Records of the Field Offices for Maryland and Delaware, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872 [National Museum of African American History and Culture]

HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507). The life of the Bureau was extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to refugees and freedmen, and of lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard as Commissioner of the Bureau, and Howard served in that position until June 30, 1872, when activities of the Bureau were terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366).

While a major part of the Bureau’s early activities involved the supervision of abandoned and confiscated property, its mission was to provide relief and help freedmen become self-sufficient. Bureau officials issued rations and clothing, operated hospitals and refugee camps, and supervised labor contracts. In addition, the Bureau managed apprenticeship disputes and complaints, assisted benevolent societies in the establishment of schools, helped freedmen in legalizing marriages entered into during slavery, and provided transportation to refugees and freedmen who were attempting to reunite with their family or relocate to other parts of the country. The Bureau also helped black soldiers, sailors, and their heirs collect bounty claims, pensions, and back pay.

The act of March 3,1865, authorized the appointment of Assistant Commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the former Confederate states, the border states, and the District of Columbia. While the work performed by Assistant Commissioners in each state was similar, the organizational structure of staff officers varied from state to state. At various times, the staff could consist of a superintendent of education, an assistant adjutant general, an assistant inspector general, a disbursing officer, a chief medical officer, a chief quartermaster, and a commissary of subsistence. Subordinate to these officers were the assistant superintendents, or subassistant commissioners as they later became known, who commanded the subdistricts.

The Assistant Commissioner corresponded extensively with both his superior in the Washington Bureau headquarters and his subordinate officers in the subdistricts. Based upon reports submitted to him by the subassistant commissioners and other subordinate staff officers, he prepared reports that he sent to the Commissioner concerning Bureau activities in areas under his jurisdiction. The Assistant Commissioner also received letters from freedmen, local white citizens, state officials, and other non-Bureau personnel. These letters varied in nature from complaints to applications for jobs in the Bureau. Because the assistant adjutant general handled much of the mail for the Assistant Commissioner’s office, it was often addressed to him instead of to the Assistant Commissioner.

In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard in July 1865, the Assistant Commissioners were instructed to designate one officer in each state to serve as “general Superintendents of Schools.” These officials were to “take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports.” In October 1865, a degree of centralized control was established over Bureau educational activities in the states when Rev. John W. Alvord was appointed Inspector of Finances and Schools. In January 1867, Alvord was divested of his financial responsibilities, and he was appointed General Superintendent of Education.An act of Congress, approved July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), ordered that the Commissioner of the Bureau “shall, on the first day of January next, cause the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several States within which said bureau has acted and its operation shall be discontinued.”

Consequently, in early 1869, with the exception of the superintendents of education and the claims agents, the Assistant Commissioners and their subordinate officers were withdrawn from the states.For the next year and a half the Bureau continued to pursue its education work and to process claims. In the summer of 1870, the superintendents of education were withdrawn from the states, and the headquarters staff was greatly reduced. From that time until the Bureau was abolished by an act of Congress, effective June 30, 1872, the Bureau’s functions related almost exclusively to the disposition of claims. The Bureau’s records and remaining functions were then transferred to the Freedmen’s Branch in the office of the Adjutant General. The records of this branch are among the Bureau’s files.

THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU IN MARYLAND AND DELAWARE ORGANIZATION

In June 1865, Comm. Oliver Otis Howard appointed Col. John Eaton as the Assistant Commissioner of the District of Columbia, which included Maryland, the District, the city of Alexandria, and the neighboring Virginia counties of Fairfax and Loudon. On September 27, 1865 (Special Order Number 77), Commissioner Howard appointed Lt. Col. William P. Wilson as acting Assistant Superintendent for Maryland. Wilson served until March 30, 1866, and was then replaced by Bvt. Maj. Gen. George J. Stannard, who became the first Assistant Commissioner for Maryland. Stannard’s headquarters was at Baltimore. His command included all of the state, except the counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince Georges, and St. Marys, which were under the control of the Assistant Commissioner of the District of Columbia. In early summer 1866, six counties in Virginia and two in West Virginia, known as the Shenandoah Division, were added to the Maryland Command (transferred to the Virginia command in the following September). By July 1866, Bvt Maj. Gen. Francis Fessenden replaced Stannard, and served for 1 month before he was replaced by Bvt. Maj. Gen. Edgar M. Gregory. On January 16, 1867 (Special Order Number 7), Maryland’s jurisdiction was expanded to include Delaware. Bvt. Brig. Gen. Horace M. Brooks replaced Gregory in January 1868, and by August 1868, Bureau affairs relating to Maryland and Delaware were reassigned to the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia. A subassistant commissioner, Fred C. Von Schirach, remained in Baltimore until December 1868. A claims agent remained in Baltimore until 1872.

