Local historians work to commemorate 1880 Frederick Douglass speech in Salisbury

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – Local historians are working to commemorate an important moment in Salisbury’s story.

A Moment Worth Marking

In 1880, famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a speech at the Wicomico County Courthouse. About 200 people showed up to hear Douglass speak. The event helped to raise money to construct the second floor of the then-John Wesley Church, now-Chipman Cultural Center.

“We’ve been working on this for two years, but we only started trying to solicit money from the community in the last six or seven months,” said the President of the Preservation Trust of Wicomico, Aleta Davis.

Davis says the group is hoping to pay homage to Douglass’ Salisbury speech with a historical marker, to be placed on the courthouse lawn. The sign will be cast in bronze, and feature an engraving depicting Douglass as he looked when he delivered his powerful words.

“Very few people in Salisbury know that he spoke here,” Davis said. “And, to us as historians, we’re trying to preserve history.”

Self-Made Men Speech

Douglass spoke for about two hours when he delivered his “Self-Made Men” speech.

“From apparently the basest metals we have the finest toned bells, and we are taught respect from simple manhood when we see how, from various dregs of society, there come men who may well be regarded as the pride and as the watch towers of the race,” Douglass is recorded to have said.

Davis says the speech is the embodiment of what made Douglass such an important figures in American history: his tenacity.

“His speech was all about self-made men, and he was a self-made man,” Davis said. “No matter what happened to him, no matter how he was slapped down, or what he couldn’t do in a job that he should have been able to do, he never let that diminish his success.”

Council Gives Green Light

At the July 16th Wicomico County Council meeting, Efforts to bring the marker to the courthouse lawn were given the official green light.

Before that, however, concerns were raised by the Court Administrator Melissa Lahe.

Lahe told Council members that she knows the marker is not political, and that the wish is not to diminish Douglass’ contributions to American history. However, court officials wanted to avoid the “‘George Washington slept here’ mentality.”

“Typically the court does decline any requests for markers on the courthouse lawn, just because of the need to be impartial and to appear to be impartial,” Lahe explained. “The concern is that we end up with multiple requests, potentially, that appear to be competing politically.”

Council President John Cannon answered, “From my perspective, this is a highly historical event, a man of this stature speaking at the county courthouse… I really don’t believe there will be a request for multiple, more markers.”

Josh Hastings, Council member, echoed Cannon’s sentiments, calling Douglass one of the most revered figures in American culture.

And while Council member Shanie Shields also agreed, she suggested putting the market at the Chipman Cultural Center. The building is the oldest existing building on the Delmarva Peninsula built by people of African descent. Shields is president of the Chipman Foundation.

“The benefit of that speech was to the Cultural Center. That is what I would do, and I think [Douglass] was a great man,” Shields said. “[The Chipman Cultural Center] building has a lot of history, and shows what African Americans did back in that day.”

Cannon agreed that the Chipman Cultural Center should get more recognition. However, the Council ultimately decided to allow the marker to be placed on the courthouse lawn.

Holding Up History

Davis, meanwhile, says the Preservation Trust of Wicomico is still in fundraising mode. She added that the group plans to eventually put up ten to 12 other historic markers around Salisbury.

If you are able to donate or would like to join the Preservation Trust of Wicomico, you can contact Davis by emailing her at AllManor@Comcast.net. Davis says you can also get in touch with the group on their Facebook page.