As a member of several Civil War organizations, I have spent many years both preserving historical areas and enlightening individuals through living history educational experiences. I have always felt that the best pathway to a better future is through an understanding of the past. Talbot County has a rich past that is little understood my most people today. Although slavery ended at the conclusion of the Civil War, racism in America did not. Racism was not confined to the Confederacy, nor to the United States for that matter, nor is it solely a black versus white issue. Racism exists today. Slavery exists today. These institutions will not be overcome by destroying monuments. They will not be overcome by hiding the past. They will not be overcome by exclusion as there are sure to be ancestors of Confederate soldiers living in Talbot County. They will not be overcome by branding people racist. They will be overcome by open dialog, education, and working together to achieve a common purpose. I believe that Councilwoman Laura Price’s proposed resolution is a good way to start this process in a way that depicts a true history of Talbot County, a story that is well worth telling.
Barry Famous
Millsboro, DE
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TIME’S UP!
When people want to remove a monument to slavery and racism
& others who idolize the “Talbot Boys” object
b/c they want to “Preserve Talbot History”
& three county commissioners won’t do the right thing
b/c they’re heeding the wrong people
& the wrong people suggest a “unity statue”
b/c they claim moral equivalence of the South with the North,
it’s time to remove the monument!
Grenville B, Whitman
Rock Hall
P. Ferguson says
LEAVE our history alone and that means anything related to the past. We need to learn from the past so we don’t repeat it.
Margot McConnel says
Why not put this contentious matter to the voters of Talbot County? Let the people as a whole decide, not just a few.
Gayle Scroggs, Ph.D. says
The county courthouse lawn is NO place to teach the nuanced history of the Civil War. Just as there is no middle ground between right and wrong,there is no middle between honoring our Union and celebrating the Confederacy. The most easily defended compromise is to preserve the Talbot Boy statue in an historical museum where it can be placed in an appropriate context. Leaving a monument to defenders slavery at the portals of justice is horrifying! It does not represent who we are now and so should not be in a place of honor.
Stephen Schaare says
Hi Mr. Famous, Are you new to “The Talbot Spy? I fully appreciate that you mean well. Please understand any thought of a “unity” monument in Talbot is not possible. Ms. Price, I suppose, also meant well. Have you ever heard the expression “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”?
The naive suggestion of the unity thing is just that – naive.I wish both you and Ms. Price had acquainted yourself with the contempt and hatred expressed daily in “The Spy”. Such a thing is fantasy. The columnists published herein would never allow any vestige of the Rebel south. I am, in fact, concerned that some contributors and readers may In fact, research the descendants of those named on the statue and “bring them to justice.” Nothing amusing here.
I admire your submission here today, but the premise of “Unity” is fatally flawed.
Jim Richardson says
Let’s be clear, no one advocating the removal of the Confederate monument wants to destroy it, we just want it and it’s Confederate flag moved off the courthouse grounds. Furthermore, no one wishes to erase history as some suggest; we just want to make certain that the Lost Cause history is not the false history we continue to teach our children and which the Talbot Boys monument shamefully symbolizes. Far from erasing it, we want to make sure our country’s history is based on fact, not myth.
Barbara H Perry says
I agree with you. I now ask those who want to Preserve Talbot History what history are you really asking to be preserved? Is it the Talbot Boys Monument, which would be preserved even if moved to an appropriate location? Or is it retaining the Monument on the courthouse grounds? Makes me wonder.
Michael Davis says
Nice poem. Someone should put it to music.
And regarding the other commend to leave our history alone or we may repeat it: I would say a statue on government land honoring those who defended slavery is a call to repeat the mistake of enslaving people.
Dominic "Mickey" Terrone says
Having read Mssrs. Ewing, Famous and Callahan’s letters to the editor in Sunday’s newspaper, I believe some of their twisted versions and interpretations of history need to be challenged.
