Maryland My Maryland

[L Verge]

I can't give you exact percentages, but the State of Maryland was split geographically. From Baltimore south and parts of the Eastern Shore were mainly pro-Confederate because the area depended on a slave economy. The climate was ideal for large-scale production of mainly tobacco (our money plant). This was the area of the landed gentry -- and in my opinion, the area that retained a perceived notion of the valiant Lost Cause until the mid-1900s when the heavy growth of the federal government turned the area into bedroom communities for government workers who flocked to the nation's capital after WWII.

This region originally included mainly six counties west of the Chesapeake Bay. In Prince George's County (my home) only one man voted for Lincoln in 1860; in Charles County, I believe it was five; St. Mary's had one Lincoln voter, and he was actually ambushed on his way home from the polling place and had to shoot his way out. At least one Lincolnite in Charles County was ordered out of the county by a group of his neighbors!

One final thought: The KKK was active in Maryland when I was a child. I don't think we ever knew one - certainly never saw one planting a burning cross on a lawn, but I knew about them from the time I was about twelve and heard other kids talking about them.

Once you headed west, the climate was more conducive to small farms, orchards, cattle raising, etc. Not inclined to support slavery and often settled by European immigrants who did not support slavery because that system reminded them of the tyrannical regimes they had left Europe because of. This region (Frederick and west) is still the least populated in Maryland.

I am a product of Southern Maryland and the plantation era - only we owned tenant farms from 1866 on. However, I think I have grown overtime to understand what Lincoln did and why he did it. I was taught to honor my ancestors and to think like they thought IN THEIR TIME PERIOD, but to understand why things had to change.


I also view our state song in a broader perspective, one in which we proclaim that we stand against tyranny even into the future.