MARYLAND SLAVE OWNERS ARE REIMBURSED FOR THEIR SLAVES JOINING THE UNION ARMY
Scarce printed document, 4pp, 4to., a blank "Evidence of Title" form issued by the state of Maryland, allowing a slave-owning resident of the state to claim restitution for a slave or slaves that were enlisted in the ranks of the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War, and were subsequently emancipated. The front page of the document allows a claimant to list his name, his country of residence, the name of the soldier for whom they are claiming restitution, his regiment, his period of enslavement, and his period of military service. The second page allows two witnesses to affirm that the claimant was the rightful owner of the slave before emancipation, and that the claimant's statements are true. There are also spaces for a justice of the peace and a county clerk to validate the claim. Although a slave-holding state, Maryland never joined the Confederacy, with her government remaining nominally loyal to the Union. As such, Maryland slave owners were allowed the opportunity to claim restitution from the government for slaves freed by enlistment in the army, or who were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, an opportunity that citizens of the Confederacy certainly were never extended. Folds, some minor splitting and chipping along the folds, else very good.