First, Mr. Ewing seems not to realize that the Talbot Boys themselves were long gone by the time Judge Carmichael tried to physically resist the soldiers who sought to arrest him in May, 1862. They were gone by the time the political fallout from the ex parte Merriman Case developed. I strongly doubt Mr. Ewing really knows the personal motivations of the Talbot Boys. What is his evidence? The Talbot Boys served in the primarily secessionist local militia headed by the hard core secessionist Gen. Tench Tilghman, who urged the “Boys” to serve join the Confederate side despite the fact that Maryland chose not to secede. Mr. Ewing and others seem to have no concept of the timelines involved in Talbot’s Civil War history as they try to create their own narratives.
Supporters of the maintenance of the Talbot Boys statue virtually all blissfully ignore the reality of this county’s history.Within days of the one-day Baltimore Riot, Easton’s elite, wealthy political secessionist leaders took the utterly radical step to declare Talbot County in secession from the United States and declared that Maryland’s “destiny is with the South”. This was the only county in the state of Maryland to perpetrate such an illegal and defiant act against the constitutional rights of the Unionist majority of Talbot County citizens. “They created a ‘Committee of Safety’, which took upon itself to govern the county even to the utmost minutiae of conduct. Citizens were commanded to stay home; stores were ordered to be closed, all expressions opposing the Confederacy were suppressed; and blacks were placed under rigid surveillance.” This is history, as reported by the historian and journalist Dickson Preston in his “History of Talbot County”.
This is what people like Mr. Ewing attempt to sweep under the rug or disqualify (because he didn’t use footnotes). Preston relied heavily upon contemporary newspaper reporting of which there was plenty as well personal accounts as historians generally do.
If people like Mssrs. Ewing, Callahan and others want to deny Mr. Preston’s history, they should document how Preston’s work was incorrect rather than simply claim it isn’t legitimate or biased. Until then, please stop trying to twist and distort the facts of history while ignoring even the most obvious acts of unconstitutional civil oppression in this state perpetrated by Talbot’s secessionists. It would appear this group and the “Preserve Talbot History” group are purposely ignoring the published history to distort reality to promote the Talbot Boys’ motives – as if they knew.
For folks who are lifelong Talbot natives, these people appear to be oblivious or willing to ignore the realities of the Civil War in Maryland. I suppose they don’t like being confronted by the facts publicly by a resident of this state of a mere 30-years, but so be it. It appears the “research” done by the “Preserve Talbot History” group is limited to a handful of documents originated essentially by secessionists frustrated by Maryland’s decision. However divided, Maryland would not to allow itself to secede and become the battlefield for the deep south states which desperately needed a buffer zone between themselves and the northern armies. There certainly was a secessionist minority that constantly brayed against the state’s decision to remain in the Union while Marylanders patriots were fighting to save the Union as any public enemy would be constrained during wartime, while a majority of citizens defended Talbot County, the state of Maryland and the Union.
Led by Governor Hicks (and numerous other slave holders) and a host of Baltimore’s civic leaders, Unionists managed successfully to argue that the state’s infrastructure would be utterly destroyed in a hopeless effort to save slavery, which was already on the way out in Maryland – as they all well knew.
As for Mr. Famous’ comments, I’m sorry I have to point out to him that slavery doesn’t exist today in America because those fighting under the Confederate flag were forced to surrender. Further, “destroying monuments” as you charge, is not the issue here. The idea is to simply move the monument bearing the Confederate flag away from the county courthouse grounds, symbolic of equal justice for all, which that flag was dedicated to prevent. It appears three of our County Council members are also either unable or unwilling to grasp or acknowledge that the Confederate flag has become America’s primary symbol of racism and white supremacy and has been removed by virtually every former Confederate state finally recognizing its ignominious and ever-degenerating status.
The sullen denial of this reality is the shame of the Eastern Shore and the state of Maryland.
James L. Fulton says
This issue has been talked to death. Most people appear recognize the statue’s malign significance and want the it moved. The excuses for retaining it have been debunked. To paraphrase Gov. Hogan: It’s not that hard; just move the damn statue.