ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - A group recently gathered at the first Black church founded by a freed slave in a Maryland county to memorialize the state’s Emancipation Day.
Nearly 20 people attended Sunday’s event at Annapolis’ Asbury United Methodist Church, which was followed by a wreath-laying ceremony for Smith Price, the freed slave who founded the church, the Capital Gazette reported.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the South in 1863, slaves that were held in Maryland were freed by a new state constitution on Nov. 1, 1864, according to the proclamation.
Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman and Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley issued proclamations Friday declaring Nov. 1 to be recognized as Maryland Emancipation Day in their jurisdictions. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed a bill recognizing the day in 2013, The Washington Post reported.
“We are here to honor those early lawmakers and troops in 1864 that vowed to give equal status among citizens in Maryland,” Pittman said during Sunday’s ceremony. “We honor our enslaved ancestors and Maryland soldiers who fought on bloody battlefields during the American Civil War.”
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