As the nation prepares to celebrate Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, heard about their freedom, we are looking at emancipation locally.
In 1860, Cecil County had nearly 24,000 residents. Sixteen percent were African Americans, and about 1,000 (4%) were enslaved. While spread across the county, this system of bondage was most deeply concentrated in Southern Cecil County–about 15% of the population in the land between the Bohemia and Sassafras rivers were enslaved.1
On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. However, for thousands of enslaved people locked in bondage in Maryland, it simply held out hope as the decree only offered freedom to those living in rebel states. Still, although the state was excluded, it offered prospects for the future while also causing fear and confusion as people puzzled over their status.
Father Jones, a highly respected African-American Minister in Cecil County, was “promptly on hand with Lincoln’s proclamation” in Cecilton. “But there was no one present with authority to say to the slave, you are free, so all remained in suspense,” Bishop Levi J. Coppin recalled as he wrote about those days in Cecil County.2">Life in Cecil County Around the Time of the Civil War,” Window on Cecil County’s Past, December 30, 2012 ))
Emancipation in Maryland
Under Maryland law, these people remained in chattel slavery, the property of an enslaver. So those laboring under this inhumane system had to wait until the state narrowly adopted a new Constitution in 1864, which freed enslaved men, women, and children.
Four African-American children and a woman are seen in this picture standing near the old cabins. The photo is undated, and there aren’t many specifics associated with it except that it was taken in Cecil County, according to the Maryland State Archives. Some sources said it was a cabin for enslaved people and others said it was a residence. (Source: Maryland State Archives)
That happened on November 1, and as the new instrument of government went into effect, African Americans across the state rejoiced as they now lived in a Free State, “finally and forever redeemed from the curse of slavery,” the Washington Evening Star Reported. The Christian Recorder, another newspaper, reported that there were “Colored People’s Jubilees” around Maryland. Of course, by this time, many Blacks in Cecil had taken matters into their own hands, either escaping to freedom or enlisting in the Union army.3
While lawmakers grappled with this inhumane system, Black soldiers first appeared in Cecilton. Bishop Levi J. Coppin remarked in the ” Unwritten History ” that this left no doubt about whether or not freedom would come, Bishop Levi J. Coppin noted in the “Unwritten History.” Lieutenant Brown and a company of Black soldiers arrived in the village to open a recruiting station one day in 1864. Many of these troops were from Cecilton, so they had returned to their hometown to help enlist more soldiers for the Union Army.
Of course, there was great excitement in the crossroads village and necks between the Sassafras and the Bohemia rivers as Black men under shouldered arms marched through Cecilton “without fear.” Some African Americans still held by enslavers came to the recruiting office to enlist and placed themselves under the protection of the flag. They were called the “United States Colored Troops,” Bishop Coppin remarked.
In Elkton, Lieutenant Frick arrived with a squad of five “colored soldiers.” The unit recruited “twenty-eight colored soldiers in the county seat in two weeks. 4,5
Cecilton
With the new constitution going into effect on November 1, this was Emancipation Day here. In Cecilton, when Uncle Jim Jones drove his mistress to Cecilton, a white person told him that he was free now, and it was his discretion whether or not he drove the carriage back. When Uncle Jim reached home, he told everyone what he had heard. A few evenings after that, his old master drove the carriage to town and was late returning; Uncle Jim decided to make a test of the case. He would remain to unharness the horse but said in a way that his master was sure to hear — there has to be a new understanding,” Bishop Coppin recalled.
African Americans welcomed the news in Cecil County with great enthusiasm, the joy unbounded among the people, wrote Bishop Coppin. “Besides the loud acclamations of joy expressed in shouting and singing and general hurrahs, the newly emancipated people gave vent to their feelings by going freely from place to place – a delightful privilege – and feasting and making merry . . . It was fair to suppose that everybody took some part in the general merry-making but the religious ones sought the Church as being the proper place to go and rejoice by giving thanks to Him, toward whose throne above their prayers had been so long directed. . . ,” the Unwritten History noted.
A Long Struggle for Equality Remained
Although freedom had arrived in Maryland, the reality of this period was another thing. There was the short-lived promise of Reconstruction, which was followed by a centuries-long struggle to achieve equality. Most immediately, some enslavers asked the Cecil County Orphans Court to bind newly freed Black Children to them as apprentices.
Nevertheless, November 1, 1864, was the date of emancipation for the enslaved in Cecil County, and it is an important, although forgotten, milestone in local history.
Endnotes- Decennial Census of the United States, 1860[↩]
- Mike Dixon, “Bishop Levi J. Coppin’s Autobiography Details [↩]
- Mike Dixon, “Freedom Seeker & USCT from Cecilton’s Final Resting Place in Woodstown,” Window on Cecil County’s Past, September 07, 2020[↩]
- Cecil Whig,”Local Quote, August 1864 p. 2[↩]
- Cecil Whig, “Colored Recruits, August 20, 1864 p 2. [↩]