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The
history of Maryland included only Native Americans
until Europeans, starting with
John Cabot in 1498, began exploring the area.
The first settlements came in 1645 when the English
arrived in numbers of gaylord groups and created a
permanent colony. In 1776, during the
American Revolution,
Maryland became a state in the
United States. It was a
slave state with some
Confederate
sympathies, but remained in the Union during the
American Civil War.
Although small in size, the state has distinct
socio-political-economic regions, including the
major city of Baltimore, Baltimore's suburbs, the
Washington suburbs, Western Maryland, and the
Eastern Shore.
Pre-Columbian history
It appears
that the first humans to arrive in the area that would
become Maryland appeared around the 10th millennium BCE,
about the time that the last ice age
ended. They were hunter-gatherers
organized into semi-nomadic bands. They adapted as the
region's environment changed, developing the spear for
hunting as smaller animals, like deer,
became more prevalent and by about 1500 BCE. Oysters had
become an important food resource in the region. With the
increased variety of food sources,
Native
American villages and settlements started appearing and
their social structures increased in complexity. By about
1000 BCE pottery was being produced. With the eventual rise
of agriculture more permanent
Native-American villages were built. But even with the
advent of farming, hunting and fishing were still major
sources of food. The bow and arrow
were first used for hunting in the area around the year 800.
Europeans
did not encounter Maryland's indigenous people until the
early 1600s. At that time, the main tribes in the state
spoke Algonquian languages. These
tribes included the
Nanticoke on the
Eastern Shore, and the
Susquehanna and Powhatan on the
Western shore. Within about a century of first contact, the
state's Native Americans were all but gone, having been
pushed out by the European settlers. The
Shawnee were the last major tribe in the state, and they
left Western Maryland in the 1740s.
Early European exploration
In 1498 the
first European explorers sailed along the
Eastern Shore, off
present-day Worcester
County. The next notable European to visit the area
occurred in 1524 when
Giovanni da Verrazzano, another Italian, who sailed
under the French flag, passed the mouth of the
Chesapeake Bay. The bay itself
was explored in 1572 by
Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the Spanish governor of
Florida, and in 1608 by
John Smith.
Colonial Maryland
George
Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore applied to
Charles I for a new
royal charter for what was to become the
Province of Maryland.
George Calvert died in April 1632, but a charter for
"Maryland Colony" (in Latin, "Terra
Maria") was granted to his son,
Cęcilius
Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, on June
20, 1632. Some historians view this
as a form of compensation for his father's being stripped of
his title of Secretary of
State upon announcing his
Roman Catholicism in 1625. The colony was named in honor
of Queen Henrietta
Maria.
To try to
gain settlers, Maryland used what is known as the
headright system.
Lord
Baltimore was a staunch Catholic,
which was extremely stigmatic for a nobleman in 17th century
The first
settlers, led by Leonard Calvert,
Cecil Calvert's younger brother, departed from
Cowes, on the
Isle of Wight, on November 22,
1633 aboard two small ships, the Ark
and the Dove. Their landing on
March 25, 1634 is commemorated by
the state each year on that date as
Maryland Day. The first group of colonists consisted of
17 gentlemen and their wives and
about two hundred others. After purchasing from the
Yaocomico Indians and establishing
the town of St. Mary's,
Leonard, per his brother's instructions, at first attempted
to govern the country under feudalistic
precepts. However, this met resistance and, in February
1635, he had to summon a colonial
assembly. In 1638, the
assembly forced him to govern according to the laws of
England, and subsequently the right
to initiate legislation passed to the assembly.
In 1638,
Calvert seized a trading post in
Kent Island established
by the Virginian William
Claiborne. In 1644, Claiborne led an uprising of
Maryland protestants. Calvert was
forced to flee to Virginia, but he
returned at the head of an armed force in 1646 and
reasserted proprietorial rule.
