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| Plaque for Mathias de Sousa |
Come on, Maryland!
Maryland has a rich and wonderful geography and history. Geography: we have ocean, mountains, Deep South, Midwest-like rolling hills and farms, a great bay, and Baltimore. No one else can match that diversity! And our history is a similar tangle.
In 1641, Mathias de Sousa -- who had worked for several years as an indentured servant of Fr. Andrew White, one of the founders of the colony -- was elected to the Maryland Assembly. De Sousa was the first African American to serve in a legislature in North America. (I don’t know about Latin America.) A great moment for Maryland!
In 1645, Protestants from Virginia invaded Maryland, arrested Fr. White for practicing priestcraft, and sent him back to England in chains. He was arrested for celebrating Mass, not for integration; but it was his faith led to specific actions. When was the next African American legislator in the North America? Reconstruction? Not a great moment for Maryland.
In 1664, Maryland pioneered another part of American history: it was the first colony to ban inter-racial marriage. The law is shameful, but the fact that it was passed would seem to indicate that there were inter-racial marriages taking place. That is, you don’t pass laws against things that aren’t happening: there are no laws against raping Martians. Anyway, whatever the background of loving activity, the law was not a great moment.
In 1789, when the Founding Fathers wrote the Bill of Rights, they incorporated ideas pioneered in Maryland and developed more fully in Pennsylvania: the First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Another great moment for Maryland!
In 1850, President Zachary Taylor died in office, and Millard Fillmore became president. Fillmore, generally listed among the worst presidents in our history, was not re-elected at the end of that term. But in the following election, he joined the American Party, also called the Know-Nothings. The Know-Nothing movement was a reaction to German and Irish Catholic immigration, and the problems that followed, including a dramatic increase in crime and welfare costs. The American Party (formerly the Native American Party) was anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic. Fillmore became their presidential candidate in 1856. Fortunately, he lost, dramatically. In fact, he carried only one state. Uh-oh. So that was another bad moment for schizophrenic Maryland.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the eugenics movement (improving the human race by social control of reproduction) was successful in passing laws affecting three issues: miscegenation, compulsory sterilization of the so-called “feeble-minded,” and immigration. The new wave of anti-miscegenation laws strengthened the patchwork of old anti-black laws. The new laws generally banned marriage between whites and non-whites. The point was not so much to keep slaves and their descendants in place, as to maintain the purity of the “white race.” The anti-immigration laws were a matter for national legislation, not state law. Sterilization laws, providing legal mechanisms for ensuring that targeted individuals would lose their ability to reproduce, were proposed and passed in most states. Maryland was NOT among the states passing eugenic sterilization laws, and that is a reason for modest pride.
The work of the eugenics movement is still being dismantled. The anti-miscegenation laws are gone, and the sterilization laws are gone, although abuse continues informally. Now, racially charged anti-immigration laws are under attack, and Maryland is a battleground again.
Come on, Maryland! Which way will we go this time? Are we proud to be the home of Mathias de Sousa, or will we vote for racial bitterness again? Are we proud of Fr. White, or will we support the Know-Nothing position again? We did resist some of the eugenics movement: can we throw out the remnants of that great evil?
Go, Maryland! Claim a proud heritage, and vote for hospitality! Support Maryland’s Dream Act!
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