The Founding of Maryland

Maryland was named in the honor of Queen Henrietta Maria of France, and had three great leaders in its early days. George Calvert founded it in 1634 in hopes that it would become a Catholic haven (Maryland). His son Cecil Calvert was important because he inherited Maryland after his father died and had the displeasure of seeing all of his father's dreams collapse. Harriet Tubman was the third important person in this state. She was an African American, born as a slave in Maryland, who eventually ran away and became the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Settlers came to Maryland for several reasons. The most significant reason was because Catholic settlers hoped to escape religious persecution. Unfortunately, this did not work out too well; before long Protestants started to arrive. They hated the Catholics and quickly outnumbered them. Another reason settlers came was because there was plenty of land for whoever wanted it. At that time Maryland was quite a bit bigger than it is now, and it included the Chesapeake Bay, the Appalachian Mountains, and the islands of Chincoteague and Assateague. The state ranged from sea level to the very high Backbone Mountain.

The state's economy developed rather slowly. The land was mostly made up of tobacco, rice, and indigo farms, which were all exported. There was also fishing, the manufacturing of ships and iron, and exportation of lumber. Maryland also had booming African slave and indentured servant industries.

Maryland was a proprietary government, exclusively owned by the nobleman George Calvert. Every colonist in Maryland was either English or an African slave, and they were all either Catholic or Protestant. Most of the settlers lived on small family farms, growing what they needed to live on and exporting any extra crops. However, there were a few large manors that George Calvert gave to some of his wealthier friends. Many of the indentured servants worked at these farms and manors, and some people owned slaves to work for them, also. Indentured servants couldn't marry until their term was done, meaning that they were older when they married and eventually had children. This resulted in there not being very many children living in Maryland. There were also very few towns in Maryland, as most people lived on farms. Even the first town, St. Mary's City, consisted of barely thirty houses strung out over five miles (Maryland). There wasn't much of a social life, either, as people spent much of their time trying to make a living.

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