Last week, the Talbot Association of Clergy and Laity (TACL) hosted a community discussion on the future of the “Talbot Boys” Confederate memorial located on the Talbot County Courthouse lawn. The Spy agreed not to videotape the meeting to encourage a frank and honest discussion about race and history on the Eastern Shore.
Instead, the we sought out participants after the event to continue the discussion for our readers. Oxford resident Dominic (Mickey) Terrone, a retired nonprofit executive and thirty-year student of the Civil War, agreed to share his thoughts on Maryland’s role in slavery, secession, and how best to move on from what he considers to be an “ugly” misrepresentation of history on the courthouse lawn.
This video is approximately five minutes in length. The Spy apologies in advance for the imperfect audio.
David Jeffery says
A similar debate to the best fate of the statue of the confederate Talbot Boys on the courthouse grounds is ongoing in New Haven Connecticut.
One of the undergraduate residential colleges at Yale is named for John C. Calhoun, an alumnus of the university (class of 1804). Before he was a principal author of the theory of nullification of federal laws and apologist for slavery, he had been Secretary of War, a Senator, Vice President under Andrew Jackson and, briefly, Secretary of State. As well he had a leader of the of the national-minded Whig party. A stained glass window at Calhoun College depicted the secessionist with the U.S. Capitol in the background and a chained slave in the foreground. The image of the slave was removed in the 1990s. Should Calhoun College be renamed? That is the current debate.
David crenshaw says
How about a transcript of this video since the audio is so bad?
Editor says
Thanks David for your suggestion. I have ordered the transcription and hope to have it later today in the posting.
Glenn Baker says
I’m a retired public company executive who has studied the Civil War in Maryland for 50 years. I’m also the man who talked about the elected Maryland officials being arrested in 1861 after the Federal Troops invaded Maryland at last week’s meeting. It is true that the legislature voted not to leave the Union, but that was before this invasion. Also arrested in April 1861 was the majority of Baltimore officials and many others including Talbot sitting Judge Carmichael who was pistol whipped in our courthouse and taken away. Mr. Terrone seem well versed on Virginia history so I invite him to have a discussion with me concerning Maryland history and we can look at the actual documents concerning secession, free and enslaved blacks and Talbot’s lack of support for the Union.
To begin he may want to read local author Lawrence M. Denton’s “A Southern Star For Maryland, Maryland and the Secession Crisis” published 1995