A Brief History of the United StatesMcMaster, John Bach
History
A Brief History of the United States
McMaster, John Bach
United States -- History
GROWTH OF MARYLAND.--The population of the colony, meantime, grew rapidly.
Pamphlets describing the colony and telling how to emigrate and acquire
land were circulated in England. Many of the first comers wrote home and
brought out more men, and were thus enabled to take up more land.
Emigrants who came with ten or twenty settlers were given manors or
plantations. Such as came alone received farms.
Most of the work on plantations was done by indented white servants, both
convicts and redemptioners. [14] Negro slavery existed in Maryland from
the beginning, but slaves were not numerous till after 1700.
[Illustration: HAND LOOM. [15]]
Food was abundant, for the rivers and bay abounded with geese and ducks,
oysters and crabs, and the woods were full of deer, turkeys, and wild
pigeons. Wheat was not plentiful, but corn was abundant, and from it were
made pone, hominy, and hoe-cakes.
NO TOWNS.--As everybody could get land and therefore lived on manors,
plantations, or farms, there were practically no towns in Maryland. Even
St. Marys, so late as 1678, was not really a town, but a string of some
thirty houses straggling for five miles along the shore. The bay with its
innumerable creeks, inlets, coves, and river mouths, afforded fine water
communication between the farms and plantations; and there were no roads.
As in Virginia, there was no need of shipping ports. Vessels came direct
to manor or plantation wharf, and exchanged English goods for tobacco or
corn. Such farmers or planters as had no water communication packed their
tobacco in a hogshead, with an axle through it, and with an ox or a horse
in a pair of shafts, or with a party of negro slaves or white servants,
rolled it to market.
SUMMARY
1. The struggle of the Jamestown colony for life was a desperate one. For
two years it was preserved by Captain John Smith's skillful leadership,
and the frequent reinforcements and supplies sent over by the London
Company; but in 1610 the settlers started to leave the country.
2. The arrival of Lord Delaware saved the colony. He brought out news of a
new charter (1609) which greatly extended the domain of the company.
3. The settlers were now given land of their own, tobacco was grown, more
settlements were planted, and prosperity began.
4. In 1619 slavery was introduced; a shipload of young women arrived; and
a representative government was established.
5. In 1624 Virginia became a royal colony.
6. During the Civil War in England many Cavaliers came to Virginia.
7. King Charles I cut off a part of Virginia to make (1632) the
proprietary colony of Maryland. The new province was given to Lord
Baltimore, who founded (1634) a colony at St. Marys.
8. Claiborne, a Virginian, denied the authority of Baltimore, and kept up
a struggle against him for many years.
9. In both Maryland and Virginia the people lived on large plantations,
and there were few towns. Travel was mostly by water, and there were no
good roads.
FOOTNOTES
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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