Maryland
soon became one of the few predominantly Catholic regions
among the English colonies in America. Maryland was also one
of the key destinations for tens of thousands of British
convicts punished by sentences of transportation, which
carried on until independence. The
Maryland Toleration Act,
issued in 1649, was one of the first laws that explicitly
tolerated varieties of religion (as long as it was
Christian), and is sometimes
seen as a precursor to the
First Amendment.
The city
plan of the colonial capital city - St. Mary's City - was
designed to reflect the principles of the colonies founders.
At the center of the city was the home of the mayor of St.
Mary's City. From that point, streets were laid out that
created two triangles. Located at two points of the triangle
extending to the west were the first Maryland state house
and a jail. Extending to the north of the mayor's home, the
remaining two points of the second triangle were defined by
a Catholic Church and a school. The design of the city was a
literal separation of church and state, reinforcing the
importance of religious freedom.
St. Mary's City was
the largest site of the original Maryland colony, and was
the seat of the colonial government until 1708. After
Virginia made the practice of
Anglicanism mandatory, a large number of Puritans migrated
from Virginia to Maryland, and were given land for a
settlement called Providence (now called Annapolis). In
1650, the Puritans revolted against the proprietary
government and set up a new government that outlawed both
Catholicism and Anglicanism. This lasted until 1658 when the
Calvert family regained control and re-enacted the
Toleration Act.
During the
persecution of Maryland Catholics by the Puritan
revolutionary government, all of the original Catholic
churches of southern Maryland were burned down. St Mary's
City is now an archeological site, with a small tourist
center. In 1708, the seat of government was moved to
Providence, renamed Annapolis
in honor of Queen Anne.
Just as the
city plan for St. Mary's City reflected the ideals of the
colonies first founders, the city plan of Annapolis
reflected those in power at the turn of the 18th century.
The plan of Annapolis extends from two circles at the center
of the city - one including the state house and the other a
church. The plan reflected a stronger relationship between
church and state, and a colonial government more closely
aligned with the Protestant church.
Originally,
based on an incorrect map, the royal charter granted
Maryland the Potomac River and
territory northward to the fortieth parallel. This was found
to be a problem, because the northern boundary would put
Philadelphia, the major city in
Pennsylvania, within Maryland.
The Calvert family, which
controlled Maryland, and the Penn
family, which controlled Pennsylvania, decided in 1750
to engage two surveyors, Charles
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon,
to survey what became known as the
Mason-Dixon line which would
form the boundary between their two colonies. The
Missouri Compromise of
1820 would later create political conditions which made the
Mason-Dixon line important to the history of slavery, whose
expansion was only permitted in territories south of the
line.
The Revolutionary period
Maryland
did not at first favor independence from Great Britain and
gave instructions to that effect to its delegates to the
Continental Congress.
During this initial phase of the Revolutionary period,
Maryland was governed by the
Assembly of Freemen, an Assembly of the state's
counties. The first
convention lasted four days, from June 22
to June 25, 1774.
All sixteen counties then existing were represented by a
total of 92 members; Matthew
Tilghman was elected chairman.
The eighth
session decided that the continuation of an ad-hoc
government by the convention was not a good mechanism for
all the concerns of the province. A more permanent and
structured government was needed. So, on
July 3, 1776 they resolved that a
new convention be elected that would be responsible for
drawing up their first
state
constitution, one that did not refer to parliament or
the king, but would be a government "...of the people
only." After they set dates and prepared notices to the
counties they adjourned. On August 1
all freemen with property elected delegates for the last
convention. The ninth and last convention was also known as
the
Constitutional Convention of 1776. They drafted a
constitution, and when they adjourned on November 11th, they
would not meet again. The Conventions were replaced by the
new state government which the
Maryland
Constitution of 1776 had established.
Thomas Johnson
became the state's first elected governor.
On
March 1, 1781 the
Articles of
Confederation took effect with Maryland's ratification.
The articles had initially been submitted to the states on
November 17, 1777,
but the ratification process dragged on for several years,
stalled by an interstate quarrel over claims to uncolonized
land in the west. Maryland was the
last hold-out; it refused to ratify until
Virginia and New
York agreed to rescind their claims to lands in the
Ohio River valley. All of the
colonies rebelling against Britain ratified it by 1781.
