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Maryland county (Liberia)

Last modified: 2020-08-08 by rob raeside

Keywords: maryland | canton: national flag | tree | lighthouse | doubt | cross: couped | cross (white) | stripes: 13 |

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“Maryland County”, at the English Wikipedia

Description of the flag

Yellow stripes appeared in the flag of the Republic of Maryland before it joined Liberia in 1857.

Željko Heimer, 08 Jan 2000, quoting from [smi75b]

The emblem on the flag of Maryland county is a drawing of a tree and a lighthouse on a cliff. My reference says that yellow stripes appeared on the flag of the Republic of Maryland before it joined Liberia in 1857. The flag of the county dates from 1965.

Tom Gregg, 17 January 1997

Republic of Maryland (1830-1857)

The settlement of Maryland was created in 1827 but independence was not proclaimed until 1854. The flag was official from 1854 to 1857 when the republic united with Liberia, but it was created around 1830 [Cp. Liberia 1827-1847]. According to Lucien Philippe, the use of the blue canton with a white cross and the yellow bars is established, but the color of the other bars is uncertain. Influenced by Liberia, these are normally shown as white, but Phillipe believes that they should be black because the settlement was created by freed slaves from Maryland in United States and yellow and black are the colors of Maryland.

Jaume Ollé, 25 Apr 1998

According to Flags Through the Ages and Across the World [smi75b], "yellow stripes appeared in the flag of the Republic of Maryland before it joined Liberia in 1857".

John Ayer, 14 Aug 2002

The flag of the African Republic of Maryland was thirteen horizontal stripes. In the upper hoist corner was a dark blue square bearing a white cross similar to that of Switzerland.

Don Healy, 16 Sep 1996

Version with white stripes

image by Jaume Ollé, 31 Aug 2008

It was said previously that the flag had yellow and white stripes so I’m not sure if this flag is correct. I believe that the first stripe on the top was yellow (and also the last stripe in the bottom), but in this image the black stripes are first and last. Can anyone confirm this design?

Jaume Ollé, 16 Jan 1997

Version with red stripes

I have been notified by a fellow researcher that the flag listed as of the independent "State of Maryland in Liberia" 1854-1857 (the yellow and black stripes) is incorrect and probably spurious. The Constitution of the State Maryland in Liberia effective in 1854-1857 is quite square on the flag design: "six red and five white stripes with a plain blue field":

http://mdhistory.msa.maryland.gov/msa_sc5977/scm013247/html/msa_sc5977_scm13247-0899.html



The constitution was passed by a Constitutional Convention on 29 March 1853, and formally adopted at a referendum on 29 May 1854, so that is the adoption date.

http://www.archontology.org/nations/liberia/maryland/01_polity.php



This information and links were provided by: Oleg Schultz the author of Archontology http://www.archontology.org/

Ben Cahoon, 14 July 2020

I don't deny these newly discovered sources, but what about those which we have had so far - [smi75b] and [phi]? They all agree about yellow stripes, and even derive the current county flag from them. Maybe there were some flags in use, which departed from the constitutional description?

Tomislav Todorovic, 15 July 2020