History of Maryland

The history of Maryland included successive cultures of Native Americans for thousands of years until Europeans began exploring the area, starting with John Cabot in 1498. The first European settlements were made in 1634, when the English arrived in significant numbers and created a permanent colony. Maryland was notable for having been established with religious freedom for Catholics. Like other colonies of the Chesapeake Bay, its economy was based on tobacco as a commodity crop, cultivated primarily by African slave labor, although many young people came from the British Isles as indentured servants in the early years.

In 1776, during the American Revolution, Maryland became a state in the United States. After the war, numerous planters freed their slaves as the economy changed. Although still a slave state in 1860, by that time nearly half the black population was already free, due mostly to manumissions after the American Revolution. Maryland was among the border states that remained in the Union during the American Civil War.