Unionville, Talbot County, Maryland
Unionville is an unincorporated community in Talbot County, Maryland, United States. Unionville is located on Maryland Route 370 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northwest of Easton.
In Unionville, an historic marker reads: “Unionville: Historic African-American community settled by ex-slaves and free blacks. Many were in [the] Union Army in [the] Civil War; [the] village's name honors [these] local soldiers. Unionville grew after the war to nearly 40 buildings with [a] church and school. In [the] cemetery are 18 black soldiers who fought for the Union 1863-66.” What the historic marker fails to mention is the courageous and progressive white men who made this village possible. Ezekiel and his son James M. Cowgill – Quakers who owned nearby Lombardy Plantation from 1856 – carved out a parcel of land for these veterans. Another of Ezekiel's sons, John Cowgill, also a Quaker, served as Captain in Company A, 108th Regiment U.S. Colored Infantry, Army of the Cumberland. This is somewhat unusual for a Quaker, but demonstrates that sometimes even pacifists must fight for a just cause. The Cowgills offered each of the eighteen veterans a plot of land for a dollar a year for thirty years. The land records show that the Cowgills intended not only to offer land for families but land to build a town. The Cowgills stipulated in their leases that the plot of land was offered to free blacks provided that they would build a church and a school house in their community. Starting in 1867, the first leases variously state that the land was at “Lombardy” or sometimes “Cowgillstown,” but from 1870 the leases read “the Village of Unionville.” Thus the village today is known as “Unionville” in honor of the Union Army that the blacks credited with winning their freedom. “Cowgillstown” stands also as a tribute to Quakers Ezekiel, John and James M. Cowgill, who championed the cause for justice, freedom, dignity, better living conditions and community for blacks - during the Civil War and after Emancipation.
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