ACTIVITIES

Unlike its operations in states of the Deep South where providing relief, supervising labor contracts, and the administration of abandoned property was of primary concern, the Bureau’s activities in Maryland and Delaware and other areas under its jurisdiction centered largely on freedmen education, the administration of justice, and veterans’ claims.The Freedmen’s Bureau’s efforts to provide education for freedmen in Maryland was hampered by a system of illegal apprenticeship of school-age children. In direct conflict with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (14 Stat. 27), black children were being bound to their former owners for indefinite periods of time with the help of Maryland government officials. An estimated 10,000 black children were bound out as apprentices between 1864 and 1867. The Bureau, however, through writs of habeas corpus and other court actions, fought vigorously to have these children released. By 1868, the intense efforts of the Bureau had largely ended the apprenticeship system in Maryland.

1 Although the illegal apprenticeship system hindered the Bureau’s educational activities in Maryland, the agency still managed to provide assistance with the construction and repair of school buildings and protection of and transportation for teachers. To increase its visibility and to gauge the interest of freedmen in establishing schools, Maryland and District of Columbia Bureau officials traveled to various counties, holding meetings on the benefits of education and the agency’s intention to provide aid for schools. In addition, the Bureau worked closely with private benevolent societies, such as the Baltimore Association, the American Missionary Association, and the Freedmen’s Union Association, to sustain freedmen schools in spite of intense and often violent opposition from whites. From October 1867 to October 1868, the Bureau provided aid and assistance to some 80 schools in Maryland.

2 Although the black population in Delaware and West Virginia was small, and Bureau operations in these states were limited, the agency still managed to provide noteworthy assistance for freedmen education. In Delaware the Bureau assisted in the construction of several freedmen schools. The agency also provided aid to various civic groups and benevolent societies, especially the Delaware Association for the Moral Improvement and Education of the Colored Race, which maintained some 23 schools in various parts of the state. West Virginia maintained a system of free education. However, whites controlled funds for schools and employment of teachers, and schools for blacks and whites remained separate, as required by law. Bureau officials, nonetheless, worked closely with the West Virginia superintendent of free schools in the establishment of schools for freedmen. As in Maryland, Bureau officials traveled throughout West Virginia counties, advising freedmen of their support and plans for building schools. Similar to other areas under its jurisdiction, the Bureau supplied funds for buildings, and teachers were generally paid from public funds, contributions from blacks, and aid from benevolent societies. By 1868, with cooperation mostly from freedmen themselves, the Bureau was able to establish 9 schools in West Virginia.

3 Safeguarding rights and securing justice for freedmen was of paramount concern to the Freedmen’s Bureau. Following the Civil War, several Southern states enacted a series of laws commonly known as “black codes,” which restricted the rights and legal status of freedmen. Freedmen were often given harsh sentences for petty crimes and in some instances were unable to get their cases heard in state courts. In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard on May 30, 1865, Assistant Commissioners were authorized, in places where civil law had been interrupted and blacks’ rights to justice were being denied, to adjudicate cases between blacks themselves and between blacks and whites. In the District of Columbia and Maryland, the civil process of law had not been interrupted, and unlike many areas of the South under the Bureau’s jurisdiction, no freedmen’s or provost courts were in operation. The Bureau did however, provide legal assistance to freedmen in civil and criminal cases in both the District of Columbia and Maryland. This was done especially in instances where freedmen lacked counsel and in cases where Bureau officials felt that freedmen were wrongly convicted or imprisoned. In 1868, the Assistant Commissioner for the District reported that of the nearly 900 cases handled by his office, a large percentage involved incidents in Maryland.

