The Talbot Boys monument is not an eyesore and it would be expensive to move. It’s reason for being is however is an uncomfortable and objectionable part of our County’s history.
I’d be happy if an educational, “teaching moment,” in the form of a sign/plaque could be installed by it, one that discusses Talbot’s racial history, ties it in to the civil war, Buffalo soldiers, the local underground railroad, emancipation, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, & civil rights, etc.
A forward thinking, positive display could satisfy all sides of the debate, in an affordable manor right there on the courthouse lawn! See the attached educational signs that have been erected out at Frederick Douglass Park.
Bobbie Wells
Talbot County
Stephen Mangasarian says
Great solution. A practical compromise to a divisive and contentious argument. If both sides would give a little we could end some of the anger. I would go one further and erect informative panels for all the monuments and statues at the courthouse.
paul callahan says
QR codes right on the signage could also be used to bring up more complete historical information about our history right on their personal devices to read or download to read later….
Mary Margaret Revell Goodwin says
This is not a matter for both sides to give a little! This is the kind of well meaning white person thinking without taking into consideration all that was happening to Black people when the Talbot Boys went off to help preserve slavery both in the South and on the Eastern Shore! This is Black history month and everyone ought to be immersing themselves in learning the painful life of an enslaved person, most especially here on the ES! Take a moment and go to the Md State Archives and pull up their special site Legacy of Slavery in Maryland. There are many headings to click on to learn, but I challenge everyone to click on DATABASES, and then click on Talbot County. You have many choices then, but as it applies to this article click on Certificates of Freedom and see how many thousands made it out free! There is a description of the scars because that is how every enslaved person was identified. These Certificates of Freedom had to be on their person at all times, and still it did not prevent them from being sold back into slavery! The notion that putting up one or two signs will ease the pain that so many African Americans have from the days of slavery and Jim Crow is just a reach too far!
paul callahan says
Ms. Goodwin, please go to the website http://www.preservetalbothistory.org Under “Lincoln” you will find the actual amendment to the US Constitution that Mr. Lincoln presented to our State Governor in April of 1861 that would have protected slavery forever. Then come back and tell us how the men from Talbot only fought to preserve slavery when at the same time the President was attempting to obtain a Constitutional amendment to do that himself. While you are there please take a look at the websites’ blog about the United States Colored troops that served our Nation so well.
James Fulton says
The context, meaning, and history of the Talbot Boys monument can be summed up in two words: “Whites Only.”
Dick Deerin says
The Talbot Boys statue prominently displays an ugly symbol of racism – the confederate battle flag – and seeks to “honor” those who supported a cause devoted to preserving the institution of slavery. This is the same flag that was paraded through the U.S. Capitol during the recent insurrection to promote the message of white supremacy as part of that sordid event. Unfortunately, signs will not remove the stain this statue smears on the grounds of our public courthouse. The time is long overdue for the statue and the base to be removed.
Carol Voyles says
Those signs are associated with a museum and a walking tour, suggesting yet again that a museum could be a more suitable location for educational opportunities.
Walda DuPriest-Brandt says
Excellent idea!
Tom Glover says
Confederate Honor
Slavery, Succession, Surrender.
Tom Glover says
The correct spelling is secession, I also think sedition would also be appropriate.
James Fulton says
Slavery, Secession, and Segregation.
Charles Zvirman says
While I agree with the notion of signage and contextualizing the statue, this needs to happen at whatever location is willing to provide a home to it. Given the unfortunate support of the statue, I would think there would be numerous options for relocation.
As far as cost, you must know that there will undoubtedly be sufficient private funds to facilitate relocation and signage.
We lack only a suitable location and sadly more elusive, strength of character on the part of the dissenting members of Talbot County Council to care less for themselves, their clients and big donors and more for the broader will of the citizenry of the county.
Michael Estrella says
I am still of the opinion that the appropriate solution if this statue must remain where it stands is a simple 3 word sign that says…REMEMBER, THEY LOST.
Mike Estrella
St. Michaels
Jim Richardson says
After the offensive Confederate monument is moved off the courthouse green and to a new location, I would be in favor of the educational plaques. But not until that happens. The texts should be written by qualified historians and not by amateurs supporting the Lost Cause myth. If anyone is interested, google the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the organization that erected the Talbot Boys statue in1916 and find out how they influenced the way most of us were taught
about the Civil War, or how they prefer to call it, The War Between the States. Really? Pay particular attention to how they influenced students’ text books all across the nation.
