Montgomery County & the Battle for Freedom of the Press - In-person

at the Olney Library

Join historian Sandra Heiler for Part II of her War of 1812 talk: "Montgomery County & the Battle for Freedom of the Press in an Age of Political Violence."

PLEASE NOTE 12 PM NOON START TIME. ALSO, GIVEN THE TOPIC, THIS LECTURE IS BETTER SUITED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES.

In June 1812, four days after the United States declared war on Great Britain, a Republican mob in Baltimore destroyed the presses and tore down the office of a Federalist newspaper for publishing an anti-war editorial. When the newspaper’s owner, Rockville lawyer Alexander Hanson, heard what had happened, he recruited about twenty Montgomery County Federalists to go with him to Baltimore to defend freedom of the press.

In Baltimore, they were attacked by a mob of thousands, which left one dead and a dozen others near death. The incident made front-page news all over the United States and Britain. It turned Maryland politics on its head, marked a sea change in mob violence, led to censorship by intimidation, and gave Baltimore the lasting epithet “Mob Town.”

ACCOMPANYING IMAGE: This is a Republican newspaper’s satirical print of the Montgomery County men, who called themselves a “Spartan Band.” The print is called “The Conspiracy against Baltimore or War Dance at Montgomery Courthouse.”

NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED BUT SEATING IS LIMITED. Q&A to follow. Hope you can join us!

Sponsored by Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, MD, Inc.

SANDRA HEILER is an early American historian specializing in the years leading up to the American Revolution and the early Federal period. She is currently the Treasurer of Montgomery Preservation, Inc., and a member of the county’s Rustic Roads Advisory Committee, as well as a member of Montgomery History’s Speakers Bureau. She served on Montgomery County’s Historic Preservation Commission for 13 years, three as vice-chairman and three as chairman, and she is a former board member of Preservation Maryland. Sandy has a BA in Mathematics and an MA in American Studies and Historic Preservation from Boston University. After a 38-year career as a computer scientist, she retired from Verizon Laboratories as Principal Scientist and Director of Verizon’s Information Technology Lab.

Questions about this program? Contact Olney Library at 240-773-9545.

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If you plan to attend with a group of ten or more, please contact the branch at least one week before the program to discuss how your group might be accommodated.

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