The detailed histories of Talbot County in the Civil War era presented recently by Ms. Mielke and Mr. Callahan, with pushback from Mr. Terrone, are all very interesting, and a dazzling display of their knowledge of the war period. But as to the Statue, these particular histories are completely beside the point.
The Talbot Boys Statue is the physical manifestation of the resurgence of explicit white supremacy in this State and County, the culmination of a wave of chilling racist, anti-black policies enacted in the 1900-1915 period dedicated particularly towards extinguishing any sign of black political power.
Before touching on the evidence of that assertion, I urge any reader who wants (dares?) to understand what was going on in America, in Maryland, and in Talbot during this era to invest some of your Covid-induced free time to watch “The Birth of a Nation,” the infamous film released in 1915 just when the Statue was erected. (Simply google “Youtube Birth of a Nation,” and a high-quality video will pop right up.)
The Birth of a Nation is very hard to watch—not because it is a silent film in black and white, using seemingly archaic techniques (which in fact were revolutionarily modern), and not because of its three-hour and twelve-minute length (though you may want to watch only “Part II” at a little over 1 hour.). It is hard to watch because of its unvarnished, hideous expression of white supremacy, of black ignorance and malevolence, of every stereotypical caricature of evil and debauchery that could be visited by one race on another.
There is nothing funny about Birth of a Nation. Originally called “The Clansman,” the film purports to tell the “true history” of Reconstruction and how the Ku Klux Klan saved the South—indeed, all of White America.
“The Los Angeles Times called the film “the greatest picture ever made and the greatest drama ever filmed”. It became a national cultural phenomenon: merchandisers made Ku-Klux hats and kitchen aprons, and ushers dressed in white Klan robes for openings. In New York there were Klan-themed balls and, in Chicago that Halloween, thousands of college students dressed in robes for a massive Klan-themed party.” (Indeed, the KKK suddenly took on a new life and Jim Crow reigned triumphant for the next half-century.)
Birth of a Nation was the highest grossing film in American History until 1939 (when overtaken ironically by Gone With the Wind). It had a special showing for President Wilson at the White House in February 1915 and the next day before the entire Supreme Court, thirty-eight senators, many representatives and the diplomatic corps. The audience of 600 “cheered and applauded throughout.” [Information above from Wikipedia.]
Though contemporaneous and capturing so vividly the zeitgeist of race relations of the time, that film of course was not the specific catalyst the Talbot Boys Statue. Rather, as detailed in Chris Brown’s informative book, The Road to Jim Crow: The African American Struggle on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the white dominated Talbot County that erected that Statue was on the conservative side of a political system whose policies were designed explicitly to freeze Blacks into submission and to quash all black political power in the State of Maryland.
A single example of so many: Governor Edwin Warfield, elected in 1904 as “the Candidate of the White people,” trumpeted victory “for White Supremacy in Maryland.” His party’s platform declared that “the only issue is whether Negro suffrage, put upon us against our will by force, shall be restricted and its power for evil destroyed.” Smith, his Republican opponent, agreed; his objective was “to crush to atoms every obstruction that stands in the way of white man’s rule!”
These were the years when a variety of voter suppression and segregation laws were enacted. Brown also details innumerable social, economic, and journalistic injustices unfolding at the same time, not hidden away but all reported in the Easton Star, the Chestertown Transcript and other local papers.
Spoiler alert: The closing scene of Birth of a Nation shows a solid line of robed and hooded clansmen on horseback, each with pistol drawn and cocked, aimed directly at the town’s black citizens on election day, just daring one to try to vote. Rather more dramatic, but not far from the message sent by “The Talbot Boys—CSA,” right in front of the Talbot County Courthouse.
Time to take it down.
Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years.
paul callahan says
Dan, Great article and certainly can be used to understand the National sentiment at the time. However what about the Talbot Boys and a statue that is of an unarmed young boy holding a non-descript confederate flag in the ceremonial position of surrender? Why not a confederate on a charging horse with his sabre drawn? It certainly seems that someone purposely thought about a statue that would be as non intimidating as possible. Considering that our county claims that Talbot had the highest percentage of free blacks in the Nation at that time could it not just be a statue to simply honor the men of Talbot county and not something sinister? If is looks and quakes like a duck maybe it is just a duck.