No
significant
Battles
of the American Revolutionary War occurred in Maryland.
However, this did not prevent the state's soldiers from
distinguishing themselves through their service.
General
George Washington was impressed with the Maryland
regulars who fought in the
Continental Army and, according to some historians, this
lead him to bestow the name "Old Line State" on Maryland.
Today, the Old Line State is one of Maryland's two
official nicknames.
The state
also filled other roles during the war. For instance, the
Continental Congress met
briefly in Baltimore from
December 20, 1776
through March 4, 1777.
Furthermore, a Marylander, John
Hanson, served as
President
of the Continental Congress from 1781 to 1782. Hanson
was the first person to serve a full term as President of
the Continental Congress under the Articles of
Confederation. (He is thus sometimes incorrectly referred to
as the "First President of the United States".)
From
November 26, 1783
to June 3, 1784,
Annapolis served as the United States capital and the
Continental Congress met
in the Maryland State House.
(Annapolis was a candidate to become the new nation's
permanent capital before
Washington, D.C. was built). It was in the old senate
chamber that George Washington
famously resigned his commission as
commander in chief of the
Continental Army on December 23,
1783. It was also there that the
Treaty of Paris, which
ended the Revolutionary War,
was ratified by Congress on January 14,
1784.
Maryland, 1789-1849
Maryland in the War of 1812
During the
War of 1812 the British conducted
raids against cities along the Chesapeake Bay, up to and
including Havre de Grace.
There were also two notable battles that occurred in the
state. The first was the
Battle of Bladensburg, which occurred on
August 24, 1814
just outside the national capital,
Washington, D.C. The
militiamen defending the city were routed and retreated in
confusion through the streets of the city.
After
overrunning the confused American defenders at the
Bladensburg the British took the nation's capital of
Washington, D.C.. After
burning and looting major public buildings there (see
Burning of Washington)
and forcing President James Madison
to flee, they turned their attention north to Baltimore,
where they hoped to strike a knockout blow against the
demoralized Americans. Baltimore was not only a busy port,
but was thought by the British to harbor many of the
privateers who were despoiling British ships. The city's
defenses were under the command of
Major General
Samuel Smith,an officer of Maryland
militia and also a United States
Senator. Baltimore had been well fortified, with excellent
supplies and some 15,000 troops. The British, knowing that
the success of their attack depended on the results of the
sea campaign, halted their advance.
At
Fort McHenry, some 1000 soldiers
under the command of Major
George Armistead awaited the British naval bombardment.
Their defense was augmented by the sinking of a line of
American merchant ships at the adjacent entrance to
Baltimore Harbor in order to further thwart the passage of
British ships. The attack began on the morning of
September 13, as the British
fleet of some nineteen ships began pounding the fort with
rockets and mortar shells. After an initial exchange of
fire, the British fleet withdrew just beyond the 1 1/2 mile
range of Fort McHenry's cannons, and continued to bombard
the outmanned Americans for the next 25 hours. On the
morning of September 14, an
oversized American flag, which
had been hastily sewn in hopes of this event, still flew
over Fort McHenry, and the British knew that victory had
eluded them. The bombardment of the fort prompted
Francis Scott Key, a native
of Frederick, MD who witnessed the assault, to write "the
Star-Spangled Banner", which would later become the
country's national anthem.
Maryland in the Civil War
Maryland's sympathies
Maryland
was one of the border
states, straddling the
North and South.
Federal law permitted the sale of slaves within the state
(as it did in all states of the union--where it was
prohibited, it was prohibited by state law). After
John Brown's raid
on Harper's Ferry,
Virginia (now in West Virginia),
citizens began forming local militias. Of its 1860
population of 687,000, about 60,000 men joined the Union and
about 25,000 fought for the Confederacy. In each case, the
political sentiments of these regions reflected their
economic interests.
