Baltimore & the Fifteenth Amendment, May 19, 1870
An Interactive Historical Investigation by David Troy © 1996
Proposal: The Maryland State Archives currently produces a document packet called "Celebrating Rights and Responsibilities: Baltimore and the 15th Amendment." This packet contains reproductions of 10 primary source documents which describe Maryland's reaction to the passing of 15th Amendment.
Evaluation: This document packet remained at the core of the project and was the source for most of the primary source materials used within it.
Proposal: As a basis for my project, I will convert this document packet into hypertext markup language and make it available on the World Wide Web. In addition, my conversion would include interactive mapping which would relate both 1870 and present-day maps of Baltimore City to census data (collected by the Maryland State Archives) and other textual and graphical information. My project will also feature original interpretive information in the form of internal hyperlinks (within the structure of the document packet), additional captions and notes, and external hyperlinks (to related sites/information located elsewhere on the global Internet). My project will also feature an original document, telling the story of the 15th Amendment in Maryland, as derived from the document packet and other primary sources. This document would be comparable to a standard "paper" and would contain hyperlinks to information contained elsewhere in the project.
Evaluation: Generally speaking, this is exactly what was done. While the Maryland State Archives made information regarding organizations participating in the parade available to me, incorporating this information in a meaningful way was not possible due to time constraints. It is likely that this data, plus other census data, will be incorporated at a later date. In addition to the geographic mapping, I also created interpretive maps of the four lithographs. I also performed graphics-to-text OCR conversion on over 160K of newspaper articles, making them searchable.
Proposal: Because it will be based on hypertext, the information contained within this project will have multiple "front ends." People can reach the same photo of Frederick Douglass by clicking on an 1870 map, a present-day map, a link in an index, or a link within the interpretive paper. Most links will be two-way -- i.e. if clicking on "Orchard St." produces a list of black Civil War veterans and an Baltimore Sun article, the veterans and the article will in turn be linked back to the map showing "Orchard St."
Evaluation: Most pages on this site have two way links pointing back and forth to all related materials. I think it is possible to "overlink" a document and I have tried to add links only where I believe it contributes directly to the material. Links are another way of providing juxtaposition and this is only valuable when you are creating a contrast or making a connection. Juxtaposing all similar ideas creates a soup of information which can be hard to navigate.
Proposal: The goal of the project is to add value to a set of primary source materials by linking them internally and to external sources, as well as to create original interactive interpretive information. By making the project permanently available on the Internet, it will also serve as an effective marketing tool for the sales of the document packet.
Evaluation: This goal was met. While the original document packet from the Maryland State Archives was an invaluable collection of documents in its own right, it could not stand on its own. By adding the interpretive information and internal connective infrastructure made possible by HTML, this same set of primary source materials is now usable by anyone wishing to learn more about the 15th Amendment -- something which was only possible with the aid of an instructor with the original document packet.
Unlike a book, this project is very inexpensive and is not constrained in any way to compromise the quality of the primary source materials. Therefore, it serves as a good example for others who wish to present primary source materials with value added at minimum cost.
Proposal: Some questions the project will attempt to answer, both in the paper and in the interpretive notes:
He personally probably did not play a significant role, as he was living in New York. However, the parade did pass by Douglass Street and the Fortie School in East Baltimore, and this would have been a way of honoring him implicitly. Therefore, Isaac Myers could have influenced the selection of the parade route for this reason.
Governor Oden Bowie (a democrat) believed that the Amendment would unnecessarily compromise the rights of the States and felt it was wrong. Although he did not speak specifically against Negro suffrage, it is unlikely that he thought it was a good idea. For if the state legislature had wanted it, it could have easily passed a suffrage law already. Blacks helped elect Grant in 1868 in states where they could vote. This is discussed in the page on ratification.
At least four different lithographs were made depicting the celebration in Baltimore. They were to be sold as popular art. They are significant because they very clearly illustrate the important figures in the movement for black suffrage and they point out that Baltimore, not New York or Chicago, was the primary seat of the negro suffrage movement. This fact is born out in the analysis of the lithographs.
It passed several important landmarks in the black community, including Isaac Myers house, Orchard Street, and communities like Pigtown. See the parade route discussion and the "Story of the 15th Amendment" for more details.
Much has changed. The photographs I took of sites along the parade route are testimony to this, and the map has changed as well. Making a thorough assessment of the demographics of each community, however, seemed to be beyond the scope of what was possible in the timeframe I had. This may be something that will be added later.
The "Story" essay speaks about this. The Amendment was necessary because Maryland was not going to grant suffrage on its own. Blacks voted in great numbers at first, with participation gradually waning.
Baltimore had one of the largest populations of free blacks of any city. It was also far south enough that a suffrage celebration would "rub it in the noses" of many southern Democrats. Also, many Marylanders (such as Henry Winter Davis, Frederick Douglass, Hiram Revels, etc) were the most vocal in their support of the 15th Amendment. This is again addressed in the "Story" essay.
Blacks were universally ecstatic and hopeful about the amendment. It provided an opportunity to "erase" everything that had been associated with being black. Was this a realistic outlook? Probably not. The problems did not go away overnight, but it did give a real sense of hope. Blacks seemed to have a very cordial attitude towards whites, especially if they happened to be Republicans. This question is also addressed in the "Story" essay.
Whites, particularly abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, felt that suffrage was the only way to give blacks a fair chance. The attitude among most Unionist/Republican whites was probably along the lines of what Lincoln expressed in his second inaugural: "With malice towards none and charity towards all." Other whites who sympathized more with the democrats felt that the negro suffrage celebration was "humiliating" and many closed their shutters and pretended not to be home during the parade. This is also covered in the "Story" essay.
Any project of this scale is a bit of a moving target. I feel I followed through on my proposal as best as was possible in the time allocated. If you have suggestions about what I could have included or how I could have better met my goals, I'd love to hear them! Send me email!
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