ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The 13th Amendment ultimately ended slavery in America, but Maryland needed to draft a new constitution to end the institution of slavery earlier throughout the Old Line State. The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to the Confederate states in the South, so it didn’t apply to Maryland.
On April 6, 1864, voters elected delegates for the new Constitutional Convention that would abolish slavery throughout the state. Delegates would congregate in Annapolis a few weeks later, marking the beginning of the end for slavery in Maryland. The Constitutional Convention began on April 27 and adjourned many months later on Sept. 6.
Maryland’s new constitution would later take effect on Nov. 1, 1864, officially ending slavery in the state of Maryland forever and offering thousands of individuals a fresh chance to start their lives over…