This dissertation examines black southern Marylanders' transition from slavery to freedom. The state remained in the Union and internally emancipated its enslaved population; therefore, the federal government was precluded from instituting policies in "loyal" Maryland that were operating to protect freed people in the former Confederacy. This study considers how that reality shaped the wartime and postwar experiences of regional blacks. In doing so, it offers a nuanced perspective by situating the region's black population within the context of a state with all of its rights reserved. During a turbulent time in the American experience, black southern Marylanders could not depend on the federal government to interfere with the internal functioning of a sovereign state. This compelled freed people to assume responsibility for their transition from slavery to freedom.

This study employs a plethora of primary source material to give expression to the struggles that regional blacks confronted as they attempted to define freedom for themselves. Pension files located at the National Archives and Records Administration provided a wealth of information pertaining to the conditions that regional blacks confronted during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. Along with these records, this study uses documents from local, state and national repositories to examine how black southern Marylanders met the social, political and economic challenges that presented themselves to freed people residing in a Border State.