Frederick Douglass Mural In His Hometown, Easton, Md Draws Some Divisions: NPR

[appalachiablue]

A Frederick Douglass mural in his hometown in Maryland draws some divisions, Dec. 21, 2023, NPR.

A small town on Maryland's Eastern Shore has found itself divided over a new mural depiction of the county's most elder statesman, Frederick Douglass. On the wall outside of the Out of the Fire restaurant in Easton, a 21-foot-tall Douglass is seen posed in a slim, European-cut suit, high-top white Converse sneakers, and an oversized wristwatch — squatting like he's posing for Instagram.

His facial expression is the same look of defiance often captured on the 19th- century's most photographed figure, and behind him, dripping graffiti reads the word "Liberty." Restaurant owner Amy Haines and her husband, Richard Marks, said they ordered the larger-than-life portrait of Douglass as a way to honor the famed abolitionist and to bring more public art to Easton.

We always felt that the one wall, the very substantial wall on Washington Street, should have a mural, and it should be Frederick Douglass," Marks said. "When we came across a print that our friend sent us — a copy of Frederick Douglass in a contemporary setting — we looked at it and felt very strongly that if we were going to move forward with the mural, that would be a great image to have."

The portrait has been up for just over a month, but already, some members of the community have spoken out against the image, including a number of Douglass' descendants who say the portrayal is humiliating. "Cousin Jack called me and said, 'Have you seen that mural they got up on the wall? Got Uncle Frederick looking like a hoodlum,' " said Tarence Bailey, a fifth-generation descendant of Douglass...
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/21/1219768084/a-frederick-douglass-mural-in-his-hometown-in-maryland-draws-some-divisions

[cloudbase]

1. The last time I was in Easton,

there was a Confederate memorial in town.

[appalachiablue]

2. I can believe that. Many people are ignorant about the history

of Md. and other Border States which were critical to the Union during the Civil War largely because of their geography, positioned between the North and South - Del., Md., Ky., Mo., WVa.

I've had to ask a few people - are you not familiar with Maryland's colonial history of slavery and later, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and the horror of slave breeding farms in Eastern Md.? Slaves from the area were sent to deep south cotton states that expanded after Whitney's invention of the cotton gin.

In eastern and western Md. there are, and have been politically conservative elements for many years. I am somewhat familiar with Eastern Shore Md. Delaware was also a slave state and involved in trafficking slaves to the Deep South.

Trying to convey this to people can be a real challenge because they think of Md. in modern 20th c. terms, the large population in Baltimore and suburban DC counties that votes Democratic and puts Md. in the blue column, tg.
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- Border States, American Civil War.
In the context of the American Civil War (1861–65), the border states were slave states that did not secede from the Union. They were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and after 1863, the new state of West Virginia. To their north they bordered free states of the Union, and all but Delaware bordered slave states of the Confederacy to their south...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_states_(American_Civil_War)
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- Maryland in the American Civil War (Wiki)
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Maryland, a slave state, was one of the border states, straddling the South and North. Despite some popular support for the cause of the Confederate States of America, Maryland did not secede during the Civil War. Gov. Thomas H. Hicks, despite his early sympathies for the South, helped prevent the state from seceding.

Because the state bordered the District of Columbia and the opposing factions within the state strongly desired to sway public opinion towards their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the war. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865) suspended the constitutional right of habeas corpus from Washington to Philadelphia. Lincoln ignored the ruling of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney in "Ex parte Merryman" decision in 1861 concerning freeing John Merryman, a prominent Southern sympathizer arrested by the military.

The first fatalities of the war happened during the Baltimore riot of 1861 on April 18–19.
The single bloodiest day of combat in American military history occurred during the first major Confederate invasion of the North in the Maryland Campaign, just north above the Potomac River near Sharpsburg in Washington County, at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. The battle of Antietam, though tactically a draw, was strategically enough of a Union victory to give Lincoln the opportunity to issue, in September 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation. It did not affect Maryland..
- Across the state, some 50,000 citizens signed up for the military, with most joining the US Army. Approximately a 10th as many enlisted to "go South" and fight for the Confederacy. Abolition of slavery in Maryland came before the end of the war, with a new 3rd constitution voted approval in 1864 by a small majority of Radical Republican Unionists then controlling the nominally Democratic state...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_in_the_American_Civil_War

[elleng]

3. 'Thank you'

[appalachiablue]

4. YW, some people I know & encounter have very fixed views

on this subject as said. Several were even brought up in the Mid Atlantic area and in the North but don't know the reality.

A relative met a lawyer in NY who claimed there was no such thing as 'Maryland crabcakes' (silly) or the state of West Virginia. One college friend from Houston, Texas had a grandfather who said 'Virginia is up there in the North!'

All you can do is try to inform with the facts.

Neighbor states MD and VA certainly had cultural and economic ties; areas of Eastern KY and WV were not pro slavery in general and supported the Democratic Party in the 20th c. because of labor unions and anti poverty programs.

The Left Coast. People I know, mostly democrats lack basic history about the East, South, and more. Amnesia about the impact of Nixon and Reagan from Calif. is curious.

The far right's longterm goal to cut humanities and liberal arts in higher education will lower Americans' knowledge of history, democracy and other important fields. - Better close now, thanks for the reply.