Legal History Commons^™

Coston V. Coston, 25 Md. 500 (Md. 1866): The Plight Of One Family Out Of Many Fighting Apprenticeship In Reconstruction Maryland, Zachary S. Schultz

Legal History Publications

The abolition of slavery in the State of Maryland, pursuant to the Maryland Constitution of 1864, resulted in the emancipation of thousands of black children, who, because of an unrepealed section of the Maryland Black codes, were quickly apprenticed to their former masters under the guise of a legal apprenticeship statute. Within this period of Maryland history is the story of Leah Coston and her two boys, Simon and Washington, who were apprenticed to their former master, Samuel S. Costen, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This paper contextualizes the case of Coston v. Coston within the times and provides …