<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
<rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/50">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[A Black church elder reports the destruction of his church and the army investigates]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[Brig. Gen. H.H. Lockwood to Capt. O. Matthews reporting that James Ross, and elder of Western Md Circuit, reports that a Black church near Reisterstown was torn down and its members harassed. Includes endorsements from Gen. Lewis Wallace and others ordering an investigation and possible tax assessment levied on disloyalists in neighborhood to pay for rebuilding Black churches. ]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[12/19/1864]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Reisterstown, Maryland]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/22">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[A Black recruiter explains that enslaved Marylanders want to join the Union Army, but only if they are paid and treated equitably]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[G.A. Hackett to Col. Lawrence (AAG) relating his experiences in recruiting Black soldiers (slave and free) in and around the area of Middle River, Baltimore County. Following up on Gen. Wallace’s advice that recruiting expeditions should take place among the rebel slaveholders, Hackett discovers that slaves were eager to join the Union army. But only after assurances that they would not be used as breast-work, that the government wouldn’t deceive them concerning wages and that they would not be returned to their masters. Hackett declares that, ’’Some of their masters who were much attached to their slaves, were unwilling to believe that they had assented (to enlistment), until they question them in the presence of Lt. Frick...” &quot;Some of them were told by their masters to make themselves either younger or older than the required age, as the case may be.&quot; &quot;One of their masters called them to one side and told them they should be free as soon as they got to Baltimore.&quot; &quot;But they refused to rely on their master’s promises any longer.” Page four of the letter contains a list of fourteen slaves and freemen who enlisted. Hackett talked to some Black recruits who declare that, &quot;plenty of men could be found, and that they would bring, by their appearance in uniform the men around them like bees to the hive.&quot;]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[7/6/1864]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Baltimore Co, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/41">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[A White Unionist testifies on the abuses of the apprenticeship system to bind large numbers of Black children]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[John Graham to Majr Genl Lew Wallace on the scale of the apprenticeship crisis: Black children in Worchester County are &quot;carried from different portions of the County in ox Carts, waggons, and carriages to the County town (Cambridge) to be carried before the Court to be bound out as apprentices.&quot;  File includes a massive number of enclosures, mostly dealing with apprenticeship and illegal enslavement after Maryland passed an emancipation measure in its Constitution of 1864.]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[11/15/1864]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Worchester County, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/61">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Amid widespread abuses of the apprenticeship system to bind formerly enslaved children, Governor Bradford complains about oversight efforts]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[James C. Mullikin (ADC) to H.H. Lockwood (3d sep brig) notifying him on abuses of apprenticeship system and suggesting the implementation of martial law in relevant counties on the Eastern Shore. Followed by A.W. Bradford (Gov of MD) to Gen. Lew Wallace (comdg Middle Dept) complaining of Wallace&#039;s General Order No. 112, which provided protections for formerly enslaved people from the apprenticeship system under which formerly enslaved children were widely bound to their former enslavers on the Eastern Shore. Under antebellum Maryland law, Bradford argued, &quot;provision is made for binding out the minor children of free persons of color who have not the means or are unwilling themselves to take care of their offspring.&quot; This practice of apprenticeship, Bradford claimed, grew from the &quot;necessity of taking care of an infant class thus suddenly deprived of the support to which they had been accustomed.&quot;]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[11/9/1864]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Eastern Shore, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/48">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Army officials levy a tax on rebel sympathizers to raise money to rebuild Black churches burned down by arsonists]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[Lt. J.E. Mobray to Brig. Gen. Lockwood recommending taxation of rebel property in order to raise money to rebuild Black churches that were burned in Somerset County. Subsequent order implements recommendation, taxing disloyal and &quot;disaffected&quot; citizens to rebuild burned Black churches. ]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[12/2/1864]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Worcester &amp; Somerset Counties, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/20">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Black drummer boy Reason Brown petitions for furlough to visit his family in Maryland]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[Reason Brown to the Sec. of War Brown is a 14 yr old drummer boy. He has been in the army for 14 months, has applied 3 times for a furlough and cannot get one. He wants to visit family in MD-officers tell him he is too young to want to visit his family.]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2/21/1865]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Alexandria, VA; St. Mary&#039;s County, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/28">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Black Marylander reveals the location of hidden rebel arms on the property of a future Maryland state senator]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[Brig. Gen. H.H. Lockwood to Lt. Col. Lawrence (AAG) reporting that in the summer of 1861 he obtained information from a Black Marylander that Mr. [William B.] Stevenson had a quantity of guns stored in his barn. Mr. Stevenson is now the senator-elect from Harford Co, MD.]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[1/21/1864]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Havre de Grace, Harford County, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/51">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Black nuns in Baltimore petition Black Superintendent of Schools William Howard Day for support for their school and orphanage]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[Oblate Sisters of Providence to William H. Day (supt of F Schools) gives a history of the school, which the Black sisters established for the education of Black children. Opened a free school and orphan asylum since the war. Petition for financial assistance. Claim that they don&#039;t show any preference to religious denomination of students.]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[10/22/1867]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Baltimore, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/40">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Black pastors petition the Secretary of War to partner with the A.M.E. Church]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[A.W. Wayman, D.A. Payne, John M. Brown, M.F. Stuby, &amp; James Lynch to Edwin Stanton responding to Stanton&#039;s order authorizing the Methodist Episcopal Church to oversee all Southern Methodist Churches. Wayman et al. inform Stanton of the existence of AME church, the strength of its membership and ministers, and the readiness of the AME to assume control of the spiritual direction of Black Southerners. &quot;The aforementioned order virtually excludes us from a vast field of Christian labor among our brethren, whom we have long payed to meet, and organize.&quot;]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[6/1/1864]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Baltimore, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/26">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Black residents of Baltimore petition for redress after they are prevented from renting a concert hall to host a lecture by Frederick Douglass]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:description><![CDATA[B.R. Hawley to Edwin M. Stanton (sec of war) writing that Black residents of Baltimore have been unable to rent either the Maryland Institute Hall or the Templers Hall for a lecture meeting at which the announced speaker was Frederick Douglass. The reason given for the refusal was that Black resdients would ather in the street in front of the hall. Hawley claims discrimination against Black residents of Baltimore and &quot;against the colored nattion.&quot;]]></dcterms:description>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[5/31/1865]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:coverage><![CDATA[Baltimore, MD]]></dcterms:coverage>
</rdf:Description></rdf:RDF>