SEE PHOTO-----COMPLETE, ORIGINAL Confederate NEWSPAPER, the New Orleans Daily Crescent (LA) dated July 3, 1861, with fantastic CHESAPEAKE BAY CIVIL WAR history!  

Perfect for framing and display! 
 
Maryland, as a slave-holding border state, was deeply divided over the antebellum arguments over states' rights and the future of slavery in the Union. Culturally, geographically and economically, Maryland found herself neither one thing nor another, a unique blend of Southern agrarianism and Northern mercantilism.

In the leadup to the American Civil War, it became clear that the state was bitterly divided in its sympathies. There was much less appetite for secession than elsewhere in the Southern States (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Alabama Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee) or in the border states (Kentucky and Missouri), but Maryland was equally unsympathetic towards the potentially abolitionist position of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.

In the presidential election of 1860 Lincoln won just 2,294 votes out of a total of 92,421, only 2.5% of the votes cast, coming in at a distant fourth place with Southern Democrat (and later Confederate general) John C. Breckinridge winning the state. In seven counties, Lincoln received not a single vote.

The areas of Southern and Eastern Shore Maryland, especially those on the Chesapeake Bay (which neighbored Virginia), which had prospered on the tobacco trade and slave labor, were generally sympathetic to the South, while the central and western areas of the state, especially Marylanders of German origin, had stronger economic ties to the North and thus were pro-Union. Not all blacks in Maryland were slaves. The 1860 Federal Census showed there were nearly as many free blacks (83,942) as slaves (87,189) in Maryland, although the latter were much more dominant in southern counties.

However, across the state, sympathies were mixed. Many Marylanders were simply pragmatic, recognizing that the state's long border with the Union state of Pennsylvania would be almost impossible to defend in the event of war. Maryland businessmen feared the likely loss of trade that would be caused by war and the strong possibility of a blockade of Baltimore's port by the Union Navy. Other residents, and a majority of the legislature, wished to remain in the Union, but did not want to be involved in a war against their southern neighbors, and sought to prevent a military response by Lincoln to the South's secession.

After John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, many citizens began forming local militias, determined to prevent a future slave uprising.

Very Good Condition. This listing includes the complete entire original newspaper. VINTAGE BOOKS AND FINE ART stands behind all of the items that we sell with a no questions asked, money back guarantee. Every item we sell is original printed on the date indicated at the beginning of its description, unless clearly stated as a reproduction in the header AND text body. U.S. buyers pay calculated priority postage which includes waterproof plastic and a heavy cardboard flat to protect your purchase from damage in the mail. International postage is quoted when we are informed as to where the package is to be sent. We do combine postage (to reduce postage costs) for multiple purchases sent in the same package. We accept payment by PAYPAL. We ship packages daily. This is truly a piece OF HISTORY that YOU CAN OWN!