ANNAPOLIS, Md., March 17 (UPI) -- Following a similar vote in Virginia, the Maryland Senate has voted unanimously to express "profound regret" over the state's role in the slave trade.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that the vote was a "gesture of contrition" coming just one month after Virginia passed a similar resolution as part of the state's 400th anniversary celebration on the founding of Jamestown.
The Post noted that lawmakers in other states and cities, including Missouri and Georgia, have been discussing measures as well.
The Maryland resolution says slavery "fostered a climate of oppression," not just for slaves and their descendants, but for other people of color who moved to Maryland after slavery was abolished and that its history has "afflicted the citizens of this state down to the present."
The Post quoted University of Maryland professor Ronald Walters, who testified in favor of the resolution and said that Virginia's recent vote had "opened the floodgates" for other states to consider their own resolutions.
With the adoption of a new state Constitution, slavery was officially ended in Maryland in 1864.
