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This page tells about the history of the Maryland Colony.
Maryland Colony
The Maryland Colony was founded in the 1630s under the Calvert family and became known for its large Catholic population, its early attempts at religious toleration, and its tobacco-based plantation economy along the Chesapeake Bay.
The Ark, the Dove, and Maryland
Cecil Calvert, the 2nd Lord Baltimore, founded Maryland after his father, George Calvert, received a royal charter for the land from King Charles I. The new colony was named in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria, the king's wife. In November 1633, about 200 settlers, many of them Catholics, boarded the ships Ark and Dove and sailed for the new colony. They arrived in 1634 and established a settlement at St. Mary's.
A Refuge for Catholics
Maryland became one of the few English colonies with a significant Catholic population. The Calvert family hoped the colony could provide a place where Catholics could live with greater religious freedom than they had experienced in England. St. Mary's became an important early settlement and center of colonial government.
Religious Toleration and Conflict
In 1649, Maryland passed the Maryland Toleration Act, which granted a measure of religious protection to Christians who believed in the Trinity. The law was an important early attempt at religious toleration, although it did not provide complete freedom of religion. Political and religious tensions later increased, particularly after England's Glorious Revolution of 1688, when Protestant control of Maryland became stronger and Catholics lost many of the political protections they had previously enjoyed.
Tobacco and Plantation Agriculture
By the 1700s, Maryland and neighboring Virginia had developed plantation economies centered heavily on tobacco as a major cash crop. Large plantations depended increasingly on the labor of enslaved Africans, while indentured servants and transported convicts also formed part of the colonial labor force. Baltimore eventually developed into an important Chesapeake Bay port and commercial center.
Why it mattered: Maryland became an important Chesapeake colony whose history reflected both early experiments in religious toleration and the growth of a plantation economy based heavily on tobacco and forced labor.
Maryland Colony Articles and Activities
- Maryland Colony Reading Passage and Critical Thinking Multiple Choice Questions - Printable
- Maryland Colony Reading Passage and Critical Thinking Multiple Choice Questions - Online
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