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The Maryland History and Culture Bibliography

Bidwell, Percy W., and John I. Falconer. History of Agriculture in the Northern United States, 1620-1860. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution, 1925.
Notes: Mentions Maryland only regarding farming in 1840 and peach orchards, but is useful since so many Pennsylvania Germans settled in Frederick County.

Breen, T. H. Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of the Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Gibb, James G. "The Dorsey-Bibb Tobacco Flue: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Southern Maryland Agriculture." Calvert Historian 12 (Spring 1997): 4-20.

Gray, Lewis C. History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution, 1933.
Notes: From barley to wool, Gray's great work is unsurpassed in its detail about farming from Maryland's founding to the Civil War.

Middleton, Authur Pierce. Tobacco Coast: A Maritime History of the Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era. Newport News, VA: Mariners Museum, 1953.

Pursell, Carroll W., Jr. "The Administration of Science in the Department of Agriculture, 1933-1940." Agricultural History 42 (1968): 231-240.
Notes: Henry A. Wallace, Franklin Roosevelt's first Secretary of Agriculture, championed scientific research because he himself was scientist a hybrid corn breeder. Using emergency relief funds from the National Recovery Administration, Wallace, in 1934, transformed the small experiment station in Beltsville into a great national research center. The Bankhead-Jones Act then funded the basic research agenda.

Sarudy, Barbara Wells. "Eighteenth-Century Gardens of the Chesapeake." A special issue of the Journal of Garden History: An International Quarterly 9 (July-Sept. 1989): 103-59.

Walsh, Lorena S. "Land, Landlord, and Leaseholder: Estate Management and Tenant Fortunes in Southern Maryland, 1642-1820." Agricultural History 59 (July 1985): 373-396.
Notes: Based on the astonishing records of a Jesuit-owned estate in Charles County that lasted for 175 years, Walsh examined 233 tenants, and the effect of their short term vs. long term leases on resource waste or conservation. The story explains how owners used leasing as a means for plantation development and as an alternative to slave labor.

Byron, Gilbert. Gilbert Byron's Chesapeake Seasons: A Cove Journal. Wye Mills, MD: Chesapeake College Press, 1987.
Notes: Poet and chronicler Gilbert Byron's columns were a popular feature in several Eastern Shore newspapers. This collection of observations and reminiscences culled from his newspaper writings are both biographical and lyrical in quality. Byron captures both an appreciation for a nostalgic past and an awareness of the social and economic changes occurring on his beloved shore.

Charbeneau, Jim. Shouts and Whispers: Stories from the Southern Chesapeake Bay. White Stone, VA: Brandylane Publishers, 1997.

Kester, John G. "Charles Polke: Indian Trader of the Potomac." Maryland Historical Magazine 90 (Winter 1995): 446-65.

Kurtz, Michael J. John Gottlieb Morris: Man of God, Man of Science. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1997.

Kurtz, Michael J. "Being a Renaissance Man in Nineteenth-Century Baltimore: John Gottlieb Morris." Maryland Historical Magazine 89 (Summer 1994): 156-69.

Padgett, James A., ed. "Rumsey Documents." Maryland Historical Magazine 32 (1937): 10-28, 136-55, 271-85.

Parker, Willie J. Game Warden: Chesapeake Assignment. Centreville, MD: Tidewater Publishers, 1983.

Porter, Frank W. "John Widgeon: Naturalist, Curator and Philosopher." Maryland Historical Magazine 79 (Winter 1984): 325-331.

Reveal, James L. "Hugh Jones (1671-1702)--Calvert County Naturalist." Calvert Historian 1 (October 1984): 1-11.

Rogers, Ellen. "James Harris Rogers, Scientist." News and Notes from the Prince George's County Historical Society 13 (July-August 1985): 31-34.

Rose, Lou, and Michael Marti. Arthur Storer of Lincolnshire, England and Calvert County, Maryland. Prince Frederick, MD: Calvert County Historical Society, 1984.

Turner, Ella May. James Rumsey, Pioneer in Steam Navigation. Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1930.

Turner, William H. Chesapeake Boyhood: Memoirs of a Farm Boy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

"Watson Mondell Perrygo." The Record 31 - 32 (May - September 1984): 5-6.
Notes: Charles County naturalist.

Abingbade, Harrison Ola. "The Settler-African Conflicts: The Case of the Maryland Colonists and the Grebo 1840-1900." Journal of Negro History 66 (Summer 1981): 93-109.

Alpert, Jonathan L. "The Origin of Slavery in the United States: The Maryland Precedent." American Journal of Legal History 14 (1970): 189-222.
Notes: Maryland was the "first province in English North America to recognize slavery as a matter of law" (189). Therefore, the study of Maryland is useful for historians studying how American slavery was a product of the law. Early legislation recognized the existence of slavery, for while indentured servitude and slavery co-existed, and the terms were used interchangeably, the law still distinguished between the two. "All slaves were servants but not all servants were slaves" (193). However, it wasn't until 1664 when a statue was created which established slavery as hereditary. This statute was the first law in English North American to thus establish this type of slavery, legalizing what had been de facto since 1639. The author concludes that laws reflect the attitudes of a society and the manner in which societal problems are resolved. In the case of Maryland, servant problems could be avoided by replacing indentured servitude with perpetual slavery.

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