Slavery Study Roundup: Massachusetts Slavery Bill and University of Maryland Report

The Boston Globe has the details.  The bill would study Massachusetts' connections to slavery.  Sounds pretty similar to Brown University's Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, which we've spoken about a bunch of places, including here.  This is also similar to William and Mary's project to study its connections to slavery.

And we're now hearing in the Washington Post about the final report, entitled "Knowing Our History," of a year-long study by students at the University of Maryland on Maryland's connections to slavery.   The report is worth downloading and reading; it's a beautiful piece of work, which tells a lot of about the social history of slavery in Maryland, with a particular focus on three "founders" of the University of Maryland (or the Maryland Agricultural College as it was known in 1856): a wealthy backer of the institution, Charles Calvert, the first principal of the school, the Quaker Benjamin Hallowell, and an enslaved man, Adam Plummer, who was owned by Calvert.  This is really great and creative history.

The course was taught by Ira Berlin, one of our nation's very most distinguished scholars of slavery, and graduate student Herbert Brewer.  I highly recommend the report to you, as a great example of the possibilities for exciting research by undergraduates.  Berlin says in the introduction that the course "was one of the most engaging and rewarding teaching experiences in my 30 years at the university."

But don't expect an apology from the University of Maryland's president,C.D. Mote, anytime soon.  From the WAPO article:

Mote said Friday that he will review the recommendations but that he has no plans for a statement because all institutions at that time were influenced by slavery.

"It's a little difficult for a university to retrospectively change its founders," he said. "It's like changing the signers of the Declaration of Independence."

I blogged about Maryland back in Febrary 2008 at legalhistoryblog and I had a round-up of some of this last summer when the United States Senate issued its slavery apology.