Dan Watson says
Paul– Who knows Truth? Neither of us were there. The problem, IMO, is not the thing itself of course. It is that it is positioned in a place of honor on public ground–and thus it speaks for all citizens. In the context of the times I cannot help but see it as a statement, however softened aesthetically, that White men are in charge in Talbot County. (I just learned that Gov Warfield’s very first appointment, as his Sec’t’y of State, was Oswald Tilghman of Easton, who was also head of the “camp” of Confederate sympathizers here. Warfield being the candidate (1904) of White Supremacy.)
They should’ve bought a private lot out on Dover Rd or somewhere, and put it there.
Did you watch any of Birth of a Nation? Takes guts to do so and argue for the bad guys (which included ancestors of mine).
DW
paul callahan says
Having lived in New England for over a decade it is amazing how many courthouses, town squares, public plaza’s etc. have statues of soldiers that fought in numerous wars from the revolutionary to now. Almost all carried weapons. It is an American trait to place monuments to honor veterans, so the fact that one was placed on public property is not surprising. Reading more into it is extremely subjective. One could just as easily say that the commissioners of this monument selected the presentation (unarmed boy with flag held in surrender) so not to offend people of color. Remember Talbot County had one of the highest percentages of fee people of color at the start of that war. There was positive thought in selecting that particular statue and it was independent of the Talbot Council or any motives they had. Regardless of when the monument was placed it’s intended purpose is to honor the names inscribed for what they did. The real debate was did the Talbot Boys rise to protect their personal status in society as outlined by Mr. Terrone (a New Yorker) or because of the Constitutional abuses and the oppressions of their home State and her citizens as many native Talbot Countians suggest? Was the Talbot Boys all about Slavery and White Supremacy or rising against Constitutional abuses and extreme government oppressions of a free State? Their is no honor in the first and great honor with the second. The study of our local history reveals overwhelming support for the later and their right to remain on public property. So lets remove the confederacy and the symbols of hate from this monument but tell the real history of these men.
Dominic "Mickey" Terrone says
Well, Dan, the entire basis for which the statue was placed in front of the court house was the triumph of white supremacy fifty years after the civil war ended. The basis for which the flag was placed there and has been defended as a reflection of Talbot County during the civil war is mythology. Its not fact. The statue still reflects the false myths that have hijacked history as well as the morality and Jim Crow Laws of a century ago. The only times the confederate flag entered Maryland during the civil war was to destroy the state’s infrastructure, kill Maryland’s soldiers and destroy the Union which Maryland chose to support.
Those facts are the basis upon which the statue must be moved, along with almost an entire century of inequality that the descendants of those confederates imposed upon black people.
The County Council should be making its decisions from unemotional facts. Exposing the mythology and respecting the true history of our county have everything to do with moving the statue based on the facts of Talbot County history.
paul callahan says
If anyone wants a good overview of the “facts” take a look at the following article. https://lincolncivilliberties.weebly.com/document-1—lincoln-to-gen-scott-1861.html
which is a good 5 minute summary and documents many of the Constitutional abuses against Maryland, including Lincoln’s authorization to bombard civilians as a means of suppression, arresting of the General Assembly, suspension of the first and 2nd amendments, habeas corpus, suppressing our vote, etc etc.
Mr. Terrone is very knowledgeable about the US Civil war in general but as a New Yorker has little knowledge concerning Maryland’s or Talbot Counties history in it. This is based upon his comments in the Spy that he didn’t believe Lincoln arrested the Maryland Legislature or would have authorize the bombardment of our cites. If he doesn’t know this big event stuff how can he state “facts” about historical details in Talbot? – He can’t. Read for yourself and I assure you if you dig deeper into this history it just gets uglier.
I must ask each of you – when your government is taken over, you homeland occupied, your press censored, your right to trial removed, your guns taken, and you live in constant fear that your government will arrest you because of your political view or you fear your government will bombard your family – just when is it ok to resist? If this happened today I can guarantee you there would be Americans of all races and genders who would resist. Mr. Terrone wants you to believe that our Talbot ancestors took arms against the Union so their “social status would not be over taken by free people of color”. I disagree – based on facts.
