20070305 A discussion about the legacy of slavery in Carroll County

Many Rivers Crossed

A discussion about the legacy of slavery in Carroll County

March 5^th, 2007

Kelsey Volkmann, writing for the Baltimore Examiner has three great articles in today’s edition of the paper that are compelling “must reads.”

“Carroll County, free at last?”

“A mystery that can be solved”

“Remembering the Dred Scott decision on its 150th anniversary”

Kudos to Ms. Volkmann for once again working hard to bring alive yet another important issue that needs to be further discussed in Carroll County. It is community journalism at its best.

In “Carroll County, free at last?,” I am quoted:

“Explaining (the legacy of slavery in Carroll County) away by saying it was a practice of the times is unacceptable,” former Westminster Mayor Kevin Dayhoff said. “Slavery was wrong, plain and simple.”

Carroll’s future, Dayhoff said, lies in embracing its diversity.

“In order to go forward, we need to meaningfully address old wounds,” he said. “Done correctly, it can bring us closer together. A meaningful portion of the quality of life we enjoy today in Carroll County was built on the backs of African-Americans in bondage.”

The column that I have already filed with my editor for the Westminster Eagle for this coming Wednesday will also explore the subject of the legacy of slavery in Carroll County… and among my ancestors… Paradoxes and surprises abound… More on that later in the week.

On the issue of the Dred Scott decision; if you will recall this was the subject discussed between Maryland Blogger Alliance members Crablaw, Maryland Conservatarian, Soccer Dad and I last November 2006:

“20061115 Taney Taneytown and Tupac Shakur” and “20061120 Crablaw’s stand-up mea culpa.” and “20061122 Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney” and “Thank You to Kevin Dayhoff and MD Conservatarian for Taney Correction.” and “Crablaw’s reflection on Chief Justice Taney” and never mind that Taneytown history stuff…, we got that solved… here and here.”

On March 12^th, 2007 there will be a public presentation on the subject of the legacy of slavery in Carroll County:

“Many Rivers Crossed”

Sponsored by the Carroll County Human Relations Commission

In Partnership with

the Carroll County Public Library and

The Enoch Pratt Library

Carroll Citizens for Racial Equality

Carroll County NAACP

Carroll County Public Schools

With Special Guest appearance by Dr. Jesse Glass

A presentation by Enoch Pratt Library regarding:

v Collecting and Organizing Family papers

v Examples of Documents

v Slaves Census

v Immigration Records

v Vital Records

v Preserving Family records

v What to think about when collecting documents

v The role of informal oral history

v Where the library can help

March 12, 2007

7-9 pm

At the Board of Education Office Building

Board Room

125 North Court Street

Westminster

####

20061122 Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney

Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney

November 22nd, 2006

Hat Tip: Soccer Dad and special thanks to Crablaw.

Some clean up from earlier in the week.

Wow, where did this week go?

Earlier in the week, Soccer Dad very kindly called to my attention this link to an article on Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, on the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal.

Actually, the piece in the Wall Street Journal, called to my attention by Soccer Dad, is a review by Allen C. Guelzo, of a book by James F. Simon, titled “Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers.”

(I guess I should note that two generations of my wife’s family have earned degrees from Gettysburg College… For more information on Professor Allen C. Guelzo, go here and here… Professor Guelzo is quite an asset and he works just up the road from all of us. Looking over the material on Professor Guelzo’s work and presentations, I think that I will look forward to traveling up the road a little more frequently in the future to absorb some of his expertise…)

As an historian, I am fascinated with conflicted historical characters and what made them do the things they did. Certainly one of the most complicated, among many complicated historical actors is Chief Justice Taney.

This was wonderfully nice of Soccer Dad to call this article to my attention and I really appreciate it. In a week like this one, I would have missed it.

For those who are also intrigued by Chief Justice Taney, you may wanna take a quick look at Crablaw’s reflection on Chief Justice Taney. And never mind that Taneytown history stuff…, we got that solved… here and here.

When the Court Lost Its Conscience

The man behind Dred Scott, and his clash with Lincoln.

By Allen C. Guelzo

Mr. Guelzo, the author of "Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation," is the director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. You can buy "Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney" from the OpinionJournal bookstore.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

Even the most reasonably literate American may find it difficult to name more than three of the past chief justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. But of those three, one of them will almost certainly be Roger Brooke Taney, the author, in 1857, of the court's most reviled decision, Dred Scott v. Sandford.

Born in 1777 into an Annapolis family that had held land and slaves in Maryland since the 1660s, Taney had what one fellow lawyer, William Pinckney, irritably called the "infernal apostolic manner" of a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But Taney was also a talented lawyer, rising in 1827 to become attorney general of Maryland; three years later, he was named U.S. attorney general by President Andrew Jackson.

It may seem odd to find Taney allied politically with Jackson, the paladin of the American common man. But the Jacksonian democracy was administered by the cream of America's planter aristocracy--and that included Taney. In 1833, Jackson declared political war on the Second Bank of the United States, a fight that was the keystone of Jackson's populist strategy to turn back the tide of the Industrial Revolution in America. And Taney was the only man in the president's cabinet who supported Jackson's move to defund the bank (by withdrawing federal tax-revenue deposits). The attorney general's reward was a Supreme Court nomination in 1834 and confirmation as chief justice in 1836.

[…]

Read the rest here.

Thanks Soccer Dad and Crablaw. Great conversation. Have a great Turkey Day.

Kevin