Maryland: African Americans

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7:53

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Maryland was one of the most diverse colonies on the American mainland at the onset of the Revolution: home to enslaved people, a growing free Black population, various immigrant groups, and several Indigenous communities. Lord Dunmore’s 1775 proclamation in Virginia, which offered enslaved Americans freedom in exchange for service in the British Army, reached across the Chesapeake and prompted hundreds, if not thousands, of enslaved Marylanders to flee to the British. Many served in British regiments, and after the war some were resettled in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone. More than a hundred African Americans served in Maryland’s Continental units—integrated, not segregated—though archival records rarely noted race, making individuals difficult to trace. A proposal for an all-Black Maryland regiment was voted down by the legislature in 1781. Thomas Carney of the Eastern Shore saved his commanding officer in battle, received honors, and later secured a pension and land allocation. A pseudonymous 1783 editorial in the Maryland Gazette—signed “Vox Africanorum” (Voice of the African)—powerfully argued that African Americans had earned democratic inclusion through their military service and sacrifice.

Interviewees

David Armenti
- Vice President of Education and Engagement, Maryland Center for History and Culture

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