Did anyone look to Maryland as model for the South?

rob in cal

Cadet
Joined
Mar 10, 2013
I wonder if in the ferment and discussion about slavery in the 1850's many commentators, either north or south, talked about Maryland as a potential model for the future of slavery and the transition away from it. Outside of Delaware, which was much smaller, Maryland was the one significant slave state in which free blacks were almost as common as slaves. By 1860 this had been the case for decades, and Maryland society seemed to be adapting to the situation pretty well.
I know that the legislature was tightening up rules and laws against the free blacks, encouraging them to leave the state, but most stayed and were a key part of the free labor of Baltimore and many rural counties as well. There must have been countless white business and farm owners who were quite content to hire black people, not own them. One would think that moderates of both parts of the sectional divide would look to Maryland as a case study of a reasonably successful state where the transition away from slavery was taking place.
 
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