The first
bloodshed of the Civil War occurred in Baltimore involving
the Massachusetts troops that were fired on while marching
between railroad stations on April 19,
1861. After that, Baltimore Mayor
George William Brown,
Marshal George P. Kane,
and former Governor Enoch Louis
Lowe requested that Maryland Governor
Thomas H. Hicks, a slave
owner from the Eastern
Shore, burn the railroad bridges and cut the telegraph
lines leading to Baltimore to prevent further troops from
entering the state. Hicks reportedly approved this proposal.
These actions were addressed in the famous
Supreme Court case of
Ex parte Merryman.
Maryland
remained part of the Union during the
United States Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln's strong hand
suppressing violence and dissent in Maryland and the belated
assistance of Governor Hicks who eventually worked with the
federal government to stop further violence played an
important role.
Marylanders
sympathetic to the South easily crossed the Potomac River to
join and fight for the Confederacy. Exiles organized a
"Maryland Line" in the
Army of Northern Virginia which consisted of one
infantry regiment, one infantry battalion, two cavalry
battalions and four battalions of artillery. According to
the best extant records, up to 25,000 Marylanders escaped
south to fight for the Confederacy while about 60,000
Maryland men served in all branches of the Union military.
However, many of those Union troops signed up largely
because they were promised home garrison duty.
Because
Maryland remained in the Union, it was not included under
the Emancipation
Proclamation. A constitutional convention was held
during 1864 that culminated in the passage of
a new state
constitution on November 1 of
that year. Article 24 of that document outlawed the practice
of slavery. The right to vote was extended to non-white
males in the
Maryland Constitution of 1867, which is still in effect
today.
The war on Maryland soil
In the
Civil War, the largest and most significant battle fought in
the state was the Battle of
Antietam, fought on September 17,
1862, near
Sharpsburg. The battle
was the culmination of Robert E.
Lee's Maryland Campaign,
which aimed to secure new supplies; recruit fresh men from
among the considerable pockets of Confederate sympathies in
Maryland; and to impact public opinion in the North. With
those goals, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, consisting of
about 40,000 men, had entered Maryland following their
recent victory at Second Bull Run.
While Major
General George B. McClellan's
87,000-man Army of the
Potomac was moving to intercept Lee, a
Union soldier
discovered a mislaid copy of the detailed battle plans of
Lee's army. The order indicated that Lee had divided his
army and dispersed portions geographically (to
Harpers Ferry, West
Virginia, and
Hagerstown, Maryland), thus making each subject to
isolation and defeat in detail if McClellan could move
quickly enough. McClellan waited about 18 hours before
deciding to take advantage of this intelligence and position
his forces based on it, thus endangering a golden
opportunity to defeat Lee decisively.
The armies
met near of the town of Sharpsburg by the
Antietam Creek. Although
McClellan arrived in the area on
September 16, his trademark caution delayed his attack
on Lee, which gave the Confederates more time to prepare
defensive positions and allowed Longstreet's corps to arrive
from Hagerstown and Jackson's corps, minus
A.P. Hill's division, to arrive
from Harpers Ferry. McClellan's two-to-one advantage in the
battle was almost completely nullified by a lack of
coordination and concentration of Union forces, which
allowed Lee to shift his defensive forces to parry each
thrust.
Although a
tactical draw, the Battle of Antietam is considered a
strategic Union victory and a
turning
point of the war because it forced the end of Lee's
invasion of the North and it allowed President Lincoln to
issue the Emancipation Proclamation, taking effect on
January 1, 1863.
Although Lincoln had intended to do so earlier, he was
advised by his Cabinet to make this announcement after a
Union victory to avoid the perception that it was issued out
of desperation. The winning of the Battle of Antietam also
may have dissuaded the governments of
France and
Great
Britain from recognizing the Confederacy; some suspected
they were planning to do so in the aftermath of another
Union defeat.
