These days, Maryland is one of the most liberal states in the union, with a higher percentage of left-leaning adults than nearly every other state, including New York and California, according to the Pew Research Center. But during the Civil War, Maryland was a fractured slave state that very nearly joined the Confederacy.
Tens of thousands of Marylanders fought on both sides of the conflict and used historical flags to declare their loyalties. Union Marylanders flew the black-and-gold Calvert flag, the heraldry of the Calvert family that founded the Maryland colony. Confederate Marylanders flew the white-and-red Crossland flag, believed to be the heraldry of the Crossland family, from which George Calvert’s mother descended.
Though used during the Colonial era in Lord Baltimore’s coat of arms, both heralds had fallen out of use after the Revolutionary War. In 1854, the Maryland government revived the black-and-gold image for a new state seal. In response, pro-secession Marylanders revived and co-opted the Crossland flag in opposition; they also wore Crossland socks, cravats and even children’s clothing, according to the Maryland secretary of state’s website. The Crossland flag became so closely associated with support for the Confederacy that during the Civil War, wearing red and white could get you charged with treason, according to Baltimore Magazine. Neo-Confederates still display the Crossland flag today as a symbol of white supremacy.
When the two heralds combined became the official state flag in 1905, lawmakers claimed it was a symbol of reconciliation and unity — symbolism cited by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) as recently as 2017. But that claim doesn’t tell the full story.
The combined flag was first popularized in the late 1880s and 1890s by the Fifth Regiment of the Maryland National Guard, which was mainly composed of former Confederates, was nicknamed the “rebel brigade” and marched frequently at public events, according to a state website. As with so many Confederate statues, the “rebel brigade” raised this flag at the peak of Jim Crow and white supremacist violence against Black Americans. In the same year the Maryland General Assembly adopted the new flag, it also tried to amend the state constitution to disfranchise Black men. (Put to a public referendum, the measure narrowly failed, in part because some segregationists, such as Gov. Edwin Warfield, worried the vague wording would disfranchise some White voters by accident.)
Even the Calvert half of the flag — the one flown by Union supporters during the Civil War — was “the crest of the Calvert family, who were made wealthy off of slavery,” noted Patterson, the Maryland artist.
Still, Patterson thinks Maryland’s flag, unlike the Confederate battle flag, isn’t irredeemable.
“You can’t ignore what the flag means to all Marylanders now,” Patterson said, noting the popularity of Maryland flag-themed clothing, bumper stickers and other decorations. “I think that, culturally, it[s meaning] has changed, and I think it’s totally reasonable for people to say, ‘We want it to mean this now.’ But if you say, ‘We’re just going to ignore it and pretend that other stuff didn’t happen,’ that’s bad.”
He thinks the state legislature and governor should publicly acknowledge the flag’s history. “Acknowledge that the Calvert family profited off of slavery,” he said. “Acknowledge the Confederate use of the Crossland portion and say, ‘This is such dark history, but that’s not us anymore. This flag overwhelmingly pulls all Marylanders together, and we want it to represent that, not these other things.’ And make that a public thing.”
Until that happens, Patterson is hesitant to embrace the flag, even though as a vexillophile he admires its aesthetics. When he moved to Maryland and registered his car for new license plates, he opted for the “Protect the Chesapeake” design offered by the state’s motor vehicle agency instead of the default, flag-themed one.
