COLONIAL MARYLAND

Michael Mezzancello and Lauren Yoia

Background In 1624 Virginia

became property of the King.

King Charles I gave a piece of it to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore. He soon died and the land was given to his son Cecilius in 1632.

He called it Maryland

The Assembly Began

All freemen, both landholders and artisans, came together to form their Assembly by which they framed a body of laws that would later be sent to be reviewed by the proprietor (Lord Baltimore)

Self Government Established

At first was refused The Assembly

rejected the code of laws sent over by Lord Baltimore

Lord Baltimore gave his brother authority to approve of the laws made by the people.

Religion The Church of England was

recognized by law as the State Church

This church was supported by general taxation.

Maryland was founded for the purpose of providing religious toleration of England's Roman Catholic minority.

Parliament later reversed that policy and discouraged the practice of Catholicism in Maryland.

Due to immigration patterns, Catholics have not been a majority in Maryland since early Colonial times.

Values

Religious freedom The colony was a

shelter for Roman Catholics fleeing religious prosecution from their King.

Lord Baltimore gave the colony religious freedom to attract other settlers.

Entertainment The family in colonial

Maryland was a person's main source of entertainment and learning.

Mothers and fathers taught their children to read in order to read the Bible and, for boys, to attend school.

In farming families, there was a unity during the annual harvest, when the entire family would stop their schooling and domestic chores to help bring in the year's crops.

Family Children became employed as

apprentices as early as 7. Families were often large so that

children could help the family economically when the parents reached old age.

Many of the people were farmers or worked in a skilled trade.

Candle makers, blacksmiths and tavern owners were among the professions available.

The father was always the head of the home.

Young girls helped their mothers with domestic chores instead of working with their father.

Social Structure

Social life centered around the owners of the great plantations.

The slave was a body-servant to his master or plantation owner, living a life of satisfaction in his hut with his family.

Among this class we find mechanics and artisans, trained for the various duties about the plantation.

Education Education became

increasingly important. Children were expected to

know how to read and write, and boys were taught Latin in grammar school.

Puritan families realized that education could help the family become economically stable, and often sent their sons to higher educational institutions.

Size of Families Colonial family life in Maryland

was often based on hard work, and with limited medical care, families could suffer from numerous types of death.

As many as 3 in 10 children died before their first birthday.

Parents also had high death rates, from both illness and disease and from childbirth itself.

The result of a high mortality rate in colonial Maryland was that families were large, with six or more children being the average for families.

Sources http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_religion

s_in_colonial_Maryland http://colonialancestors.com/md/proprietary.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Maryland http://

www.allabouthistory.org/colonial-life-in-america.htm

http://colonialancestors.com/md/proprietary.htm