There is a special significance about our logo that we like to share. What it symbolizes:
In 2024, an amazing set of records were discovered there quite by accident at the Maryland State Archives while our Executive Director was researching. As the Civil War was ending and slavery was abolished in Maryland by the voters in 1864, there were some people who weren’t happy about losing their enslaved workforce. The new 1864 constitution abolished slavery, but it got revised again in the year 1867. In that update was the provision that a Commissioner of Slave Statistics get appointed in various jurisdictions because “under the Military of the United States, a large number of slaves owing service to loyal citizens of Maryland, were induced to leave their owners and enlist in the military service of the United States.” The General Assembly ordered that a listing be made of any slave owners desiring compensation and those they were enslaving as of November 1, 1864, and some of the jurisdictions have the compilation books of the time. Some don’t. The Howard County one is physically located at the Maryland State Archives. What was discovered were the actual handwritten loose documents from the enslaver wishing to be compensated. In the background of our logo is one of the pages photographed that was completed by John Lee Carroll, who was processing the estate for his deceased father Charles… grandson of the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Lee Carroll wasn’t yet the Governor (would be in 1876). Why this particular page (there were several)? Because if you look carefully you’ll see that there are FOUR people named Charles in the image. All are important.
- Charles Chase, freed at the age of 65 years old who was recorded to be a slave for life
- Charles Branson, freed at the age of 2 years old who was recorded to be a slave for life
- Charles Branson, freed at the age of 32 years old who was recorded to be a slave for life
- Charles Carroll V whose estate they had all belonged to when he died in 1862
