Maryland’s Native American and Colonial History
Evidence of Paleo-Indian inhabitants in present-day Maryland dates back 13,000 years. By 1000 B.C., approximately 40 Native American tribes, including the Lenape, Nanticoke, Powhatan, Shawnee and Susquehannock, had established villages in the area.
In 1608, English explorer Captain John Smith mapped the Chesapeake Bay. His reports drew interest to the area, leading King Charles I to grant a charter in 1632 to the first Lord of Baltimore, George Calvert, and his son Cecilius following his death, to establish the colony of Maryland, named for the king’s wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. St. Mary’s City, the first settlement in Maryland on St. Clement’s Island, was founded in 1634 as a refuge for persecuted British Roman Catholics.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, diseases brought by Europeans and violent conflicts over land control caused the Native American population to decline dramatically. Notable battles included the Susquehannock War (1642-1652) with Maryland colonists that forced the tribe to flee to Virginia and the fur trade-driven Beaver Wars (1640-1701) between the Iroquois Confederacy and Algonquian-speaking tribes.
Today, three tribes are formally recognized in the state: the Piscataway Indian Nation, the Piscataway Conoy Tribe and the Accohoannock Indian Tribe.
Maryland and the American Revolution
Maryland joined the other colonies in signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Although no battles took place on Maryland soil during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), renowned regiments from the state, known as the "Maryland Line," fought for the Continental Army at the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Camden and more.
It’s believed that the state’s nickname, “The Old Line State,” came from General George Washington praising the Maryland “Old Line” during the 1776 Battle of Long Island, where 400 American soldiers held off 10,000 British troops.
Baltimore, in December 1776, and Annapolis, in 1783, served as temporary U.S. capitals as a nomadic Continental Congress was forced to flee various cities. As part of the Compromise of 1790, Maryland, along with Virginia, ceded land to form Washington, D.C., establishing a neutral capital for the new government.
Maryland and the War of 1812
Maryland was a crucial front when the U.S. declared war on Great Britain in 1812. The American defeat at the August 1814 Battle of Bladensburg led to the British burning of the White House, U.S. Capitol, Library of Congress and more in Washington, D.C.
However, the September 1814 defense of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry was a turning point in the war. A 42-by-30-foot flag flown at the fort survived the attack, famously ordered by Maj. George Armistead to be “so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance.” It inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Maryland, Slavery and the Civil War
As a border state, Maryland was deeply divided during the Civil War. Despite being a slave state since 1664, Maryland also housed the country’s largest free Black population and did not secede from the Union.
With three railroad termini in Maryland and a naval base in Baltimore’s Chesapeake Bay, it was a critical strategic state for the Union during the war.
The war’s first casualties occurred in the state during the Pratt Street Riot, with pro-Confederacy Baltimoreans killing four soldiers and wounding dozens more on April 19, 1861. The Battle of Antietam in September 1862 near Sharpsburg was the war’s bloodiest single-day battle in the country’s history, with 23,000 Union and Confederate casualties.
Maryland played a significant role in the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people escape to freedom. Notably, Harriet Tubman, born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, escaped to freedom in Philadelphia in 1849. She made at least 13 trips back to Maryland, freeing at least 70 people.
At the war’s end, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end legalized slavery in the state. Rather, freedom was not granted to enslaved people until Nov. 1, 1864, with the passage of the 1864 Maryland Constitution.
Significant 20th- and 21st-Century Events
On February 7, 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed more than 1,500 buildings in the city’s downtown district, while another 1,000 suffered severe damage, causing $200 million in property damage.
Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Baltimore saw significant civil unrest in April 1968, with two weeks of riots resulting in six deaths, dozens of injuries and lootings, fires and destruction. Thousands of National Guard troops were deployed to the area, along with 1,900 Army soldiers, on the order of President Lyndon Johnson.
The Baltimore Ravens, named after Baltimore's Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven," won the 2001 and 2013 Super Bowls, while the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series in 1966, 1970 and 1983.
Baltimore experienced more civil unrest on April 15, 2015, after police brutality protests led to riots following the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man killed in police custody.
Maryland’s Industrial Revolution and Economic Growth
Maryland saw significant industrial growth in the 19th and early 20th centuries. With the start of the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad in 1827, Baltimore became a hub for moving both people and goods. Shipbuilding, manufacturing and lumber, coal, iron, canning, and steel production all boosted industrial growth.
With its proximity to Washington, D.C., the federal government is a major employer of Marylanders. The state also ranks highly across the nation in its concentration of cybersecurity and IT professionals and aerospace engineers and is a leader in biopharma, cleantech and renewable energy, the gaming industry and grid modernization. Natural resources include fishing, coal, natural gas, stone, cement, clays and limestone.
Maryland Quick Facts
Date of Statehood: April 28, 1788
Capital: Annapolis
Population: 6,177,224 (2020 U.S. Census)
Size: 12,407 square miles
Nickname: The Old Line State
Motto: Fatti Maschii, Parole Femine (Strong Deeds, Gentle Words)
Tree: White Oak
Flower: Black-Eyed Susan
Bird: Baltimore Oriole
Maryland Interesting Facts
The state is called "America in Miniature," as its topography includes everything from marshes to rolling hills to forests to sand dunes.
Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in America, covering 64,000 square miles.
Jousting is the state's official sport.
Baltimore is home to the first U.S. sugar refinery, flour mill, shopping center, modern medical school (Johns Hopkins), dental college, umbrella factory, banjo manufacturer and electric streetcar.
Inventions out of Maryland include the Ouija board, beer six-pack, bottle cap, linotype machine, QR code, gas light and refrigerator.
Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery in Baltimore in 1838, wrote the iconic "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" and founded The North Star newspaper in Rochester, New York. Its slogan: “Right is of no Sex—Truth is of no Color—God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.”
The state measures just 2 miles wide at the town of Hancock in the western panhandle.
The U.S. Naval Academy, founded in 1845, is located in Annapolis.
Notable Marylanders: Writers Edgar Allan Poe and H.L. Mencken, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, athletes Babe Ruth and Michael Phelps, performers Billie Holiday, Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway, Frank Zappa, Goldie Hawn and John Waters, manners maven Emily Post and politicians former Vice President Spiro Agnew and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
Sources
Maryland At a Glance: Historical Chronology, msamaryland.gov The First Marylanders, visitmaryland.org 10 Facts: Baltimore in the Civil War, battlefields.org Baltimore Fire, baltimorepolicemuseum.org Maryland History Timeline, sos.maryland.gov How Baltimore Invented the Modern World, baltimoremagazine.com
