Carroll should publicly repent for enabling slavery, a historian said after the first public presentation of the county?s slave registry.
“I think Carroll should apologize,” said Jesse Glass, a Westminster native andhistory professor at Meikai University in suburban Tokyo.
Glass flew from Japan to attend the Carroll County Human Relations Commission?s public presentation of slave registry documents Monday at the Board of Education headquarters.
In addition, Annapolis became the first port city in the nation Monday to adopt a draft resolution to apologize for allowing slave ships to dock there, said City Alderman Sam Shropshire, who introduced the resolution.
Virginia became the first state to apologize last month, and Maryland is considering an apology that Democratic Sen. Nathanial Exum and Del. Michael Vaughn, both of Prince George?s, introduced.
Commissioner Michael Zimmer said he would be open to the idea of Carroll apologizing, but doesn?t plan to introduce a resolution. He suggested Carroll support the state?s apology.
“I think we should embrace all aspects of history and not just the positive,” said Zimmer, whose desk displays a card with the Sykesville Colored Schoolhouse on the front.
Commissioner Dean Minnich said he was against the idea of Carroll apologizing.
“It?s a non-issue,” he said. “My ancestors didn?t own slaves.”
Minnich also said some blacks living in Carroll are probably not descendants of slaves.
Commissioner Julia Gouge did not return messages seeking comment.
Jeff Korman, manager of the Maryland Collection at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore City, and Vivian Fisher, manager of the library?s African-American department, participated in the slave registry presentation to show how the documents now appear at www.mdch.org and give pointers on how residents can research their family histories.
