News Release

"Meet the Authors" at Monocacy National Battlefield

Date: April 29, 2019
Contact: Jana Friesen McCabe, 301-471-0322

Frederick, Md—Did you know that enslaved people in Maryland weren’t freed by the Emancipation Proclamation? Learn about the abolition of slavery with distinguished authors and historians Drs. Leslie Rowland and Joseph P. Reidy at the Best Farm in Monocacy National Battlefield on Saturday, May 4 from noon to 5 pm, at “Meet the Authors: Battles of a Border State, Maryland’s Constitutional Crisis.” This free program will focus on the 155th anniversary of the passing of the 1864 Maryland Constitution, which abolished slavery in the Old Line State.

Dr. Turkiya Lowe, Chief Historian of the National Park Service, will deliver the keynote address. Joy Beasley, Acting Associate Director of Cultural Resources, Partnerships, and Science for the National Park Service will lead a discussion panel featuring Dr. Lowe, as well as Leslie Rowland, a professor of 19th century American History at the University of Maryland, and Joseph P. Reidy, a professor emeritus of history at Howard University. The authors will sign copies of their books following the presentations.

On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing enslaved people in areas of rebellion. As a Union state Maryland was not affected by the proclamation and instead addressed the issue of slavery with a state vote. In October of 1864, the people of Maryland narrowly passed the new constitution and on November 1, 1864, the new Maryland Constitution of 1864 went into effect abolishing slavery in the Old Line State.