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The new Maryland state constitution of 1864 ended slavery and provided for the education of all children, including blacks. The Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People established schools for blacks that were taken over by the public school system, which then restricted education for blacks beginning in 1867 when Democrats regained control of the city. Establishing an unequal system that prepared white students for citizenship while using education to reinforce black subjugation, Baltimore's postwar school system exposed the contradictions of race, education, and republicanism in an age when African Americans struggled to realize the ostensible freedoms gained by emancipation.<ref>Robert S. Wolff, "The Problem of Race in the Age of Freedom: Emancipation and the Transformation of Republican Schooling in Baltimore, 1860-1867," ''Civil War History'' 2006 52(3): 229-254 </ref>
 
The new Maryland state constitution of 1864 ended slavery and provided for the education of all children, including blacks. The Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People established schools for blacks that were taken over by the public school system, which then restricted education for blacks beginning in 1867 when Democrats regained control of the city. Establishing an unequal system that prepared white students for citizenship while using education to reinforce black subjugation, Baltimore's postwar school system exposed the contradictions of race, education, and republicanism in an age when African Americans struggled to realize the ostensible freedoms gained by emancipation.<ref>Robert S. Wolff, "The Problem of Race in the Age of Freedom: Emancipation and the Transformation of Republican Schooling in Baltimore, 1860-1867," ''Civil War History'' 2006 52(3): 229-254 </ref>
 
==Higher culture==
 
==Higher culture==
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Baltimore is the site of the Johns Hopkins University (1876), a premier research institution best known for its medical school. Other notable schools are the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (1873), Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (formerly the Peabody Conservatory of Music; founded 1857), and Goucher College (1885) in suburban Towson. Much of the work of higher education is done by the University of Maryland-Baltimore, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, the University of Maryland, and Towson State University. The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Peale Museum, and the Walters Art Gallery have notable collections of art, and the B & O Railroad Museum houses an impressive collection of railroad memorabilia.  The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, founded in the 1990s, attempts a 'balancing act' by highlighting the importance, endurance, and vitality of African American history and culture, while emphasizing the destructive effects of slavery and racism.  The Morris Mechanic Theater, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Opera Company, and Fort McHenry (its successful defense against the British in 1814, inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner") are other major attractions.  Nearby Pimlico Race Track is the site of the Preakness Stakes, a major event in horse racing.  Druid Hill Park contains the city zoo and a natural history museum.  The ''[[U.S.S.  Constellation]]'', launched in 1854 is a major tourist attraction in the harbor.
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Baltimore is the site of the Johns Hopkins University (1876), a premier research institution best known for its medical school. Other notable schools are the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (1873), Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (formerly the Peabody Conservatory of Music; founded 1857), and Goucher College (1885) in suburban Towson. Much of the work of higher education is done by the University of Maryland-Baltimore, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, the University of Maryland, and Towson State University.  Morgan State University is a historically black school. The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Peale Museum, and the Walters Art Gallery have notable collections of art, and the B & O Railroad Museum houses an impressive collection of railroad memorabilia.  The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, founded in the 1990s, attempts a 'balancing act' by highlighting the importance, endurance, and vitality of African American history and culture, while emphasizing the destructive effects of slavery and racism.  The Morris Mechanic Theater, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Opera Company, and Fort McHenry (its successful defense against the British in 1814, inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner") are other major attractions.  Nearby Pimlico Race Track is the site of the Preakness Stakes, a major event in horse racing.  Druid Hill Park contains the city zoo and a natural history museum.  The ''[[U.S.S.  Constellation]]'', launched in 1854 is a major tourist attraction in the harbor.
 
==Parks==
 
==Parks==
 
The story of the Patapsco Forest Reserve (later renamed the Patapsco Valley State Park) near Baltimore reveals notable connections between the Progressive-era movements for forest conservation and urban park planning. In 1903, the Patapsco Valley site, although outside the city boundary, was nevertheless identified by the Olmstead Brothers landscape architecture firm as an ideal site to acquire property for future park development. At the same time, the Maryland State Board of Forestry, seeking to establish scientific forestry research, received donated land for this purpose in the Patapsco Valley. Over subsequent decades, a powerful alliance of urban elites, state managers, and city officials assembled thousands of acres along the Patapsco River. The site evolved into a unique hybrid of forest preserve and public park that reflected both its location on the urban fringe and its dual heritage in the conservation and parks movements.<ref>Geoffrey L. Buckley, et al. "The Patapsco Forest Reserve: Establishing a 'City Park' for Baltimore, 1907-1941," ''Historical Geography'' 2006 34: 87-108 </ref>  
 
The story of the Patapsco Forest Reserve (later renamed the Patapsco Valley State Park) near Baltimore reveals notable connections between the Progressive-era movements for forest conservation and urban park planning. In 1903, the Patapsco Valley site, although outside the city boundary, was nevertheless identified by the Olmstead Brothers landscape architecture firm as an ideal site to acquire property for future park development. At the same time, the Maryland State Board of Forestry, seeking to establish scientific forestry research, received donated land for this purpose in the Patapsco Valley. Over subsequent decades, a powerful alliance of urban elites, state managers, and city officials assembled thousands of acres along the Patapsco River. The site evolved into a unique hybrid of forest preserve and public park that reflected both its location on the urban fringe and its dual heritage in the conservation and parks movements.<ref>Geoffrey L. Buckley, et al. "The Patapsco Forest Reserve: Establishing a 'City Park' for Baltimore, 1907-1941," ''Historical Geography'' 2006 34: 87-108 </ref>  
 