1865-1920
Post-Civil War political
developments
Since
Maryland had remained in the Union during the Civil War, the
state did not undergo
reconstruction like the states of the former
Confederacy. However, as a former "slave
state", Maryland did experience many of the same
problems with civil rights and racial tensions as did the
rest of the country. The deep divisions in the state between
those who fought for the North and those who fought for the
South were also difficult to repair.
The
Democratic Party regained power in the state from the
Republicans who had gained control of the government
during the war. With the shift in power away from the
Republicans, support for the Constitution of 1864 ended and
it was replaced by the
Maryland
Constitution of 1867. That document, which is still in
effect today, resembled the 1851 constitution more than its
immediate predecessor and was approved by 54.1% of the
state's population. However, while reapportioning the
legislature based on population, not counties, which gave
greater power to freed slaves, the document undid many of
the benefits that the prior constitution had given to the
state's African American
population.
Over the
next several decades, the position of the state's African
American population would remain an issue. This matter was
brought to the forefront of Maryland politics in 1910 by the
proposed Digges Amendment to
the state constitution. The amendment would have used
property requirements to effectively disenfranchise many
African Americans (and possibly some immigrants) in the
state. It was passed by the
Maryland General
Assembly and had the approval of the
Governor,
Austin Lane Crothers),
but it still required the approval of the people. Even
before the people even had a chance to vote on the
amendment, a bill was proposed which would have effectively
passed the requirements of the Digges Amendment into law
anyway. Not only did that measure fail (after a public
outcry) but the amendment itself was rejected by the voters
of Maryland. This was only the most notable rejection of a
black-disenfranchising amendment. At least two other
defeated proposals, the Poe Amendment in 1905 and the Straus
Amendment in 1909, tried to restrict the voting rights of
blacks in the state and other such proposals would arise in
Maryland over the next several years.
Progressive era reforms
In the
early 20th century, a political reform movement arose,
centered in the rising new middle class. One of their main
goals included having government jobs granted on the basis
of merit rather than patronage. Other changes aimed to
reduce the power of political
bosses and machines,
which they succeeded in doing.
In a series
of laws passed between 1892 and 1908, reformers distributed
ballots which had been pre-marked by the parties replaced
with uniform state-issued ballots; obtained closed voting
booths to prevent party workers from "assisting" voters;
initiated primary elections
to keep party bosses from selecting candidates; and had
candidates listed without party symbols, which discouraged
the illiterate from participating. Although promoted as
democratic reforms, the changes had the effect the middle
class was seeking. The lower classes and the illiterate were
discouraged from going to the polls. Voting participation
dropped from about 82% of eligible voters in the 1890s to
about 49% in the 1920s.
Other laws
that were passed did more to help the state's working men
and women. For instance, in a series of laws passed in 1902,
the state regulated conditions in mines;
outlawed child laborers under the age of 12; mandated
compulsory school attendance; and enacted the nation's first
workers compensation
law. The workers compensation law would be overturned in the
courts, but was redrafted and finally enacted in 1910. The
law would become a model for national legislation a few
decades later.
One more
progressive debate had a lasting effect on the state when
the debate over prohibition of alcohol led to Maryland
gaining its second nickname when a mocking newspaper
editorial dubbed Maryland the Free State.
Great Baltimore Fire
The
Great Baltimore Fire of
1904 was a momentous event for the Maryland's largest city
and the state as a whole. The fire raged in
Baltimore, from 10:48
a.m. Sunday, February 7, to 5:00
p.m. Monday, February 8,
1904 and Over 1,231
firefighters were required to
bring the blaze under control.
One reason
for the fire's duration was the lack of national
standards in fire-fighting
equipment. Although fire engines from nearby cities (such as
Philadelphia and
Washington, as well as units
from New York,
Wilmington, and
Atlantic City)
responded, many were useless because their hose couples
failed to fit Baltimore hydrants. As
a result, the fire burned over 30 hours, destroying 1,526
buildings spanning 70 city blocks.
In the
aftermath, 35,000 people were left unemployed. After the
fire, the city was rebuilt using more fireproof materials,
such as granite pavers.