Paul Gilmore says
Mr. Callahan, Did you just pull a “come here” card on Mr. Terrone? Not That I always agree with him but heaven forbid someone not born here would have a different (incorrect?) interpretation of history and current events.
paul callahan says
Paul – I absolutely pulled that card! Here’s why. We as humans all have unconscious “cultural biases”. Having lived in New Hampshire for over a decade and in the deep South for almost a decade I can assure you there are significant cultural differences, not the least of which is instilled views towards the civil war. The deep South’s humiliation of loss and civil destruction lead to an assuage of feelings with the development of a noble cause that their efforts towards independence,self-government and the creation of a new democracy were noble. These views were passed down and instilled either consciously or unconsciously. This is what Mr. Terrone refers to as the “lost cause” myth.
It is normal for men who return from combat to carry deep guilt. Troops from the North and particularly those from New York, who contributed greatly in this conflict, carried great guilt over what they did towards fellow Americans. To assuage their feelings, they adhered to a “just cause” concept that all was justified due to the evils of slavery and evil “white supremist” Southerners. This “just cause” concept would also be instilled consciously or unconsciously to descendants. When one decides to further study a subject they naturally gravitate towards, and identify with, concepts that support their preconceived notions as we see with Mr. Terrone.
Regardless of these biases it is extremely doubtful that Mr. Terrone was ever influenced by any person in his upbringing that cared a hoot about Maryland history or Talbot County in particular. Nor do I believe he himself cared anything about such until maybe after he moved here and the Talbot Boys became and issue.
Growing up in Talbot I was greatly influenced by Talbot citizens not the least of which was a grandfather that grew up outside Baltimore in the early 1900’s and was a devote lover of Maryland history. I saw the Talbot Boys as a young teenager and wondered “why?” I did learn a small portion of Maryland’s history such as the arrest of the members of our Legislature in school. With my interest in Civil War history I gravitated towards reading more about Maryland and Talbot county history in that conflict. It would be true to say that I also have a “cultural bias” but it is neither the Southern “Lost Cause” nor the Northern “Just Cause” myths – it is uniquely about Maryland, and the subject at hand is about Maryland and Talbot county.
Mr. Terrone’s attempt to apply arguments against Southern confederacy to the Talbot Boys is attempting to put a square peg in a round hole. It does not fit. Maryland’s Civil War history is unique from all other States, confederate or Union and Talbot county is a unique facet of that. You will notice in Mr. Terrone’s writings that he just does not know Maryland’s history. He either denies the major events in our history or asks for “sources” since he personally has not heard of it.
The confederate flag and symbols of the confederacy have become offensive to not just people of color but to many Americans and should be banned from our public spaces. However, the true history of what these men did and why they rose should be cherished and not changed.
Elizabeth Zerai says
Thank you, Mr. Watson. And to address another point I know Ms. Mielke tried to make at one of the latest Talbot County Council meetings: “You don’t see everyone raising a hue and cry about changing the name of Yale” (as Yale was a slaveholder). That’s because Yale is a privately funded institution.
We are talking about removing statues from PUBLIC grounds. We are talking about changing the names of PUBLIC schools and roads and GOVERNMENT lands and institutions. People have said time and again that if someone wants to put the Talbot Boys statue, or any of the others across the country, in a private cemetery or a museum, then they are free to do so. But public and government grounds should not be honoring seditionists and those who upheld a way of life that robbed fellow citizens of their most basic human rights.
David Montgomery says
The discussion among Messrs. Callahan, Terrone and Watson establishes definitively why the Talbot Boys statue must not be taken down. I wager that the vast majority of readers learn a great deal about Maryland’s experience in the Civil War and about the origins of the statue from these exchanges. I certainly did. That education included not just facts that are not generally know; it also revealed that there is serious debate among scholars about those events and origins. For understanding we are indebted to Messrs. Callahan, Terrone and Watson for the care with which they provide references to other sources of information. That is probably even more important for those who have only heard slogans about the Talbot Boys to understand.
We would not be gaining this education if it were not for the Talbot Boys statue. Like every monument of past events and people involved in them, it serves as a focus for learning more about those events and people. Sometimes that education reveals something unpleasant about the past, which it is important to know, as well as revealing achievements, heroism, and virtue. The concentration camps kept as reminders of Nazi crimes against humanity are horrifying and a shame on Germany, but no one questions the importance of the lessons they teach. Pacifists have demanded removal of the World War II monument on the National Mall because it glorifies war, and those of us whose fathers or other loved ones fought in the war value the Memorial because it honors deserving men and women and remind us of their sacrifices. As a Catholic, I have a right to be hostile to monuments in England and in Maryland to those who persecuted Catholics, and to really dislike monuments to the French Revolution in Paris for the same reason. But all of them either teach or remind me of history, which in the old saying we must learn in order to avoid repeating it or something similar.
