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The Maryland History and Culture Bibliography

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

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.

Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Craven, Wesley Frank. White, Red, and Black: The Seventeenth-Century Virginian. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
Notes: Remains the standard multi-cultural work for the 17th century.

Blumgart, Pamela James, ed. At the Head of the Bay: A Cultural and Architectural History of Cecil County, Maryland. Elkton, MD: Cecil Historical Trust, 1996.
Notes: This beautifully illustrated book presents a history of the development of the county along with a history of its architecture, including house forms, methods of construction, and outbuildings, along with brief write-ups on 700 historic sites.

Erickson, Marie Anne. "Crossroads: Yellow Springs." Frederick Magazine (December 1992): 12-13.

Hoffman, Charles W. "The Indian Names of Frederick County." Historical Society of Frederick County, Inc., Newsletter (May 1991): 2.

Kelbaugh, Jack. "The Shipley's Choice Tract; Part II: More Than Three Centuries of Fascinating History." Anne Arundel County History Notes 20 (April 1989): 1-3.

Lanham, Paul T. "Why 'Upper'?" News and Notes from the Prince George's County Historical Society 17 (May 1989): 27.
Notes: Upper and Lower Marlboro.

Riley, Elihu S. "The Ancient City." History of Annapolis, in Maryland. 1649-1887. 1887; reprint, Annapolis: Anne Arundel County Bicentennial Commission, 1976.
Notes: A reprint of an 1887 work. It is largely arranged by date, presenting important events which occurred in the city during the years. Interspersed amongst these dates are occasional chapters written on a theme, covering a span of years, such as theater, the state house, and "Illustrious Anapolitans." It is very well indexed and includes an abridgement of Father Andrew White's Journal.

Robbins, Charles L. "Seventeenth Century Harford County." Harford Historical Bulletin 62 (Fall 1994): 159-74.

Walton, John M., Jr. "Prince George's Genesis." News and Notes from the Prince George's County Historical Society, 20 (August 1992): 3-4.

Wroten, William H., Jr. Assateague. Salisbury, MD: Peninsula Press, 1970.

Cronon, William B. Changes in the Land, Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.
Notes: Cronon's work is about New England, but his ecological insights are invaluable to learning about the Chesapeake.

Gottfried, Michael D. "Fossil Pioneers: The Chesapeake Region and the Early History of Paleontology in North America." Bugeye Times 16 (Fall 1991): 1, 6-7.

Wroten, William H. Jr. Assateague. 1970; 2d edition, Cambridge, MD: Tidewater Publishers, 1972.

Copeland, David. "'Join or Die:' America's Newspapers in the French and Indian War." Journalism History 24 (Autumn 1998): 112-21.

Sands, Peter Vernon. 'A Horrid Banquet:' Cannibalism, Native Americans, and the Fictions of National Formation. Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at Binghamton, 1996.

Howard, James H. "The Nanticoke-Delaware Skeleton Dance." American Indian Quarterly 2 (Spring 1975): 1-13.

Fausz, J. Frederick. "Present at the 'Creation': The Chesapeake World that Greeted the Maryland Colonists." Maryland Historical Magazine 79 (Spring 1984): 7-20.
Notes: Fausz examines relations between Europeans (especially the English of Maryland and Virginia) and Native Americans of the Chesapeake region in the decade immediately preceding the settlement of the Maryland colony at St. Mary's in 1634. He argues that the interaction between Englishmen and Native Americans provided the basis for tobacco cultivation and the beaver fur trade. Both paved the way for successful adaption of the early English settlers to new American conditions.

"The Great Game." Johns Hopkins Magazine 7 (April 1956): 7-9, 20-21.
Notes: The article discusses the Native American origins of lacrosse in a game called "baggattaway," tracing its adaption in the nineteenth century as a popular sport among Canadians and its spread to the United States. First played in Baltimore in the 1870s, it became a club and intercollegiate sport in the area. In 1928 lacrosse arrived on the world scene as a sport at the Amsterdam Olympics.

Harte, Thomas J. "Social Origins of the Brandywine Population." Phylon 24 (1963): 369-378.
Notes: Harte seeks to establish the eighteenth-century origins of a distinctive mixed race "Brandywine" population in Charles County, though he fails to explain this social identity for the general reader. He points to Maryland laws against miscegenation and cross-racial sexual relationships as indirect evidence that both had occurred in the colony and cites Charles County records for violations of those laws. The article provides less direct support for his contention that Native American ancestry may also have been involved in the mixed race unions. Harte concludes that isolated family groupings in the eighteenth century served as the basis of the identifiable Brandywine population in the county in the nineteenth century.

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