4 In accordance with a law passed by Congress on March 29, 1867 (15 Stat. 26), making the Freedmen’s Bureau the sole agent for payment of claims of black veterans, Bureau disbursing officers assisted veterans and their heirs in the preparation and settlement of claims. To administer claims, the Bureau established a Claims Division. This office was abolished in 1868, and most of the activities of the Maryland Bureau relating to claims were then centered in Baltimore, MD, where two full-time disbursing officers were assigned to settle and pay veterans claims. At the Baltimore office, the Bureau handled claims for Maryland, Delaware, and other areas under its jurisdiction. In 1868 Bureau agents disbursed more than $10,000 for military claims.5 The Bureau maintained registers and files for claimants for payments of bounty, back pay, and pensions. These records often contain the name, rank, company, and regiment of the claimant; the dates the claim was received and filed; the address of the claimant; and remarks.

ENDNOTES

1 Annual Reports of the Assistant Commissioners, District of Columbia, October 10, 1867, [pp. 3 – 9], Records of the Commissioner, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group (RG) 105, National Archives Building; W. A. Low, “The Freedmen’s Bureau in the Border States,” in Radicalism, Racism, and Party Realignment: The Border States during Reconstruction, ed. Richard O. Curry, (Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1869), 247.

2 W. A. Low, “The Freedmen’s Bureau in the Border States,” pp. 247 – 49. Annual Reports of the Assistant Commissioners, District of Columbia, October 10, 1868 [pp. 11 – 13, 15 – 24].

3 Annual Reports, Assistant Commissioners, District of Columbia, October 10, 1868, [pp. 26 – 30]. See also W. A. Low, “The Freedmen’s Bureau in the Border States,” 256 – 57.

4 Senate Ex. Doc. No. 6, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial Vol. 1276, p. 34; Annual Reports, Assistant Commissioners, District of Columbia, October 10, 1867 [p. 3], and October 10, 1868 [pp. 5 – 11].5 Annual Reports, Assistant Commissioners, District of Columbia, October 10, 1867 [pp. 10 – 11, and October 10, 1868 [pp. 13 – 15].

— LINK TO NMAAHC —

Monthly Report of Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Education Division; Hartford, Talbot & Somerset Counties (Maryland); October 1868

To properly uplift the lost history of Dr. Frederick (Bailey) Douglass on Maryland’s Eastern Shore there must be a greater understanding of the communal, religious, education, social and political institutions before and after the Civil War.

Reconstruction in the border state of Maryland brought forth the establishment of schools for “colored students” under the authority of the Freedmen’s Bureau, a subject of scholarship lost within the cocktail society of today’s disinterested and unknowing tax-payer funded historical organizations and institutions of higher learning.

In our survey of the Shore bibliography there is a small list of books, journal articles and other sources which discuss the Freedmen’s Bureau in Maryland but it would appear the history has largely been lost on the Shore.

Specifically, the history of educator Henry Augustus Monroe has been lost within its local, regional and national consequence.

It is our understanding Dr. Frederick (Bailey) Douglass assisted and/or encouraged Monroe, a native of Massachusetts and drummer boy for the famed 54th Infantry, to go down South to Maryland’s Eastern Shore and use his education to reach one teach one.

At the recording of this document Monroe is either 19 or 20 years old.

SOURCE:

United States, Freedmen’s Bureau, Records of the Superintendent of Education and of the Division of Education, 1865-1872

“The Eastern Shore’s Most Famous Slave” (The Eastern Shore of Maryland & Virginia, Vol. 1. 1950.)

