Slavery

FOR the purpose of expressing regret for the role that Maryland played in instituting and maintaining slavery and for the discrimination that was slavery's legacy. WHEREAS, The State of Maryland relied on slavery for 200 years; and WHEREAS, To meet the needs of its economy, Maryland prior to 1808 imported men, women, and children, torn from their homes in Africa and subjected to the brutality of the Middle Passage; and WHEREAS, Maryland citizens trafficked in human flesh until the adoption of the Constitution of 1864; and WHEREAS, Slavery subjected its victims to unspeakable cruelties, including beatings, rape, and the forcible separation of family members from one another; and WHEREAS, A native of Maryland, nurtured by the slave culture of our State, wrote the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision declaring African Americans incapable of citizenship because they had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect"; and WHEREAS, Slavery fostered a climate of oppression not only for slaves and their descendants but also for people of color who moved to Maryland subsequent to slavery's abolition; and WHEREAS, Slavery's legacy has afflicted the citizens of our State down to the present; and WHEREAS, Slavery and discrimination are utterly contrary to the principles that this Nation and this State profess; and WHEREAS, It is time for the State of Maryland to acknowledge the role the State played in maintaining the institution...

ANNAPOLIS - Maryland's Senate has been asked to make a soul-baring statement of remorse about the state's slave-holding past. "It is time for the State of Maryland to acknowledge the role the State played in maintaining the institution of slavery and its attendant evils," a proposed resolution reads. An expression of "profound regret" is overdue, said state Sen. Nathaniel Exum, D-Prince George's, who sponsored the resolution. A symbolic measure, its weight is in its remorse.

Wednesday, Feb. 9 9 p.m. on PBS "Slavery and the Making of America" This new four-part documentary focuses on how slavery was an important element in making the United States a rich and powerful nation. "Slavery was no sideshow in American history," says historian James Horton. "It was the main event. " Morgan Freeman narrates. Concludes at the same time next week. 10 p.m. on ABC "Wife Swap" In an episode that may bring unwelcome echoes of that long political season, the women changing places tonight are an anti-gay Texan and a lesbian mother from Arizona.

The flags of the Confederacy had a rough time of it right out of the chute. The first attempt bore too strong a resemblance to the Stars and Stripes, and in battle the two armies had trouble telling one side from the other. Another version was primarily white, and when it hung limp it tended to look like a flag of surrender. The Confederate flag we're familiar with today is actually a replica of the South's Navy Jack, the rectangular version of the battle flag with the crisscrossed stars.

The recent flurry of letters from neo-Confederates asserting that slavery had no role in the Civil War is troubling, as they seem doggedly determined to force counterfactual information on the public. The trend towards "true Southern history," minimizing the slavery issue by insisting that all of America was racist, and that slaves fought for the Confederacy is a spurious and disingenuous argument. Using half-truths and outright misinformation, they try to avoid what any serious historian of the Civil War recognizes as a major issue of the war. Having studied the Civil War since my early teens and teaching it on a college level here in Hagerstown and at George Mason University, I feel qualified to point out a few holes in their argument.

SHARPSBURG - Antietam National Battlefield joined in the national recognition of Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, with a series of talks on the Emancipation Proclamation, held Sunday in the battlefield's visitor center. The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued more than two years before, but with little effect in the Confederate-controlled state.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Dr. James Oliver Horton said that when he moved to Virginia 27 years ago, he was surprised to find that the Civil War was still very much alive there. "People would talk about it as if it was still going on," he said. Virginians often referred to the Civil War as "the late unpleasantness. " Horton, a panelist on The History Channel's weekly program "The History Center," addressed attendees of the "Lincoln and His Era: Myths and Realities" seminar at the Four Points Sheraton in Chambersburg on Saturday.

Benefits may be available To the editor: April 9, 1942, marked one of the most tragic events in U.S. military history. On that day, 62 years ago, a starving and exhausted U.S. force at Bataan in the Philippines surrendered to the invading Japanese. The next day, more than 10,000 American soldiers, along with thousands of Filipinos, began the infamous Bataan "Death March. " One thousand American soldiers died during the 63-mile ordeal of deprivation, brutality and torture.

