Images show the crane and a flatbed truck removing the statue of Roger B. Taney in the wee hours of the morning Friday leaving behind a green, plywood case concealing its base with the name of the chief justice behind the Dred Scott decision now hidden from view.
"As of now, this is what's left of Roger Taney,” said a guide as he led a tour past the wooden box, “Questions about that?"
Some question what they consider a move to erase a part of our nation's history.
"To me, it's sad,” said Beth Levitt of Annapolis, “I don't believe in (slavery), but I believe in history and I believe this is part of history and you can't deny what history is. Are you going to stop teaching history in the schools?"
While others say there are lessons to be learned in its absence.
"There are great teaching moments and there are bad teaching moments,” said Dwight Mackel, “I think this is a good teaching moment for the kids to recognize and for people to get out and understand why this was taken down."
For his part, 65-year old Jonathan Greene grew up in Annapolis and the statue never bothered him.
"We never knew what it was, but we played around these statues," he recalled.
But in light of the potential for violent confrontations surrounding such statues, both Greene and his wife, Marva, support the decision to remove it.
"It was worth it to move it,” said Marva Greene, “Yes, because of what happened down in Virginia last week. That was awful."
"I think that to cause no problems here that might have been the best thing to do,” added her husband, “Like Baltimore, Maryland as well, I think it might have been the best thing to do."
Some have suggested erecting a statue of Frederick Douglass or Harriet Tubman in that same location outside the State House that may send the right message as the nation wrestles with images from its wrongful past.
