A White Unionist testifies on the abuses of the apprenticeship system to bind large numbers of Black children

A White Unionist testifies on the abuses of the apprenticeship system to bind large numbers of Black children

John Graham to Majr Genl Lew Wallace on the scale of the apprenticeship crisis: Black children in Worchester County are "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." 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.

11/15/1864

Worchester County, MD

Maryland White Unionist to the Commander of the Middle Department and 8th Army Corps


Head Quarters, Middle Department, 8th Army Corps,
Baltimore [Md.], Nov 15" 1864
Dear Sir I have the honor to forward you a statement of facts, as to the binding of Negro Children in Dorchester County. I have seen them Carried from different portions of the County in ox Carts, waggons, and Carriags to the County town (Cambridge) to be Carried before the Court to be bound out as apprentices. in some Cases boys were bound out that would Command wages at sixty dollars per year Very Respectfully Your Obediant Servant
John E. Graham


John E. Graham to Major Genl Lew Wallace, 15 Nov. 1864, filed with M-1932 1864, Letters Received, ser. 12, RG 94 [K-4]. Graham, whose term of service in an eastern shore Maryland regiment had just expired, had reported to the commander of the Middle Department at the request of General Henry H. Lockwood, commander of the 3rd Separate Brigade, who wished to keep the department commander fully informed of “the deplorable condition of affairs in the lower counties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.” Lockwood proposed that Graham, who had earlier served as provost marshal in Accomac County, Virginia, be retained in the military service and appointed assistant provost marshal in the southern counties of Maryland's eastern shore, supported by "a dozen mounted men." (Official Records, ser. 1, vol. 43, pt. 2, p. 632.)