Lynn says
The Talbot Boys statue was not erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Read the Maryland and Talbot County history, including but not limited to “T-934 Easton Confederate Monument”, Maryland Historical Trust:
“At the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union’s First Eastern Shore Regiment included men of Trappe’s Company H, who were sent to Culp’s Hill on July 3, 1863. There they fought troops of the First Maryland Confederate Regiment, which also included men from the Trappe area. The color sergeants for each side were cousins, both from Trappe: Robert W. Ross for the Union and P. M. Moore, fatally wounded, for the Confederates. The monument was sponsored by a committee formed in 1913, chaired by Gen. Joseph B. Stein [sic Seth]. After consideration of a statue of local Adm. Franklin Buchanan, it was agreed to honor “all the boys in gray.” The base was erected in July 1914; the statue was dedicated in June, 1916. Efforts in 1914 to raise funds for a Union monument were unsuccessful.”
Now if google is your source for history, I suggest you google “List of Monuments Erected by United Daughters of the Confederacy”. The “Talbot Boys” is not listed.
Rev Julie Hart says
That’s very a interesting excuse of an idea.
But as I said last week and I’ll keep saying. The Statue- Monument is totally inappropriate in it’s current location. Period. As I said before, the teaching moment can be in history books or classrooms; with the statue moved to another location. Did you ever think about why the Deep South States are making every effort to remove the Confederate Battle Flag, and statues of those they ‘once thought’ were heroes? Perhaps it is because they have reckoned with history and see the disaster The Cause wrought against this country? I also cited most recently that the offending statue on the Atlanta Court House Lawn was removed. In its place they chose a statue of John Lewis.
The Talbot Boys Statue-monument represents sedition, a broken union, white supremacy and privilege, a socio-economic way of life that depended upon enslavement. Those “boys” committed treason.
On January 6, 2021, we saw The Confederate Battle Flag invade our Capitol Building–the seat of Democracy to which all people look, hoping and praying that we will keep striving for the more perfect Union. The Confederate Battle Flag was and is an affront to all we hope to strive for and achieve. We have a long way to go as January 6 showed us. Our elected officials knew their very lives were in danger. People died on that day and in the days since due to their injuries from mean angry hearted white Supremacists.
The Talbot Boys Statue must be moved and soon before it becomes a rallying point for the likes of what we saw on January 6, 2021… the day our Democracy was almost buried.
The Rev Julie Hart
Paul Callahan says
If you want to read actual history about what Maryland and her citizens experienced during the US Civil War, instead of relying upon so many “opinions” as expressed above, visit http://www.preservetalbothistory.org. There you can see the actual documents issued both by our State Legislature and Mr. Lincoln at that time. You can read under the reconciliation blog actual newspaper articles on how Union and confederate veterans joined together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of the civil war and how they joined in unity to create a memorial association. You can decide for yourself what motivated these men. It was created just so our citizens can discern truth from the accusations currently made and is very enlightening. “Truth is louder than words”
James Fulton says
That’s all fine, but it’s not the whole story and maybe not even the most important part. The monument was dedicated in 1916, more than 50 years after the end of the was. This was the height–or depth–of the Jim Crow era. The statue represents an attempt to legitimize white supremacy by remembering the men who committed treason to preserve slavery.
paul callahan says
James, It also was the 50th anniversary of the end of the US Civil War, and even the SPLS shows huge spikes in Union and confederate monuments at both the 50th and 100th anniversary’s. Additionally our confederate and Union veterans jointly celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1913. They commemorated that battle jointly, praying, hugging and weeping together. They sang and played each others battle songs – they reconciled. They jointly formed associations for the creations of monuments and memorials. Our Talbot county history shows that our civil war monuments were to commemorate our veterans and the 50th anniversary of the wars end. That is our written record. My question to you is since our history about the placement of this monument documents that the purpose was for commemoration and reconciliation, why do you promote a theory that it was placed for a sinister purposes that would further divide our citizens? What good would that do? How does promoting a false narrative of sinister motives help us as a county? I hear words of “healing” but such narrative only creates further “division”. If you want to read our history from original source documents, along with newspaper articles from that time that tells what I have said above, please visit http://www.preservetalbothistory.org
Clive Ewing says
I like the idea of building-up and not tearing-down! Terrific concept, Ms. Wells!!
Gren Whitman says
Don’t understand how anyone can suggest that the odious, racist Confederate “Talbot Boys” monument still on public display in front of the county courthouse in Easton isn’t an “eyesore.”