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“Maryland, My Maryland” is the state song of Maryland, set to the tune of “O, Tannenbaum.” It was written by James Ryder Randall during the Civil War, expressing sympathy for the Confederate cause. The song contains derogatory terms towards Northerners and Abraham Lincoln, causing controversy. Despite efforts to change the lyrics, the song remains the state song. Randall went on to write numerous other poems about the Civil War and religious poetry.
The state song of Maryland, adopted in 1939, is “Maryland, My Maryland,” set to the music of the classic holiday song “O, Tannenbaum.” The song began as a nine-stanza poem written by James Ryder Randall in 1861, during the Civil War. When written, it became very popular, as Randall used the piece to express his sympathy for the Confederate cause. Many years later, it became the subject of controversy due to the negative feelings expressed in it towards Northerners.
James Ryder Randall was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1839 to a wealthy family, and was educated by the same teacher who taught Edgar Allen Poe. He spent the early part of his adult life teaching English at a college in Louisiana, where he lived when he felt the growing tensions in his home state. Maryland was right on the border between north and south, with the Mason-Dixon line separating it from Pennsylvania. Its proximity to the north made the area particularly tense during the early days of the Civil War. On April 19, 1961, a riot broke out between Confederate sympathizers and Union soldiers, killing 11 civilians in what historians agree was the first bloodshed of the war. One of the civilians was a childhood friend of Randall’s, and the poet wrote what would become the state song of Maryland to express his heartbreak.
During the Civil War and for many years afterward, it was common for both Northerners and Southerners to express negative feelings toward one another through poems, songs, and stories. The civil war claimed over 600,000 lives on both sides, and hostilities persisted even after the official end of the war. As the generations passed, those hostilities began to diminish. Throughout the late 20th century and early 20th century, several bills appeared before the state senate to change the Maryland state song to something less controversial, but none of them passed.
The controversy surrounding the Maryland state song stems from the derogatory terms Randall used to describe Northerners and Abraham Lincoln, who was president during the Civil War period. These terms include “despot,” “scum of the north,” and, in relation to Lincoln, “tyrant.” Efforts to change the controversial lyrics while maintaining the general sentiment have also failed. Historians argue that poetry, including words that offend, is part of the history of Maryland and the United States.
After writing the poem that became Maryland’s state song, James Ryder Randall went on to write numerous other poems about the Civil War, and later turned to writing religious poetry. Of all the poems he wrote, none became as famous as “Maryland, My Maryland.” Randall died in 1907 in Georgia.
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