Black Maryland and the Military

Before George Hackett wrote this report on an expedition to recruit Black soldiers among the both the enslaved and free Black population of Baltimore County, he had already made an extensive career advancing the struggle for equality. He served for two years as a steward on the USS Constitution, from 1839-1841, seeing a great deal of the world and gaining insight into a legal system that, at least in theory, treated sailors equally, regardless of race. In 1860, he petitioned the Maryland General Assembly to help defeat a law that would have enslaved or banished the state's free Black population. 

Echoes of Hackett's longstanding struggle for equality in his reporting on the reservations of enslaved people, who mistrusted the government that had kept them enslaved their whole lives. These potential recruits worried, Hackett reported, "that the Government was deceiving them in the promise of bounty, wages, and freedom, and that they could be brought back again if they ran away." But as soon as we removed all these impressions," he explained, "the men assented and said they would cheerfully, willingly go, in the presence of their rebel masters and mistresses." For Hackett, the promise of genuine freedom and equality from Black men in uniform would bring Black Marylanders into the ranks "like bees to the hive."

The report on the expedition by Colonel Samuel M. Bowman that accompanies the transcription of Hackett's letter illustrates the reluctance of many white officers to upset Maryland enslavers. In it, Bowman depicted himself as a reluctant participant in the events, but noted that despite the complaints of enslavers, the Black recruits "did not wish to be released." In fact, Bowman observed, "two of them are very superior black men, almost white." It was precisely this view of racial hierarchy expressed by Bowman that Hackett denounced as he won over Black Marylanders skeptical of the government's commitment to freedom.

For more about Hackett, read "George Hackett, Baltimore’s Birthright Citizen" by Martha S. Jones.

Explore the experiences of Black Marylanders wit the military.

Black Marylanders were integral to the fight against slavery and the Confederacy. As residents of a key border state containing both the nation's capital and one of its most important ports in Baltimore, Black Marylanders provided critical aid to the Union cause. They manned the defenses of Washington and Baltimore, mobilized Black information networks to gather intelligence on enemy activities, and pushed to end the cruel practices of enslavement that continued under Maryland and U.S. law. As the documents in this section illustrate, Black Marylanders used the turmoil and uncertainty of war to push for policies that would end slavery and discrimination.

Black Surgeon Alexander Augusta, for example, demanded an end to the inferior pay and treatment Black soldiers and their families received, which was roughly half that of white soldiers. "I have been commissioned for a year," he wrote to Senator Henry Wilson, "and always has recd' pay as a Surgeon, But when I called upon Paymaster Ettings, in Baltimore a few days since for my pay he, refused to give it to me: and said I was only entitled to seven dollars $7) per month." With a family to support, his petition was no mere academic exercise, but a pressing matter of justice and survival.

When his wife was denied her seat on a train from Baltimore to Washington, Augusta was incensed, and petitioned the commander of his department for redress. "It makes no difference how respectable a colored lady may be," he fumed, "how disagreable smoking may be to her; or how ill she might be, the employees about the depot will not permit her to enter another car, and should she by chance get into another and is found there, she is rudely thrust out." Emphasizing the collective harm done by segregationist policies, he implored that his commander "use your good offices to remove these unjust rules."

You can read Augusta's accounts, along with those of other Black soldiers, civilians, and spies, in the section that follows.