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History of the State of Maryland

This paper is an account of the founding of the state of Maryland, the first colony in North America to attempt to create a government dictated by the will of the people. Established originally as a haven from religious persecution, Maryland went through its own growing pains in its early history. The colony played a significant role in the development of what would become the democratic experiment known as the United States of America.

In 1632, George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, was given a land grant in the New World by Charles I of England for an area that eventually became the states of Maryland and Delaware. Calvert died before the charter could be issued that year, and the grant passed to his son, Cecilius, 2nd Baron, who organized an expedition the next year to establish a colony within the grant. In November of 1633, under command of his brother, Leonard, 200 colonists set sail from Gravesend.

George Calvert had been a Roman Catholic, and his original idea was to found a colony in which Catholics would be free of religious persecution. Yet more than half of the first colonists were Protestants. They established a settlement called Saint Mary's in 1634, and the first assembly of freemen met there the following January for the first time. By 1638, the colony had conceded the right to initiate laws to the people and passed the first statutes of the province. Leonard Calvert became Maryland's first governor.

The province was named Maryland after Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, although historians note that Cecilius originally proposed the name Crescentia (Land of Increase). The king suggested it be named instead for his wife, and Lord Baltimore recognized the political wisdom in this choice.

An account of the state's earliest years observes, "The key to Maryland history is compromise, involving enlightened toleration of opposing interests and views for the sake of domestic peace and prosperity." One ...

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History of the State of Maryland. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:22, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709624.html