The Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Howard County, Maryland
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Howard County Library System
Elkridge Library
Belmont / Hockley Room
6540 Washington Blvd
Elkridge, Maryland 21075
Internationally known, in life and afterlife, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as an orator, abolitionist, editor, suffragist, and American political reformist, the local history and placement of Frederick Douglass in Howard County, Maryland has not been thoroughly recognized and discussed.
Following the Civil War, Frederick Douglass was invited to speak in Howard County on a half-dozen separate occasions, making at least four confirmed visits to a political ratification meeting, a Methodist camp meeting in company with his sons and an Emancipation Day celebration where Douglass served as the keynote speaker.
The Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Howard County, Maryland will focus on the relationships and associations Douglass had with several Howard County citizens of local and national significance including Howard countians within the circles of Maryland electoral and intra-party Republican politics, higher education, suffragist and temperance movements. Additional information will show connections Douglass maintained with the Baltimore Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Washington Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The visits of Frederick Douglass to Howard County are part of a larger portfolio of the overlooked local and political activism of Frederick Douglass in and throughout Maryland from the Eastern Shore to Western Maryland to communities in and around Washington and Baltimore following the Civil War. In the heart of the state, Howard County was a central gathering area for organizations based in and around Washington, D.C. and Baltimore City. Known as an extensive traveler on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and other local routes, Frederick Douglass visited Howard County via train tracks that remain active with commuter passengers today.
The Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Howard County, Maryland will be presented for the first time at the Howard County Library System’s Elkridge Library. The in-person / livestreamed event, followed by a Q&A, will include maps, prints, letters, newspapers, photographs, ephemera and more from local, regional and national research collections and local history archives.
Watch full video on YouTube