==History==
 
==History==
 
The 1790s were hard times for the city. The Bank of England's suspension of specie payments caused the network of Atlantic credit to unravel, leading to a mild recession. The [[Quasi-War]] with France in 1798-1800 caused major disruptions to Baltimore's trade in the Caribbean. Finally, a yellow fever epidemic diverted ships from the port, while much of the urban population fled into the countryside. The downturn widened to include every social class and area of economic activity. In response the business community diversified away from an economy based heavily on foreign trade.<ref> Richard S. Chew, "Certain Victims of an International Contagion: The Panic of 1797 and the Hard Times of the Late 1790s in Baltimore," ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 2005 25(4): 565-613</ref>  
 
The 1790s were hard times for the city. The Bank of England's suspension of specie payments caused the network of Atlantic credit to unravel, leading to a mild recession. The [[Quasi-War]] with France in 1798-1800 caused major disruptions to Baltimore's trade in the Caribbean. Finally, a yellow fever epidemic diverted ships from the port, while much of the urban population fled into the countryside. The downturn widened to include every social class and area of economic activity. In response the business community diversified away from an economy based heavily on foreign trade.<ref> Richard S. Chew, "Certain Victims of an International Contagion: The Panic of 1797 and the Hard Times of the Late 1790s in Baltimore," ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 2005 25(4): 565-613</ref>  
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===Blacks===
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From the late 1700s into the 1820s Baltimore was a "city of transients," a fast-growing boom town attracting thousands of ex-slaves from the surrounding countryside. Slavery in Maryland declined steadily after the 1810s as the state's economy shifted away from plantation agriculture, as evangelicalism and a liberal manumission law encouraged owners to liberate those in bondage, and as other masters practiced "term slavery," registering deeds of manumission but postponing the actual date of freedom for a decade or more. Baltimore's shrinking slave population often lived and worked alongside the city's growing free black population as "quasi-freedmen." With unskilled and semiskilled employment readily available, particularly in the shipyards and related industries, little friction with white workers occurred. Despite the overall poverty of the city's free blacks, compared with the condition of those living in Philadelphia, Charleston, and New Orleans, Baltimore was a "city of refuge," where slave and free black alike found an unusual amount of freedom.  Churches, schools, and fraternal and benevolent associations provided a cushion against hardening white attitudes toward free blacks in the wake of Nat Turner's revolt in Virginia in 1831. But a flood of German and Irish immigrants swamped Baltimore's labor market after 1840, driving free blacks deeper into poverty.<ref> Christopher Phillips ''Freedom's Port: The African American Community of Baltimore, 1791-1860'' (1997)</ref>
 
===Civil War===
 
===Civil War===
 
Baltimore was torn by the Civil War. Much of the social and political elite favored the Confederacy--and indeed owned house slaves.  However the fierce politics of the 1850s had galvanized the white workers, most of them German, who opposed slavery. working-class political consciousness to the workplace and deftly reconstructs the breakdown of what he terms urban paternalism over the antebellum decades. Baltimore in the [[Third Party System]] had two-party competitive elections, with powerful bosses, carefully orchestrated political violence, and an emerging working-class consciousness at the polls.  The American Party emerged in the mid 1850s to represent Protestants and to counter the Democratic Party, which was increasingly controlled by [[Catholic Irish]].  When Baltimore erupted in violence at the time of Lincoln's inauguration, for example, the pro-Union "Blood Tubs" that took to the streets were veterans of political rioting.<ref>Frank Towers, ''The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War'' (2004)</ref>   
 
Baltimore was torn by the Civil War. Much of the social and political elite favored the Confederacy--and indeed owned house slaves.  However the fierce politics of the 1850s had galvanized the white workers, most of them German, who opposed slavery. working-class political consciousness to the workplace and deftly reconstructs the breakdown of what he terms urban paternalism over the antebellum decades. Baltimore in the [[Third Party System]] had two-party competitive elections, with powerful bosses, carefully orchestrated political violence, and an emerging working-class consciousness at the polls.  The American Party emerged in the mid 1850s to represent Protestants and to counter the Democratic Party, which was increasingly controlled by [[Catholic Irish]].  When Baltimore erupted in violence at the time of Lincoln's inauguration, for example, the pro-Union "Blood Tubs" that took to the streets were veterans of political rioting.<ref>Frank Towers, ''The Urban South and the Coming of the Civil War'' (2004)</ref>   
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* Elfenbein, Jessica I.''The Making of a Modern City: Philanthropy, Civic Culture, and the Baltimore YMCA'' (2001) 192 pp.
 
* Elfenbein, Jessica I.''The Making of a Modern City: Philanthropy, Civic Culture, and the Baltimore YMCA'' (2001) 192 pp.
 
* Hayward, Mary Ellen and Shivers, Frank R., Jr., eds. ''The Architecture of Baltimore: An Illustrated History'' (2004). 408 pp.
 
* Hayward, Mary Ellen and Shivers, Frank R., Jr., eds. ''The Architecture of Baltimore: An Illustrated History'' (2004). 408 pp.
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* Phillips, Christopher. ''Freedom's Port: The African American Community of Baltimore, 1790-1860''
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* Phillips, Christopher. ''Freedom's Port: The African American Community of Baltimore, 1790-1860'' (1997)
 
* Rockman, Seth. ''Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore'' (2009), 368 pp. social history [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=24171 online review]
 
* Rockman, Seth. ''Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore'' (2009), 368 pp. social history [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=24171 online review]
 
* Steffen, Charles. ''Mechanics of Baltimore''
 
* Steffen, Charles. ''Mechanics of Baltimore''
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* Sutton, William R. ''Journeymen for Jesus: Evangelical Artisans Confront Capitalism in Jacksonian Baltimore'' (1998) 351 pp.
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* Sutton, William R. ''Journeymen for Jesus: Evangelical Artisans Confront Capitalism in Jacksonian Baltimore'' (1998) 351 pp. [www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=3302 online review]
 
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