Video: Discovery News covers Wye House archaeology, interview with University of Maryland Professor Dr. Mark Leone (2011)

African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Alexander Wayman recalls serving Port Deposit, Steward Richard Randolph Disney of Cecil County “was one of the best I ever had in any church”

Coming up a childhood associate with Anna Murray on the Caroline County side of the Tuckahoe creek, 7th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Alexander Walker Wayman (1821 – 1895) first caught word of the reputation of rebellious Frederick Bailey in St. Michaels in 1836 and would subsequently meet Dr. Frederick Douglass in Philadelphia years later in the 1840s.

At nineteen years old, in 1840, Wayman left the wood frame churches of the Choptank River behind for Baltimore City. Following passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Rev. Wayman was assigned to serve the Port Deposit Charge and communities abutting the ancient Susquehanna River in Cecil County, Maryland whose shores were crossed by unknown number of runaway slaves including Frederick Bailey escaping Baltimore City in 1838.

When assigned to Port Deposit in 1853 Wayman, a native of Caroline County, worked alongside Cecil County native Richard Randolph Disney.

Wayman recalled in the 1880s that Disney “was my Steward at Port Deposit, and was one of the best I ever had in any church.” Reportedly, in 1857 Disney was licensed to preach by the African Methodist Episcopal Church and pursuant made his way to Canada to aid fugitive slaves where he would become a Bishop in the British Methodist Episcopal Church.

After service in the Port Deposit Charge Wayman would travel the expanse of Western Maryland assisting congregations and leadership in Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland and Frostburg en route to his election as the 7th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

In February 1895 Wayman eulogized Frederick Douglass, his friend of a half-century, at Metropolitan AME Church in downtown Washington City, around the corner from the White House.

CHAPTER XIV.

        APRIL, 1853. I finished up my second year at Union Bethel Church, Washington, D. C., and went to meet the Baltimore Annual Conference, which met in Baltimore City. Bishop Nazrey presided for the first time over the Baltimore Conference. The members received him very cordially. The session was not a protracted one. J. R. Sterrett and John H. Gaines were admitted on trial. D. W. Moore, Jacob Brooks, M. F. Sluby, and Thomas H. Manning were ordained Deacons. Edward Chambers and John H. Henson were ordained Elders.
At the close of this Conference I was appointed to Port Deposit Circuit. It went a little hard with me after having spent five years in succession in Washington City to take a country circuit. But as I had promised years before to obey as a son in the Gospel, I went and had a very pleasant year.
        I was told by the authorities that the laws of the State were against my remaining there, as I came from the District of Columbia. I had four appointments, which I visited every two weeks. The present Bishop Dizney of the B. M. E. Church was my Steward at Port Deposit, and was one of the best I ever had in any church. The B. M. E. Church made a wise selection when they voted for him to fill the place of Bishop Nazrey.
        I found the people on this circuit very kind indeed, which made me think that after all, in some respects, a country life is more to be desired than a city one.
        During this winter there was a very deep snow, and I was bound up for several weeks at the house of Rev. Stephen P. Bayard. Having purchased two books on phonography, I resolved to learn how to write short-hand. On Monday morning I commenced, and Saturday night I was able to read the first lesson in the book without a teacher. I have never since doubted the capacity of a man to learn whatever he wishes to.

SOURCE:

Wayman, Alexander Walker. My Recollections of African M. E. Ministers, or Forty Years’ Experience in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. 1881.

“Scraps of African Methodist Episcopal History” w/ mentions of early presence on the Eastern Shore (Rev. James Handy, 1902)

The first Annual Conference of the A. M. E. Church met in Baltimore, Md., April 12th, 1817. This session was held in the home of Mr. Samuel Williams (a fine two-story building), on High street. Members present were Bishop Richard Allen, who presided; Revs. Daniel Coker, Richard Williams, Edward Waters, Henry Harden, Don Carlos Hall; Revs. Jacob Tapsico and James Champion were visitors from Philadelphia. At this session, Henry Harden, Edward Waters and Charles Pierce were recommended for and ordained Deacons. Some progress had been made financially, in securing additional church property at Sculltown and Mt. Gilboa, in Baltimore County.

The appointments made by Bishop Allen were:

Rev. Henry Harden, Bethel Church, Baltimore, with oversight of Bearhill, Frederick Road, Mt. Gilboa, Sculltown and Fells’ Point.

