the state are scattered throughout the book. By the spring of 1865 some 179,000 black men enlisted in the Union army, of which 8,718 were from Maryland. These figures do not include service in the naval forces. Black enlistment helped to undermine slavery but it also contributed to a shortage of labor in rural areas. The families of enlistees were often ill-treated. Once in the Army, blacks were discouraged by unequal pay and by doing more manual labor than fighting. By the end of the war, however, black units fought with distinction. In Maryland, like other border states, black veterans were the objects of widespread terror as the former planter class attempted to reassert its hegemony.

Berlin, Ira, et al., eds. Free At Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Notes: Based upon the Freedman's Papers collection at the National Archives, this volume covers the comprehensive African American experience from slavery to freedom. Organized around primary documents, with short explanatory introductions, it explores various significant themes in this complex transformation. African Americans discovered that northerners, as well as former masters, were reluctant to recognize their equality and often imposed their views on such things as labor relations, the extent of personal freedom, and their proper role in the military. This book reveals that former slaves possessed a complex and sophisticated understanding of the meaning of freedom.

Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Billingsley, Andrew. "Family Reunion-The Legacy of Robert Smalls: Civil War Hero." Maryland Humanities (Winter 1993): 14-17.

Blackburn, George M., ed. "The Negro as Viewed by a Michigan Civil War Soldier: Letters of John C. Buchanan." Michigan History 47 (1963): 75-84.

Blight, David W. Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

Callum, Agnes Kane. 9th Regiment Colored Troops: Volunteers of Maryland, Civil War, 1863-1866. Baltimore: Mullac Publishers, 1999.

Callum, Agnes K. Colored Volunteers of Maryland, Civil War, 7th Regiment, United States Colored Troops, 1863-1866. Baltimore: Mullac Publishers, 1990.

Cornelison, Alice, Silas E. Craft, Sr., and Lillie Price. History of Blacks in Howard County, Maryland: Oral History, Schooling and Contemporary Issues. Columbia, MD: Howard County, Maryland NAACP, 1986.

Craven, Wesley Frank. White, Red, and Black: The Seventeenth-Century Virginian. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
Notes: Remains the standard multi-cultural work for the 17th century.

David, Jonathan. "The Sermon and the Shout: A History of the Singing and Praying Bands of Maryland and Delaware." Southern Folklore Quarterly 51, no. 3 (1994): 241-63.

Ellefson, C. Ashley. "Free Jupiter and the Rest of the World: the Problem of a Free Negro in Colonial Maryland." Maryland Historical Magazine 66 (1971): 1-13.

Eltis, David. The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Eltis, David, Stephen D. Behrendt, David Richardson, and Herbert S. Klein. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Floyd, Bianca. Records and Recollections: Early Black History in Prince George's County. Bladensburg, MD: Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, 1989.

Heinegg, Paul. Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware: From the Colonial Period to 1810. Baltimore: Clearfield, 2000.

Hicks, Helena S. The Black Apprentice in Maryland Court Records from 1661 to 1865. Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland at College Park, 1988.
Notes: The author examines the apprenticeship system in Maryland as related to blacks during the period 1661 to 1865. For blacks in Maryland, apprenticeship was one of the earliest forms of education available. Court records are used to examine Maryland's apprenticeship system. Although Maryland's apprenticeship law of 1793 eliminated the reading and writing requirement for apprentices in the case of black apprentices, black apprentices' contracts still contained literacy provisions. Employment in various trade was another benefit resulting from the apprenticeship system.

Johnson, Whittington B. "The Origin and Nature of African Slavery in Seventeenth-Century Maryland." Maryland Historical Magazine 73 (September 1978): 236-45.

Jordan, Winthrop. White Over Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.

Kimmel, Ross M. "Free Blacks in Seventeenth-Century Maryland." Maryland Historical Magazine 71 (Spring 1976): 19-25.

Klein, Mary O. "'We Shall Be Accountable to God:' Some Inquiries into the Position of Blacks in Somerset Parish, Maryland, 1692-1865." Maryland Historical Magazine 87 (Winter 1992): 399-406.
Notes: The author examines the conversion of free blacks and slaves in Somerset Parish. While a 1664 Maryland law stated that baptism had no effect on the status of a slave, the Anglican church worked towards conversion of the enslaved. However, Christian education and baptism varied depending on individual slaveowners. In some cases, the enslaved themselves refused to be baptized. Evidence of African religious practices remained alongside the practice of Christianity.

Klingelhofer, Eric. "Aspects of Early African-American Material Culture: Artifacts from the Slave Quarters at Garrison Plantation, Maryland." Historical Archaeology 21 (1987): 112-19.
Notes: The author examines the objects excavated from the slave quarters at Garrison Plantation near Baltimore, Maryland. Various groups of objects represented early black material culture which reveal aspects of Africanisms. Archaeology is particularly useful for the study of Africanisms found in material culture as patterns of found objects may be compared chronologically and geographically.

Kulikoff, Allan. "Black Society and the Economics of Slavery." Maryland Historical Magazine 70 (Summer 1975): 203-10.
Notes: Review Essay.

Kulikoff, Allan. "A 'Prolifick' People: Black Population Growth in the Chesapeake Colonies, 1700-1790." Southern Studies 16 (Winter 1977): 391-428.
Notes: The author attempts to document the population growth of Africans and African-Americans between 1660 and 1780. The population grew due to forced immigration or from natural increase. Natural increase helped the founding of enslaved communities and helped in the establishment of kinship systems.

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