It seemed inevitable that once Nikki Haley, the very conservative, very Republican, and very dynamic South Carolina governor, announced last June that the Confederate flag should be removed from the statehouse grounds, every other state and town which had any connection to the Civil War would be looking very carefully on how those governments, directly or indirectly, have honored their own Confederate veterans in the tragic war between the states.
This certainly is the case with Talbot County. Over the last few weeks, in letters to the editor, at civic meetings, cocktail parties, and in the coffee houses of Easton and St. Michaels, the community is indeed having a real conversation about the future of the “Talbot Boys,” the memorial which honors the fallen local men who had fought for the South’s secession to preserve slavery, which is located on the front lawn of the historic Talbot County Courthouse.
In preparation of the first public meeting, now scheduled for next Wednesday at 4pm, with the Talbot County Council and local representatives of the NAACP discussing the status of the memorial, and to support what promises to be an important community conversation about race, history, and how we honor the courageous, the Spy starts our own series on the Talbot Boys.
The Spy starts this new project with Anglican Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson Bishop of The Anglican Diocese of The Chesapeake. A local leader in race relations since he arrived on the Eastern Shore twenty-five years ago, Bishop Johnson also currently chairs the Talbot Association of Clergy. Through these special experiences, he shares his perspective on the future of the Talbot Boys.
This video is approximately eight minutes in length
Joe Diamond says
What an intelligent, articulate man.
Without attacking or diminishing the various groups who insist on waving the old battle flag of Northern Virginia he quietly points out there is more to the question. His suggestion that the Talbot Boys statue is important because it presents a part of the historical story. Considering the old statute allows all to opens a door to the past, to inspect what else might be said. His hope that in order to form a balanced remembrance of the period the statue be retained. A new fountain in honor of the thousands of slaves who came through Maryland without any rights except those of being property of a slave owner be added.
Chestertown accomplished part of this balance with the stone in the park many years ago. Without comment, the names of those who went north and those who went south are recorded on opposite sides of a single stone marker. There is no mention of local slavery.
The history of the period is full of contradictions. Slavery evolved in the new world over about five centuries and, in my opinion, was on the way out by the time of the American Civil War. It would not have gone for the moral reasons the abolitionists asserted. Technology and national expansion would have made it inefficient; a “money losing enterprise” as a slave owning Jesuit priest wrote in about 1840. Maryland would have been an early example of a southern slave-free state. But what can be said for the human tragedy that came and went here in Maryland? There were sincere people on both sides of the issue, citizens who sent their sons to fight in battle on both sides.
Bishop Johnson suggests we not rush to a simple answer as we seek to understand.
Marge Fallaw says
Joe, don’t forget that near the massive “white folks only” two-sided (Federal/Confederate) monument erected in 1917 by Judge James Alfred Pearce (1840-1920, son of the U.S. Senator of the same name who died in 1862) a black granite obelisk dedicated in 1999 honors the county’s 430+ African American men who served in the U.S. military during the Civil War. The lead sponsor for the latter was the local, all-black Parker White Post No. 143 American Legion, but during the two years of fundraising that preceded the obelisk’s erection many individuals (black and white), businesses, and organizations contributed because they thought it important to tell “the rest of the story” (as the late radio commentator Paul Harvey might have said). It was well known locally in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that numerous African Americans had served (with many dying from wounds or disease during service), but given the persistent racial and cultural divisions (and the local power structure) of the time, also honoring or even acknowledging them in any way was not within the prevailing mindset. (In fact, since Judge Pearce was paying for the 1917 monument, he was the one who decided which of the many white Union and Confederate veterans would be named on his monument. Apparently, he never explained to anyone why he chose as he did.)
It was the local African American communities and veterans (under the direction of Chestertown’s Charles Sumner Post No. 25 of the Grand Army of the Republic) who were broad-minded and magnanimous. For many years they led and participated in Chestertown’s annual Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) ceremonies and events while the whites merely watched (with some making derogatory comments, as writer Gilbert Byron remembered from his youth). Not only did they decorate (with flowers) the nearby graves of African American veterans but they also marched to Chester Cemetery to decorate the graves of white veterans, both Union and Confederate, considering all to be comrades in arms.
You mentioned, Joe, that there is no mention of local slavery on the Pearce monument and that slavery was dwindling in Maryland by the time of the Civil War. That is true, but local citizens of the time were very aware of the former presence and impact of slavery in the county. Even though Kent Co. free blacks (who weren’t truly free socially, politically, or economically) outnumbered slaves by the census of 1840 or 1850 (can’t remember which), the effects of the system still weighed heavily here post-war.
There’s no direct mention of slavery on the obelisk either, but it should be noted that a significant number of the 430+ who enlisted in the United States Colored Troops (Army) or in the still unsegregated Navy were slaves, who gained their freedom by enlisting, which I think was well known locally at the time and for some years afterwards. (Unfortunately for those enlistees, they did not get the $300 enlistment bounty, which was paid instead to their slaveholders, who, however, would have been charged with disloyalty and imprisoned had they obstructed the enlistments.) However, without consulting my research database of the 430+ enlistees, I can’t state accurately what the percentage of slave enlistees was. Likewise, without reviewing my database, I also can’t say what the percentage of Navy men was, though it sticks in my mind that it was at least 15%. Although (unfortunately and misleadingly) the monument inscription doesn’t say so, far from all the men served in the USCT.
joe Diamond says
Hi Marge,
As always ya got me. I don’t think I have been in the park since 1999 or noticed the olelisk you mentioned. Glad it arrived. Little doubt it would have not been placed there in earlier times…..or maybe not so early. You probably also have a date when African Americans were invited to sit in the balcony of the Prince Theater near the park or invited to be out of town at 9:00 each evening when the church bell near the park rang. We can be glad the bad old days are almost over.
So I watch as the issue of monuments grinds on. There is a fine line between examining the past and distorting it to fit current illusions.
Thanks for adding to the story.
Joe