My great-great-grandfather John William Walters was a Lieutenant in Company "B" of the 2nd Virginia Infantry. He was killed on Oct. 19, 1864, at the battle of Belle Grove just down Interstate 81 below Winchester, Va. Lt. Walters was just 38 years old. He was supporting his government on the issue of slavery. His son, John Newton Waters, my great-grandfather, decided that Waters sounded better than Walters so he dropped the "l" and thus my family name became Waters instead of Walters.

Sitting on her knees atop a quilt her father bought at a flea market, Fanny Crawford listened to him tell her a bedtime story. On occasion, like this time, the bedtime stories Bill Crawford told his 5-year-old daughter were true family stories. It was the story of her great-great-grandfather, Henry Barnes, who was born into slavery near Richmond, Va., circa 1818, and as a child was taken away from his family and sold to a Hagerstown man. The woman Henry remembered as his mother gave him a quilt to remember where he came from, said Crawford, 61, who lives in Hagerstown's North End. Crawford said as a child, she would lie in bed sometimes running her hands across her own quilt as she thought of Henry and what it must have felt like for him to be torn away from his family.

We might be more charitable to 'federal rights' To the editor: I write in praise of Art Callaham's July 10 column in The Herald-Mail on the importance of remembering the lessons of the Civil War. His righteous advocacy of states' rights is the sort of clarion call needed to overcome such rights-denying monstrosities as the Federal Defense of Marriage Act and proposals to amend the U.S. Constitution to prohibit states...

"What is the purpose of reforming public education with this plan of a Race to the Top? Since we in America are sending more and more jobs to other countries where the pay scale is lower, where are all these Race to the Top graduates going to go to be employed?" - Hagerstown "I wanted to applaud Tom Wilhelm of Williamsport for his letter on what the free passes they get when they cross our borders. I think that all our Congress people should read this: Bartlett, Munson, every one of them, Barbara Mikulski.

HAGERSTOWN -- A novel about slavery set in the 1850s inspired a discussion about hip hop, literacy and the modern slavery of materialism Monday morning when author James McBride visited North Hagerstown High School to speak to Washington County high school students and guests from the community. McBride's "Song Yet Sung," a tale of escaped slaves, free blacks and slave catchers on Maryland's Eastern Shore, was selected by the Maryland Humanities Council for this year's One Maryland One Book program, which encourages Marylanders from across the state to read and discuss one common book.

My great-great-grandfather John William Walters was a Lieutenant in Company "B" of the 2nd Virginia Infantry. He was killed on Oct. 19, 1864, at the battle of Belle Grove just down Interstate 81 below Winchester, Va. Lt. Walters was just 38 years old. He was supporting his government on the issue of slavery. His son, John Newton Waters, my great-grandfather, decided that Waters sounded better than Walters so he dropped the "l" and thus my family name became Waters instead of Walters.

On an overcast, drizzly day on Oct. 16, 1859, John Brown and his fully armed raiders marched into Harpers Ferry, then in Virginia, marking what some historians argue is the first step toward the American Civil War. This year marks the 150th anniversary of John Brown's Raid, and his subsequent death by hanging on Dec. 2, 1859. As a way to commemorate what transpired out of Brown's efforts, the Quad-State region has banded together for a sesquicentennial commemoration of John Brown's Raid, according to Todd Bolton, events committee chair of the Sesquicentennial Quad-State Committee.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Going by his résumé, James Buchanan was among the most qualified men to run for president, yet in the pantheon of chief executives, the 15th president is regarded as among the worst. However, Buchanan's four years in office need to be placed in perspective, said Karl Reisner, a history teacher at Mercersburg (Pa.) Academy who has spoken hundreds of times on the presidency of that town's native son and the only president born in Pennsylvania. Like most people, Reisner knew little about Buchanan until asked to prepare a presentation for Buchanan's 200th birthday in 1991.

SHARPSBURG - Antietam National Battlefield joined in the national recognition of Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, with a series of talks on the Emancipation Proclamation, held Sunday in the battlefield's visitor center. The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued more than two years before, but with little effect in the Confederate-controlled state.

It's been more than 140 years since the end of slavery in the United States and yet its legacy still adversely affects the health of African-Americans, according to author Richard Williams. And, he suggests that white people are also affected in negative ways by what happened way back when, in part because society hasn't really had a frank dialogue about racial issues. Williams, who will be in Hagerstown April 27 to speak at a banquet for the No Smoking Youth Club at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, knows what he's talking about.