The World War I era
The United
States initially tried to avoid involvement in
World War I, which many saw as a
European conflict. However, the
country was eventually pulled into the massive war (see
World War I: Entry of the United
States). This, of course, brought many changes to the
nation and Maryland was no exception.
Maryland
was the site of many new military bases, like Camp Meade
(now Fort Meade) and the
Aberdeen Proving Ground,
which were established in 1917 and the
Edgewood Arsenal, which was
founded the following year. Other existing facilities,
including Fort McHenry, were
greatly expanded.
To
coordinate wartime activities in the state, like the
expansion of federal facilities, the General Assembly set up
a Council of Defense. The 126 seats on the council were
filled by many of the state's most prominent citizens. The
Council, which had a virtually unlimited budget, was charged
with defending the state, supervising the draft, maintaining
wage and price controls, providing housing for war-related
industries, and promoting support for the war. Citizens were
encouraged to grow their own
victory gardens and to obey ration laws. They were also
forced to work, once the legislature adopted a compulsory
labor law with the support of the Council of Defense.
Maryland in the 20th century
The Ritchie administration
In 1918,
Maryland elected Albert C.
Ritchie, a
Democrat, governor. He would be reelected four times,
serving from 1919 to 1934, and is arguably the state's
all-time most popular governor. Handsome and aristocratic,
Ritchie was very pro-business. He hired a management firm to
streamline government operations and established a budget
process controlled largely by economists. He also won
approval for a civil service
system that had long been sought by reformers, who wanted
positions given on the basis of merit and not patronage;
reduced the number of state elections by extending
legislative terms from two to four years; and he appointed
many citizens' commissions to advise on nearly every aspect
of government.
State
property taxes dropped sharply under Ritchie, but so did
state services. A powerful state movie censorship board kept
subversive ideas away from the masses. Three times,
including 1924 and 1932, Ritchie was a candidate for
President of the
United States, arguing that Presidents
Coolidge and
Hoover were hopeless
spendthrifts.
Meanwhile,
Congress submitted the
Nineteenth Amendment to the states for ratification in
June of 1919. This amendment, which
granted women the right to vote,
was rejected by the Maryland legislature on
February 24, 1920.
However, the amendment was finally ratified six months later
when Tennessee became the 36th
state to approve the measure. (Maryland would subsequently
ratify the amendment on March 29,
1941, a purely symbolic gesture.) The
presidential
election of 1920 was thus the first election in which
women could vote in Maryland (the state went for
Warren Harding, the
Republican
nominee and ultimate winner).
Albert
Ritchie also lost his bid for the Democratic Party's
nomination for President in 1932. Despite a large
demonstration for support at the convention,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
was nominated and went on the win the election. Ritchie
continued to serve as governor until 1935. Upon his
retirement, one newspaper said he was "the greatest governor
Maryland ever had." But, like the rest of the country and
much of the world, the state was now in the midst of the
Great Depression.
The Great Depression and World War
II
Maryland's
experience during the worldwide economic downturn was not
particularly unique, though in 1932 the "Bonus
Army" marched through the state on its way to
Washington, D.C. In addition
to the nationwide New Deal reforms
of President Roosevelt, Maryland also took steps to weather
the hard times. For instance, in 1937 the state instituted
its first ever income tax.
Maryland
also saw advancements in civil
rights. The 1935 case Murray v. Pearson et al
resulted in a Baltimore City Court ordering integration of
University of
Maryland Law School. The plaintiff in that case was
represented by Thurgood
Marshall, a young lawyer working with the
NAACP and a native of Baltimore. The
attorney general appealed to
the state's highest tribunal, the
Court of Appeals,
which affired the decision. Because the state did not appeal
the ruling in the federal courts, this state ruling under
the U.S. Constitution was the first to overturn
Plessy v. Ferguson,
the 1896 Supreme Court decision approving
racial segregation. While
it was a moral precedent, it was not a legal one, and had no
authority outside the state of Maryland.
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