On Courthouse Steps, Cambridge Residents Read "The Dorchester Resolves," Then Donate the Signed Scroll to the Harriet Tubman Museum
Two days before the nation's 250th, a costumed reading names grievances from the White House to City Hall
Contact: Michelle Fowle, Co-Founder, Cambridge Indivisible
Email: info@cambridgeindivisible.org Phone: (410) 571-4862
CAMBRIDGE, MD — In sweltering July heat, about 30 residents gathered in front of the Dorchester County Courthouse on Wednesday evening to read aloud "The Dorchester Resolves of 2026," a citizens' declaration of grievances modeled on the colonial Resolves that Maryland communities issued at their courthouses in 1774. Many came in period dress, and a costumed town crier opened the reading from beside the Harriet Tubman statue, prompting the crowd to answer with a traditional "Huzzah."
Held two days before the Fourth of July and the nation's 250th anniversary, the event was staged as a period piece — a formal, costumed reading in the manner of 1774 — but its grievances were pointedly current. The Resolves name federal, state, and local actions affecting Eastern Shore working families, and call out each level of government responsible, from the President, to Congress, to Annapolis, to the Dorchester County Council, to Cambridge City Hall.
Among the grievances read aloud: unlawful tariffs that raise costs for watermen and farmers; deportations carried out without due process; and roughly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food assistance under the 2025 federal budget law. The Resolves note that Rep. Andy Harris, who represents Dorchester County, voted for that law and has defended it as "a win for Maryland," even as about 188,800 people in his district rely on Medicaid. Closer to home, the document protests rising property taxes and utility rates, and calls on the State of Maryland to protect residents by asking its wealthiest residents and most profitable corporations to pay their share rather than shifting costs onto counties.
Organizers chose the courthouse deliberately. On that same ground, men, women, and children were once bought and sold; in 1850, Harriet Tubman's niece Kessiah was auctioned there and carried to freedom before the sale could close. Tubman was born enslaved in Dorchester County.
"It has always been ordinary people who do the extraordinary things — not the powerful, and not the famous, but the ones who show up," said Michelle Fowle, co-founder and co-chair of Cambridge Indivisible. "Thirty people came out in that heat, in this county, to stand on the courthouse steps and say plainly what's being done to families on this Shore — and to name everyone with the power to stop it."
After the reading, attendees were invited to sign the Resolves, printed on a two-foot-by-six-foot scroll laid across the base of the Harriet Tubman statue. The group then walked several blocks to the newly reopened Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center on Race Street, where director Linda Harris led a private tour of the museum's immersive, hand-painted galleries.
Cambridge Indivisible has donated the signed scroll to the Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center, where it will be displayed, and the organization is inviting the public to visit the museum and add their names to the record.
"The document belongs on that ground, among those murals,” Fowle said. "It isn't finished. There's still room on the scroll, and everyone in this community is invited to sign it."
About Cambridge Indivisible: Cambridge Indivisible is a volunteer-led, grassroots organization based in Dorchester County, Maryland, working for democracy, civil rights, and accountable government on the Eastern Shore.
Photographs can be found here. Video here.
The Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center is a nonprofit organization recognized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is strictly nonpartisan. The Museum & Educational Center does not support or oppose any political party, candidate for public office, or partisan political organization, nor does it participate or intervene in any political campaign. While the Museum & Educational Center may present historical content that includes political topics as part of the historical record, such programming is offered solely for educational purposes and does not advocate contemporary political positions. All Museum & Educational Center activities, programs and communications are conducted in accordance with applicable nonprofit and tax-exempt laws.
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