1) read carefully, and be prepared to discuss, pp. 17-45 in Bogen, placing slavery in Maryland and the United States in the perspective of population distribution.
2) read and reflect on Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence which he sent to James Madison in May of 1783. What was Jefferson's attitude towards slavery as expressed in the Declaration as he drafted it? How did Congress change his draft? What does this draft tell us about the debate over race and the law in America in the 1770s? Source: Julian Boyd, The Declaration of Independence, Library of Congress, 1943.
3) read and reflect on John
Wesley's thoughts on slavery, 1774, most of which is 'borrowed' from
a work by an American Quaker, Anthony Benezet. Methodism was a popular
movement in Maryland in the last quarter of the 18th century and Methodists
disavowed the ownership of slaves. What were Wesley/Benezet's attitudes
towards race and the law?
4) read and reflect on the Maryland Gazette article by Africanorum, published in May 1783. What was Africanorum's attitude towards slavery? What does it say about attitudes towards race in Annapolis in 1783? (Source: MSA SC 2311-1-18).
5) read and reflect upon Othello's
article in the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser for
May 1788. What was Othello's attitude towards race and his
observations on the prospects for the future? (Source: MSA SC 2223-2-1).
6) read and reflect upon the following cases:
a) Butler v. Boarman, Provincial Court of Maryland, 1 H. & McH. 371; 1770 Md. Lexis 5, and the transcript of the records in the case as forwarded to the Court of Appeals (Source: MSA S 381-52) forIn reviewing 6) above you will be examining the Butler cases in the context of all the extant court papers including depositions by community members that were used to support or undermine the Butler argument. Do the depositions reveal anything about contemporary attitudes towards race and the law? How helpful would it be to know who the Lawyers were and what they felt about race and the law? (See J. Hollyday's notes incorporated into the report in Butler v. Boarman).b) Mary Butler v. Adam Craig, 2 H. & McH. 214; 1787 Md. Lexis 5,
c) Eleanor Toogood against Doctor Upton Scott, 2 H.&McH26, 1782 Md. Lexis 2,
d) Mahoney vs. Ashton, 4 H. & McH. 295; 1799 Md. Lexis 8, along with an article on the case by Eric Papenfuse in Slavery and Abolition, vol 15, no. 3, 1994, pp. 38-62..
From this reading be prepared to debate the proposition that:
the Declaration of Indpendence unleashed a torrent of rethinking
about slavery and about race in America, only to be overcome by economic
necessity and the strengthening of racial differentiation and slavery in
the laws of Maryland and the Nation.