History of the State of Maryland

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 Mar

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any other New World colony. Troops favoring the parliamentary forces in England occupied St. Mary's in 1645. However, when Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector in 1653, after Charles I was beheaded, he sent word that he wished Lord Baltimore to retain control of the province. Despite the fact that the increasingly numerous Puritans had taken complete control, Lord Baltimore was eventually able to reach an agreement that began 30 years of relative peace and prosperity to the region. By this time, tobacco had become Maryland's chief source of economic strength. Tobacco leaves replaced coined money, and the crop was the province's main export. Growing tobacco used up land quickly, exhausting most farms after four growing seasons, after which "planters moved cheerfully to other acres they owned. What they didn't own already they could buy for a pittance." The vast tobacco plantations took up most of the region; Maryland consisted almost entirely of farms, with virtually no towns in between. When the Protestant Revolution in English gave the throne to William and Mary, Protestants in Maryland again seized control and placed the province firmly under royal control. The new rulers' first act was to impose a tax on tobacco, to b
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1543
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)