SANDY SPRING, MD—Maryland Emancipation Day is Saturday, November 3 and the Montgomery County Department of Parks is partnering with the Friends of Oakley Cabin and the Sandy Spring Slave Museum for this annual commemoration.
“Our featured program for this year’s events is highlighted by Historian John W. Franklin,” said Parks Education and Outreach Planner Susan Soderberg. “We are happy to have Mr. Franklin join us to talk about future plans for the new National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall.”
In addition to Mr. Franklin’s presentation on the new museum, the Emancipation Day program of celebration, which runs from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm at Oakley Cabin in Brookeville, will include re-enactors, the Magruder High School Choir and re-enactments and music by Kent Courtney. Other Emancipation Day events include:
– An Underground Railroad Experience Hike at Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park, 10:00 am, 16501 Norwood Road. FREE interpreted hike of the 1 ½ mile Rural Legacy Trail from Woodlawn Manor to Sandy Spring.
– Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery Open House, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm, 18524 Brooke Road. Lunch for purchase by Ribs-on-the-Run and FREE entertainment.
– Oakley Cabin Open House, 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm, 3610 Brookeville Road. FREE cabin tours and living history demonstrations, hot cider and gingerbread.
November 1, 1864, slaves in Maryland were freed by a new state constitution, making Maryland the first of the Civil War slave states to free, by popular vote, those held in bondage within its boundaries. Before Emancipation Day, Quakers and free blacks in Montgomery County, especially in the Town of Sandy Spring, helped many slaves escape to freedom in the North. The department’s Rural Legacy Trail commemorates this path to freedom for escaping slaves—through fields and woods across various terrains and environments, past the spring for which the Town of Sandy Spring is named and on to the safe haven of the Quaker Meeting House and town.
Parking for the Emancipation Day events will be available at the Longwood Recreation Center, 19300 Georgia Avenue, for Oakley Cabin; at Woodlawn Manor for the hike; and at the Ross Boddy Center across from the Sandy Spring Slave Museum. A shuttle van will run between Woodlawn Manor and Sandy Spring from 11:00 am until 12:00 noon; and a bus between the Longwood Recreation Center and Oakley Cabin from 11:30 am until 4:30 pm.
All Emancipation Day events will take place rain or shine. Visit www.MontgomeryParks.org for more information or call (301) 563-3400.
# # #
Contact:
Kelli Holsendolph
Media Relations Manager
Montgomery County Department of Parks
301-650-2866