Assistants to Rev. H. Harden–Richard Williams and Edward Waters.

Richard Allen, Jr., Secretary.

The second session of the Baltimore Annual Conference met in Baltimore, Saturday, April 14, 1818, Rt. Rev. Richard Allen presiding. Richard Allen, Jr., Secretary. After devotional exercises, the roll was called, and seven members answered to their names: Bishop Richard Allen, Daniel Coker, Richard Williams, Edward Waters, Henry Harden, Charles Pierce, David Smith and Don Carlos Hall (in whose house the Conference was being held). At this Conference the first Connexional Book Steward was appointed, in the person of Don Carlos Hall.

Says Bishop Payne, in his History: “Possibly no man in the Conference had any conception of what he was doing to promote the influence and power of the Church when he voted for that simple resolution to appoint a Book Steward for the Conference.” At the same time Rev. Henry Harden was appointed book steward for the circuit. Henry Harden, Edward Waters and Richard Williams were elected and ordained elders.

Appointments made by Bishop Allen:

Bethel Church, Baltimore, Rev. Henry Harden.

Union, Bear Hill, Rev. Edward Waters.

Washington, D. C. (as Missionary), Rev. David Smith.

Cecil County, Md. (as Missionary), Rev. Jeremiah Miller.

Oxenhill, Md. (as Missionary), Rev. Peter Schureman.

The third session of the Baltomore Conference met in Bethel Church, Baltimore, April 16th, 1819. Bishop Richard Allen presided. After religious exercises, Rev. Jacob Mathews called the roll, the following members answered to their names:

Rt. Rev. Richard Allen, Rev. Henry Harden, Rev. David Smith, Rev. Charles Mathews, Rev. Edward Waters, Rev. Charles Pierce, Rev. Abner Coker, Rev. Shadrack Basset, Rev. John Foulks, Rev. James Chase, Rev. Jeremiah Miller.

Two persons were admitted on trial at this session: Joseph Chanie and John White. David Smith and Edward Waters and Charles Pierce were ordained elders. This Conference licensed seven brethren to the office of exhorters in the Conference. Rev. Shadrack Bassett was appointed to the Eastern Shore.

The Annual Conferences met in the following order: One in Baltimore, in April, 1817, and one in Philadelphia, in May, 1817.

He organized churches at Easton, Denton and Ivory town, and extended the church to French Town, and the Rev. Jeremiah Miller organized churches at Cecilton, Port Deposit and Octorara. These pioneers of our church in Maryland spread the work from the Choptank, on the Eastern Shore, to the Susquehanna River. They were assisted in this work by Joseph Clare, Samuel Todd, Richard Boon, Stephen Standford, Henry Brown and Graves Holland.

In 1820 we find Rev. David Smith pastor in charge at Washington, D. C.; Peter Schureman at Piscataway, in Prince George County, Md.; Jacob Richardson and J. P. B. Eddy, Frederick County, Md. These men were operating in the interest of the Church, but a permanent organization was not effected until two years later, 1824.

The Baltimore Conference up to 1820, 1821, 1822, had not laid off its work regularly in stations and circuits. The first General Conference meeting in 1820 paid very little attention to this order of things. But in 1821, the Eastern Shore of Maryland was considered, by common consent, a part of the Baltimore Conference. At this session, the Rev. Jacob Mathews placed it, by motion, under the charge of the Elder in Baltimore; in fact, this Conference session largely transacted the business that should have been transacted by the General Conference. The local preachers were formally admitted to seats in the Annual Conference. This was brought about by motion of Brothers Harden and Webster. By motion of Rev. David Smith, they were deprived of a voice in the Conference against any one of the traveling preachers, except in case of a trial, and then only as witnesses. A “General Rule” was adopted for the government of churches. This rule, it seems, had been drawn up in the city of Philadelphia in July, while the first General Conference was in session; but to this fact no allusion was made, and it was first ratified by the Baltimore Conference for the government of all the churches. This fact indicates the mistaken view which the members of the General Conference entertained concerning their power as a general body.

