The Talbot County Courthouse is located at 11 North Washington Street in Easton,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, United States. The courthouse houses the chambers and courtrooms for the judge of the Circuit Court for Talbot County, as well as the clerk's offices, jurors' assembly room, the master's office and the offices of the Talbot County Council.

History

The abolitionist

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

was held in the jail at the rear of the courthouse after his aborted attempt to escape slavery on April 2, 1836. On May 27, 1862, Union Army General John Adams Dix issued orders for the arrest of Judge Richard Bennett Carmichael, suspected of being a southern sympathizer after requesting juries to serve indictments against federal officials who arrested three men acting disruptively at a union rally in November 1861. More than 125 deputies and soldiers surrounded the courthouse; two of them entered the courtroom and seized Carmichael. A man named John L. Bishop beat Carmichael over the head with his pistol until the judge was unconscious. Carmichael was dragged out of the courtroom and taken by steamer to

Fort McHenry Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack b ...

. Six months later he was released without ever being charged or tried for any crime.

Statues

The "Talbot Boys" statue, a monument to the Confederate army, was installed in front of the courthouse in 1916 and removed after years-long protests in 2022. A statue of Frederick Douglass, installed in 2004, remains at the same site.

References

{{MD county courthouses County courthouses in Maryland Buildings and structures in Easton, Maryland Government buildings completed in 1789 1789 establishments in Maryland