Thus I am very disappointed by the continued calls to suppress the history of slavery, the Civil War and yes, white supremacy, by removing the statue. Seeing it as some endorsement of racist attitudes is in the mind of the viewer, not in the metal of the statue. It is only an offense if it is seen that way. Right now we are in the middle of a movement of ignorant and unjustified iconoclasm that takes offense with no care at all about what it destroys. All over monuments to good men and astounding achievements — like the statue of Christopher Columbus, a man of extraordinary courage and skill, and even Frederick Douglass himself — are being destroyed. Every time that happens our opportunities to understand history better are reduced.
I am not suggesting that it is wrong to debate the origins of the statue or what it means to different people. Just the opposite. I hope the Talbot Boys will inspire future generations to learn more about the Civil War and race in Maryland , just as we are doing today. Think about this: if Talbot Boys had been removed 4 years ago, we would have been deprived of the lessons provided in the Spy about what happened in and how historians disagree about the past. If we take it down now, those who come to Talbot County in the future will lose that opportunity. At best, they will be told how this more virtuous generation felt the need to punish creations of stone and metal for sins attributed to men who lived two centuries ago. There will be nothing to remind visitors and residents that there was slavery in Maryland, and that it was not just the haven for Frederick Douglass and the slaves rescued by Harriet Tubman. Maybe that is the goal — the history of Maryland whitewashed to make it the centerpiece of abolition rather than the divided state it really was.
Carol Voyles says
Statues are meant to honor and celebrate.
Schools and museums preserve and teach.
Dan Watson says
David
As to the trust of your comment–the importance of telling our history–I agree entirely. Which is why I hope you read my original proposal to create a mini-park on West Street side of the Courthouse focused on 400 years of race relations in Talbot County. The elements of the Talbot Boys Statue, removed from a place of honor, would be a key part of that, representing the Jim Crow era. (That 2017 article was reprinted by the Spy last month and is here: https://talbotspy.org/?s=Watson+Redux.)
DW
Deirdre LaMotte says
This is not a suppression of “history of slavery”. The cause supporting such called for succession from the United States. Period.
They were traitors and they lost. End of debate. Do not bring up other factions calling for the erasing of all things “Columbus”.
The focus is that those who took up arms against their nation, for whatever reason and we know enslavement was primary, were in the wrong and deserve no honor.
If others want to vilify other men who killed native Americans or supported slavery, let them. It is a dialogue our nation needs to have. For too long many have been left without a voice and “history” has been shellacked to fit a narrative. No more.
Gayle Scroggs says
Watson makes the most valid point this far about the Talbot Boys statue. It a blatant symbol of hatred and racial injustice erected when white supremacism was reading its ugly head. The convoluted historical defense given by one writer is irrelevant unless he plans to stand by the statue and explain it to everyone who is horrified by it.
No argument in favor of keeping it in place explains why Talbot County chooses to honor that segment of history above all others (except that recent Frederick Douglass statue). . . and on the courthouse lawn of all places!! (There’s actually a recent book about lynchings on courthouse lawns on Maryland’s Eastern Shore!) It serves as an unconscious prompt for white supremacy for every resident. Is that what we want?!
We should be embarrassed that residents and visitors alike are faced with a concrete symbol that raises questions about what we really stand for TODAY. It is time to retire that statue to an historical museum. Let’s celebrate something we can all be proud of in our public spaces. As all these letters have shown, the courthouse lawn is not the best venue for teaching history.
Willard T Engelskirchen says
Well said. It is time to move the Talbot Boys to another venue. A history park on West Street is a good idea. And please don’t hit me with the “come here” BS. I am from Illinois and think I had relatives who fought on the other side. My wife’s family is from MD and had relatives (whose picture is on the wall) who fought on the Southern Side.
The history of post Civil War arguments about the noble Lost Cause is well documented. Time to move on folks. It was made up to keep the Black population in its place. David Montgomery, there is no history lesson in front of the damn statue.