This Baltimore Annual Conference, had not only fixed the rules and regulations, but also named the place of meeting of the next General Conference in 1824, in Baltimore. The Annual Conference of 1823, met April 10, and at the opening a very few were present, but all the members answered to their names before the close of the session. Don Carlos Hall, having died during the year, the announcement of his death, together with the memorial services, caused a gloom of sadness over the whole conference. By a unanimous vote Brother Charles Hackett, a layman, was elected steward in his place.

Henry Harden and Jacob Richardson were the movers in agreement which was reached, that the Annual Conference have the selection of delegates from the district of Baltimore to the General Conference.

SOURCE:

Handy, James A. Scraps of African Methodist Episcopal History. 1902. P. 26 – 28.

“The other Disney: N.E. man became respected AME preacher” (Cecil Whig, Jul 16, 2016. Erika Quesenbery Sturgill)

Image result for disney preacher canada — Bishop Disney

NORTH EAST — It would be forgiven if the headline for this story caused the reader to squint and call to mind the affable smile and genius of the more famous Walt Disney, of Mickey Mouse fame, and wonder just how in the world he was connected to Cecil County.

Well, this is not about Walt Disney, or Mickey or Minnie for that matter. This story is about a lesser-known but still famous Disney who truly ought to be remembered in the county of his nativity. This Disney was born some say on July 13, 1835, while others avow on June 24, 1830, in the then village of North East. The son of Henry and Rebecca Disney, Richard Randolph Disney was a free-born African-American, whose parents had previously been enslaved.

Disney was greatly blessed to be born into freedom in the years before the Civil War and to receive a higher education at a seminary operated by the Rev. Samuel Osgood at Springfield, Mass. While working in Baltimore, Disney would later recall, he “felt a call to preach,” and went north to obtain an education in the field while supporting himself as a barber.

In 1857, Disney would be licensed to preach by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, or A.M.E. Church, which was formed in 1816. He would later be ordained as a deacon and elder. By the mid-1850s, the AMEC had seven conferences in the United States, and preachers had begun to work in Upper Canada in 1834, with a conference formed there in 1840.

The Rev. Richard Randolph Disney would come to Upper Canada in 1857 to minister to those who found refuge from slavery there prior to the Civil War. There he was enlisted by Bishop Willis Nazrey of the newly formed British Methodist Episcopal Church, which came about once the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in the United States in 1850

Disney served several pastorates in Canada and became well-known and regarded as the denomination’s book steward and editor of its publication, Missionary Messenger. When Bishop Nazrey died in 1875, the Rev. Disney had become so well regarded that he was chosen as Nazrey’s successor thus making him the second bishop of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, or BMEC. Bishop Disney’s area included Ontario, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, the West Indies and British Guyana.

Disney became mightily involved in mission work in the Caribbean, and in 1876 spent six months visiting missions there. By 1879, he was raising funds for an educational institution for the church, and visited Britain with a youth choir patterned after the famous Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, calling themselves Jubilee Singers as well.

In 1880, the BMEC reunited with the AMEC, and Disney was accepted as an AMEC bishop assigned to the 10th Episcopal District, essentially embracing all of his former territory and some AMEC churches that hadn’t previously joined the BMEC. By 1888, he was transferred to the Eighth District, in Arkansas and Mississippi, living in Greenville, Miss., where he was stricken by malaria and moved to Baltimore seeking medical treatment. Disney died in Baltimore on April 20, 1891.

He would be eulogized in 1891 as “courageous, thrifty and persevering, of genial spirit and suave manners.” He was laid to rest in Chatham in Canada, beside the body of the First Bishop, Willis Nazrey.

Bishop Disney was also memorialized in his own lifetime with a Methodist Episcopal Chapel, which was known as Disney Chapel in Yarmouth, Ontario, Canada. Built by Robert P. Kelley it was consecrated and opened for public worship Nov. 4, 1877, during a dedicatory service conducted by the Right Rev. Bishop Disney and Rev. Walter Grayson, pastor of the Disney Chapel. The chapel would close in late 1930, but would be reopened and closed again in fits and starts for a number of years. It finally became a Pentecostal chapel and serves to this day as Sharon Gospel Assembly.

