<p> The following examines the complexities of slavery in Maryland in the antebellum period and argues that as a result of Maryland's geographic location as a border between North and South, Maryland slaveholders desperately clung to the institution and attempted to shape their world into a slave society, regardless of the fact that slavery had long been dying out as an economic necessity. In the process, they called for federal protection of fugitive slave property, subscribed to a strict code of white southern conduct, and attempted to weed out any threat to slavery— mainly the state's large free black population. This concept is intended to argue against the idea that Maryland was a middling ground where ties to slavery were somehow weak or insignificant as a result of economic forces. As the Civil War approached, Maryland slaveholders in fact hardened the institution at the expense of Maryland's African American population.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1594944 |
| Date | 01 August 2015 |
| Creators | Kuhn, Talbot Anne |
| Publisher | University of Maryland, Baltimore County |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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