John L. Carey was a member of the General Assembly of Maryland in 1843 and a newspaper editor in Maryland in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Maryland State Archives biographical file on John L. Carey He is known for his writing on the question of slavery, which was a subject in a number of his letters and books. He was editor of the American and Commercial Daily Advertiser in Baltimore for twelve years.
In 1845, physician and planter Richard Sprigg Steuart published an open letter to Carey in Baltimore, addressing the slavery question.Richard Sprigg Steuart, Letter to John Carey 1845, p.4. Retrieved July 2012 Carey and Steuart were both members of the Maryland State Colonization Society, believing that free American blacks should be resettled in an African colony.
Career Carey wrote a number of letters, books and essays on the subject, including Slavery in Maryland - Briefly Considered, published in Baltimore in 1845. Carey, John L., Slavery in Maryland - Briefly Considered Retrieved July 2012 Carey's conflicted position on slavery reflected the wider division of attitudes in Maryland prior to the Civil War. On one hand, Carey could not imagine a world in which the two races coexisted peacefully in liberty and, like many other Southerners, he deeply resented the pressure from Northern abolitionists. On the other hand, he sought a solution to the problem of slavery through peaceful resettlement of former slaves and free blacks in Africa.Clark, p133 Retrieved July 2012 Carey was a member of the Maryland State Colonization Society, an organization formed to "return", more accurately, relocate free black Americans (most of whom were native to the United States, often for generations) to the west coast of Africa, in what is today Liberia.p. 14, Journal of the Maryland Colonization Society Retrieved July 2012
Carey was editor of the Baltimore American & Commercial Daily Advertiser for 12 years. Hired by the Crescent newspaper, he moved to New Orleans.
Death He died from cholera in New Orleans in December 1852. He had moved there to become editor of the Crescent.American & Commercial Advertiser, December 16, 1852
Published works Some Thoughts Concerning Domestic Slavery, Baltimore (1838) Slavery in Maryland - Briefly Considered, Baltimore (1845) Slavery and the Wilmot Proviso; With Some Suggestions for a Compromise (c1846)
References Clark, Susan E., The Work of Cities Grivno, Max L., p.118, "There Slavery Cannot Dwell": Agriculture and Labor in Northern Maryland
Notes