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Frederick Douglass letter to Ellis P. Passmore of Rising Sun, published in Cecil Whig (November 3, 1888)

In the weeks leading up the 1888 Presidential Election speculations and intrigue abound throughout the country. During nearly every Congressional and Presidential Election it was reported, prompted by ambitious political operatives and newspaper editors, that Frederick Douglass either questioned the Republican Party’s commitments to Civil Rights or its slate of local and national candidates. Whenever the position of Dr. Douglass was misreported or fabricated he addressed it directly and forthrightly.

Cecil Whig Building in Elkton, Maryland, around 1905. Courtesy of Cecil County History & Prof. Mike Dixon.

Inaugurated in March 1885 as the first Democratic President since James Buchanan (1857 – 1861), New Yorker Grover Cleveland faced a challenge from former United States Senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. Douglass was an active campaigner for Harrison.

When a fictitious interview with Douglass, claiming to express his concern for Harrison’s electoral map to victory, appeared in “Democratic papers,” Douglass responded in public and in private.

In the wake of this false account Douglass sent a private letter to Ellis P. Passmore, likely integral to the December 1885 visit Douglass made to Rising Sun in Cecil County. The letter was published in the Cecil Whig to reaffirm the unwavering support and confidence of Douglass in the Harrison ticket in New York and Indiana.

Harrison would win both states and 220 total electoral votes on his way to defeating Cleveland in 1888, although losing the popular vote. Cleveland would defeat Harrison in a rematch in 1892.

Another Lie Nailed.

The Democratic papers very recently published an alleged interview with Fred Douglass in which he was reported as being very much discouraged by the Republican prospects in New York and Indiana. The published interview bore all the ear-marks of its fraudulent ori[g]in and which Mr. Douglass took the first opportunity to denounce. Our Cecil County voters will be interested in reading the following letter from him addressed to Mr. Ellis P. Passmore, a prominent Republican of Rising Sun in this county :

CEDAR HILL, ANACOSTIA, D.C.
October 29, 1888.
Dear Friend : – There is not one word of truth in the story of my discouragement. I have never expressed a doubt of the election of Benjamin Harrison. The story of the contrary is pure invention designed to bolster up the waning confidence of the Democracy.
You have perhaps already seen my public denial.
Truly yours,
FRED’K DOUGLASS.

Lost History: Rev. H. A. Monroe, Godson to Frederick Douglass and Publisher of The Eastern Shore’s Only Black Newspaper (Dorchester County Historical Society, Sept. 20, 2019 @ 6:30 PM)

Following last fall’s presentation of “The Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Cambridge, Maryland,” at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, historian and journalist John Muller returns to Cambridge to present “Lost History: Rev. H. A. Monroe, Godson to Frederick Douglass and Publisher of The Eastern Shore’s Only Black Newspaper,” at the Dorchester County Historical Society.

Special guest Sharon Lucas, descendant of Rev. Henry Augustus Monroe, will provide remarks.

Q&A will follow the presentation.

Untold in the history books is the story of Rev. Henry Augustus Monroe, who at 13 years of age served as a drummer boy for the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (U.S. Colored Troops) with the blessing of his Godfather Frederick Douglass.

Following the Civil War, the New Bedford, Massachusetts-born and educated Monroe was sent to Somerset County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to serve as an educator and supervisor for the Freedmen’s Bureau Division of Schools. It was in Fairmont, Maryland that Monroe met his first wife, the daughter of a well-respected local oystering family.

After receiving a patronage position in Baltimore City during the Grant Administration, Monroe and his family returned to Princess Anne, Maryland where Monroe started the only “Black Press” newspaper on the Eastern Shore.

Joining the Methodist ministry, Monroe served as pastor of Waugh Chapel in Cambridge, Maryland from 1881 until 1883 where he became a well-respected editor, historian and community leader.

In 1886 Monroe respectfully declined the opportunity to serve as the first principal of the Princess Anne Academy, founded by the Delaware Conference.

