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BeachesBaysWaterWays.org
  • Home
  • Newsletter
    • Sign-Up
    • Current Newsletter
    • Contests
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  • About Us
    • Become a Member or Donate!
    • Beach to Bay Heritage Area News >
      • 2020 Annual Report
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      • BBHA Economic Impact Report
      • Press Releases
    • Our Team
    • Contact
    • Annual Meeting >
      • Buy Tickets Now! (Deadline 10/20)
      • Heritage Awards
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  • Grants
    • MHAA Grants
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  • Heritage Tourism
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    • Heritage Places
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    • Partner Organizations
  • OurWays
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    • Dr. Charles Albert Tindley

African American Heritage
of the Lower Eastern Shore

Jim Rapp describes the Henry Hotel in Ocean City, MD
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Order this brochure

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African American Heritage on the Lower Eastern Shore

African Americans were an integral part of the cultural heritage of the Eastern Shore. While the slave trade began in the 1640s, it did not slow down until the 1780s and did not finally end until the mid-nineteenth century. Though this region did not have many large slave holding, agrarian based estates, slavery did exist. In some cases, the lower Eastern Shore served as "market" for slave buyers from the western shore of Virginia. There are also cases of some slaves attaining early freedom, but their freedom may have been marginal at best with little improvement over slavery itself.

Later, as the seafood industry became the economic backbone of the region, African-Americans were an integral part of the workforce, particularly in the processing plants. Today, African-Americans are prominent citizens of the lower Eastern Shore and can still be found as a driving force in the seafood industry, agriculture, education and tourism. Princess Anne houses the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a historic land grant university to educated young black men and women, which opened its doors in 1886. Today its multi-racial campus hosts faculty and students from throughout the world.

Prominent blacks from the past include Isaiah Fasset of Berlin, who was one of the last living Civil War veterans when he died in 1946; folk hero Sampson Harmon or "Sampson Hat", as he is known in "The Entailed Hat" a novel by George A. Townsend. He died at 106 and is buried in Furnace Town with his cat Tom. Some say that their ghosts can still be seen; William "Judy" Johnson of Snow Hill played over 3,000 baseball games for the Negro League from 1918 to 1939 and has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 
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Charles Chipman Cultural Center in Salisbury, Maryland
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Julius "Judy" Johnson Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame
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San Domingo, one of the few remaining Rosenwald Schools. Built in 1919
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Sign project by Lower Eastern Shore Heritage Area commemorating San Domingo School

Contact Us:
 14 South Main Street
Berlin, MD 21811
410-251-3163

info@BeachesBaysWaterWays.org

Beach to Bay Heritage Area Mission

Our mission is to promote, preserve and protect the cultural heritage, historical linkages and natural assets of Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore.

    Subscribe Today!

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Funded in part by the Rural Maryland Council
  • Home
  • Newsletter
    • Sign-Up
    • Current Newsletter
    • Contests
    • Archive
  • About Us
    • Become a Member or Donate!
    • Beach to Bay Heritage Area News >
      • 2020 Annual Report
      • 2021 Annual Report
      • BBHA Economic Impact Report
      • Press Releases
    • Our Team
    • Contact
    • Annual Meeting >
      • Buy Tickets Now! (Deadline 10/20)
      • Heritage Awards
      • Sponsorships
  • Grants
    • MHAA Grants
    • Mini Grants
    • SHA Grants
  • Heritage Tourism
    • Chesapeake Country All American Road
    • Heritage Places
    • Events
    • Partner Organizations
  • OurWays
  • StoryWays
    • Dr. Charles Albert Tindley