Tag Archives: Life in Revolutionary Maryland

Happy National Literacy Day! – Literacy Rates in Colonial America

In addition to the Revolutionary War, a literary revolution swept across the American Colonies and Europe in the 18th century.  In celebration of National Literacy Day, today we will explore the literacy rates of Colonial America and how they affected … Continue reading

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A “little groggy”: the deputy sheriff of Baltimore and his “bowl of toddy”

On December 21, 1776, Sergeant John Hardman of the Edward Veazey‘s Seventh Independent Company arrived at a public prison in Baltimore Town with captured British soldiers. [1] He was there escorting the British prisoners from Philadelphia. That night, Hardman ordered a “bowl of … Continue reading

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Persecuted in Revolutionary Baltimore: The Sufferings of Quakers

In March 1777, revolutionary leader John Adams wrote an angry letter to his wife, Abigail. He declared that Baltimore was a “dull place” where many of the town’s remaining inhabitants were Quakers, who he described as “dull as Beetles” and a “kind of neutral Tribe, … Continue reading

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The political climate of Baltimore in 1776

Baltimore Town was more than a diverse and pre-industrial port town that sat on the Patapsco River. It had numerous sentiments, ranging from the pro-revolutionary, some of which were militant in their beliefs, to support for the British Crown. This article continues the series … Continue reading

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Maryland Declares Independence

On July 6, 1776, the Convention of Maryland finally broke formal ties with Britain and the Calvert family that had ruled the colony since the 1630s. Maryland’s Revolutionary leaders were slow in taking this step, just as they had been … Continue reading

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The Summer of Independence Begins

The beginning of July 1776 was a busy time in Annapolis. News that the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia had voted to declare independence from Britain would be a few days in arriving, but both independence and armed conflict were … Continue reading

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The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the Eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. So wrote Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in … Continue reading

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The Whig Club: Judge and Jury in Baltimore

It was a cold morning when Melchior Keener got word to leave Baltimore or suffer the vengeance of the Whig Club. At nine o’clock on December 5, 1776, James Cox, a popular local tailor, delivered the message that Keener had three … Continue reading

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