Maryland holds a Slaveholder's Convention with representatives from almost every county

The Convention of the Slaveholders of the Eastern Shore of Maryland had met in Cambridge, Maryland the previous November. This statewide Convention assembled in Baltimore with every county represented barring Alleghany in the west. The Convention sought to force the state legislature's hand on the issue of the rapidly increasing number of free blacks in Maryland. No significant progress was made at the Convention but it demonstrated the growing desperation of slaveholders in the state. (By John Osborne)