Maryland’s memory of the Declaration unfolded across multiple generations. Benjamin Banneker, a free Black Marylander who took the Oath of Fidelity in 1778, invoked the Declaration’s language in a 1791 letter to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, calling for the liberation of enslaved people. Charles Willson Peale, born on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, became the preeminent portraitist of the Revolution and later opened the first purpose-built museum in America in Philadelphia. When Jefferson and Adams died on the same day on July 4, 1826—the Jubilee—Charles Carroll of Carrollton became the last surviving signer, a living symbol of Maryland’s constitutional heritage. Maryland’s Jubilee celebrations included public readings of the Declaration, toasts to veterans, and public speeches. Whereas white women and Black men had participated in earlier celebrations of Independence Day, in 1826 they were largely marginalized. By the 1926 Sesquicentennial and 1976 Bicentennial, every Maryland county held formal commemorations of the Revolution.
Interviewees
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Martina Kado
- Vice President of Research and France-Merrick Director of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Maryland Center for History and Culture
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Micah Connor
- Library Associate and Student Research Coordinator, Maryland Center for History and Culture