While serving as pastor for a church in New York City Monroe and a fellow delegation of ministers traveled to Washington City where they met with Frederick Douglass at the train station who escorted the group to meet with the President of the United States regarding conditions in the American South, including Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Holding prominent leadership positions within the church and communities of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia, Monroe was active until his passing in 1912.

Free parking is available on site.

— TICKETS —

$8 non-members, $5 Dorchester County Historical Society members, free Dorchester County Public School students

Brief note on Rev. Lucius C. Matlack, radical abolitionist and author with close connections to Frederick Douglass and the Delmarva

Periphery yet central to the work of uncovering the lost history of Frederick Douglass on the Eastern Shore is uncovering the lost history of the abolitionist movement on the Delmarva.

While Quakers are most commonly valorized and identified with the abolitionist movement in the popular consciousness of the lay historian, the establishment and growth of the Methodist movement on the Eastern Shore is consequential to a more thorough understanding and fluency of the American Antislavery Movement.

Riding throughout the western expanse of the state of Maryland and the Delmarva Peninsula Francis Asbury carried forth a message, while although not abolitionist in nature was antislavery, consistent with the 1784 conference formalizing the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States which declared slaveholders ineligible for Methodist membership.

Out of this tradition emerged Lucius C. Matlack. Born a Quaker in Baltimore City in 1816, Matlack was educated in Philadelphia where he converted to Methodism. Due his proclivity for radical abolitionism he was expelled from the Philadelphia area in the late 1830s. Setting up in the area of Lowell, Massachusetts Matlack was admitted to the New England Conference where he became involved in publishing enterprises.

In 1849 Rev. Matlack wrote an introduction to Henry Bibb’s Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself.

During the Civil War Rev. Matlack served as a chaplain for a Union outfit out of Illinois. In 1867 the Philadelphia Conference, which had rejected Matlack in 1837 when he was foaming at the mouth with abolitionist fervent, unanimously admitted him and assigned him to the Elkton (Cecil County, Maryland) Charge.

In the early 1870s Rev. Matlack married a woman from Port Deposit, Maryland with the last name Stephenson, with whom one child was born. (Rev. R. K. Stephenson was Matlack’s brother-in-law.)

At the time of his death in June 1883 Rev. Matlack, formerly the presiding elder of the Wilmington Conference, was serving as pastor in Cambridge, Maryland down the Penninsula in Dorchester County. His funeral was held in Port Deposit.

Frederick Douglass and Rev. L. C. Matlack, associates across more than forty years

As a radical abolitionist minister, newspaper man and author Matlack and Douglass shared many overlapping connections and associations throughout New England, Philadelphia, Baltimore and the Delmarva.

An early adherent of the Garrisonian School of Abolitionist Thought, Dr. Frederick Douglass broke with his early benefactors in their departure from political life by supporting the Liberty Party and Free Soil Party. Whereas Garrison adopted a policy of political pacifism his disciple Douglass adopted a policy of radical political agitation.

National Era (Washington, D.C.) 20 September, 1855. P. 4

In 1855, after a meeting of the “General Convention of Radical Political Abolitionists” was held in Syracuse, New York a secondary meeting was organized in Boston, Massachusetts for the “purpose of discussing the Illegality and Unconstitutionality of Slavery, and the Power of the Federal Government over Slavery in the States.”

Advertised as “those expected to be in attendance and take part in the proceedings are Gerritt Smith, Lewis Tappan, S. S. Jocelyn, Frederick Douglass, A. Payne, L. C. Matlack, A. G. Beman,” and “others who may be announced hereafter.”

Contemporary scholarship has largely forgotten Rev. Matlack in fleeting mention and in totality of his life’s work, let alone his friendship and connections with Frederick Douglass across many decades.

In 1895 Dr. Douglass was one of the last old world abolitionists living, standing on the shoulders of thousands upon thousands, such as Rev. Matlack, who had preceded him in death but not memory.

To uplift the lost history of Douglass on the Shore we must uplift the lost and consequential local history.