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The Maryland History and Culture Bibliography

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

Handwerker, Tom. "Something is Fishy Down on the Farm." Heartland of Del-Mar-Va 13 (Harvest 1991): 18-19.

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

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.

Blakey, Arch Frederick. General John H. Winder, C.S.A. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1990.

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.

Gilje, Paul A. "A Sailor Prisoner of War During the War of 1812." Maryland Historical Magazine 85 (Spring 1990): 58-72.

Meyer, Sam. Paradoxes of Fame: The Francis Scott Key Story. Annapolis, MD: Eastwind Publishing, 1995.

Meyer, Sam. "Religion, Patriotism, and Poetry in the Life of Francis Scott Key." Maryland Historical Magazine 84 (1989): 267-74.

Norton, Louis Arthur. Joshua Barney, Hero of the Revolution and 1812. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000.
Notes: Joshua Barney (1758-1818) was a naval hero in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Aside from his military exploits, this patriotic Marylander's life is closely associated with the history of the American flag. Barney is best known for the spirited action of the barge men under his command at the Battle of Bladensburg in 1814. Alone among the Americans at the battle, Barney and his men fought bravely against a superior British force.

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

Rivinus, E. F. "Beanes, Barney, and the Banner." Naval History 13 (May/June 1999): 46-50.

Sheads, Scott Sumpter. Guardian of the Star-Spangled Banner: Lt. Colonel George Armistead and the Fort McHenry Flag. Linthicum, MD: Toomey Press, 1999.

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

Davidson, Thomas E. "Free Blacks in Old Somerset County, 1745-1755." Maryland Historical Magazine 80 (Summer 1985): 151-156.
Notes: County court records of Somerset County, Maryland during the eighteenth century are particularly complete, allowing for detailed studies of the county's population during that period. The author contributes to the scholarship which, up until 1985, focused primarily on the origins of black culture on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the seventeenth century. The author also adds to the growing scholarship on free blacks in this region, which tended to also focus on the seventeenth century. In addition to examining court records to determine the numbers of free Negroes and mulattoes, the author also attempts to determine how members of these populations obtained their free status, that is, through manumission or the as the result of being children of free mothers (free-born).

Fields, Barbara Jeanne. Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland during the Nineteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
Notes: The author explores how free populations in Maryland - both black and white - challenged the notion of a slave society. The free black population, very much interconnected with the slave population in terms of kinship ties, also provided a threat to the underpinnings of the system. Once freedom arrived, social relationships also had to be redefined. The author writes that "free blacks did not occupy a unique or legitimate place within Maryland society, but instead formed an anomalous adjunct to the slave population" (3). By 1840, free blacks in Maryland composed 41% of the total black population of the state, or the largest free black population of any state in the nation.

George, Christopher T. "Mirage of Freedom: African Americans in the War of 1812." Maryland Historical Magazine 91 (Winter 1996): 426-50.
Notes: Black men fought for both the American and British forces during the War of 1812. For example, free blacks who constructed earthworks and black sailors in the U.S. Navy helped to deflect the British attack on Baltimore in 1814. Free blacks and slaves who decided to help the British hoped to secure freedom in return for their services.

Heinegg, Paul. Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware: From the Colonial Period to 1810. Baltimore: Clearfield, 2000.

Johansen, Mary Carroll. "'Intelligence, Though Overlooked:' Education for Black Women in the Upper South, 1800-1840." Maryland Historical Magazine 93 (Winter 1998): 443-65.
Notes: Black and white educators established forty-six schools for free black children in the early nineteenth century. These educators supported education for black women believing that women transmitted knowledge and morals, thus shaping a generation of virtuous citizens. In addition, educators looked to education as a means by which to form self-sufficient and industrious free black communities.

Klein, Mary O. "'We Shall Be Accountable to God:' Some Inquiries into the Position of Blacks in Somerset Parish, Maryland, 1692-1865." Maryland Historical Magazine 87 (Winter 1992): 399-406.
Notes: The author examines the conversion of free blacks and slaves in Somerset Parish. While a 1664 Maryland law stated that baptism had no effect on the status of a slave, the Anglican church worked towards conversion of the enslaved. However, Christian education and baptism varied depending on individual slaveowners. In some cases, the enslaved themselves refused to be baptized. Evidence of African religious practices remained alongside the practice of Christianity.

Nelson, Jack E. "Black Pearl of the Chesapeake." Chesapeake Bay Magazine 23 (November 1993): 24-27.

"Selected Readings on Afro-Americans and Maryland's Eastern Shore." Maryland Pendulum 5 (Fall/Winter 1985): 6-7.

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