African American Reconstruction History in Jeffrey R. Brackett’s Study of Maryland, 1890

Jeffrey R. Brackett

Ephemera and pamphlets

Brackett, Jeffrey R. Notes on the Progress of the Colored People of Maryland Since the War, 1890, studies African American life in a former slave state whose border position made emancipation, Reconstruction, and postwar racial adjustment especially complex. Brackett begins, “In some respects, Maryland is a most interesting and instructive field for a study of the progress of the colored people,” and uses Maryland as a case study for Black advancement after slavery. The pamphlet documents racial progress through social observation and historical analysis, providing evidence for the study of African American education, labor, civil rights, and postwar race relations in the Upper South.

Brackett, Jeffrey R. Notes on the Progress of the Colored People of Maryland Since the War. A Supplement to The Negro in Maryland: A Study of the Institution of Slavery. Baltimore: Publication Agency of the Johns Hopkins University, 1890. 96 pages. Original paper wrappers. 6 x 9 inches. Issued in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science series, the work examines Maryland’s Black population after the Civil War and follows Brackett’s earlier study of slavery in the state. Catalog records identify the title as a supplement to The Negro in Maryland.

Maryland’s status as a slave state bordering North and South gives the pamphlet strong interpretive value for studying emancipation outside the former Confederate Deep South. Brackett’s attention to postwar change, together with his quoted observation from “a very intelligent colored man” that Maryland’s Black population might have advanced further had the state seceded and shared the South’s Reconstruction experience, preserves contemporary debate over the uneven consequences of freedom. Crease to front wrapper, tear down paper-wrapped spine with front wrapper partially detached, textblock tight and clean; very good. A focused nineteenth-century study of African American progress in Maryland after slavery.

Item #18189

Price: $485.00