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Categories: Agriculture, County and Local History, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Maritime, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: African American, Family History and Genealogy, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: General, African American, Seventeenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: Many towns in the Chesapeake area failed during the seventeenth century. Towns were not needed as commercial centers for the tobacco trade, the major economy of the area at that time. Carr uses St. Mary's City as an example of such a failure.

Categories: Architecture, Historic Preservation, and Town Planning, County and Local History, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Before 1600 AD, Seventeenth Century, St. Mary's County, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: Kent Island was founded in 1631 by William Claiborne. This article provides a description of the community during its early history. Discussed are the manors, the religious congregations, the towns, and the trades. Included is a list of the indentured servants residing there.

Categories: County and Local History, Family History and Genealogy, Seventeenth Century, Queen Anne's County, Chesapeake Region, Eastern Shore

Annotation / Notes: Early towns did not generally spring out of nowhere. Town planning was common and an important part of Chesapeake Maryland's colonial history. The government played an active role in the founding and formation of towns. Annapolis and the District of Columbia were unique in that their plans did not resemble those common amongst other English colonies.

Categories: Architecture, Historic Preservation, and Town Planning, County and Local History, Geography and Cartography, Politics and Law, Seventeenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Caroline County, Cecil County, Charles County, Calvert County, Dorchester County, Harford County, Kent County, Prince George's County, Queen Anne's County, St. Mary's County, Somerset County, Talbot County, Wicomico County, Worcester County, Chesapeake Region, Southern Maryland, Eastern Shore

Annotation / Notes: Thomas argues that the seventeen clustered settlements that dotted the lower Eastern Shore actually functioned as towns. Although legislatively established they have been largely ignored in the history of the Chesapeake region. Most historians argue that the area was rural, when in fact its character was between urban and rural.

Categories: Architecture, Historic Preservation, and Town Planning, County and Local History, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Geography and Cartography, Politics and Law, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Dorchester County, Talbot County, Worcester County, Chesapeake Region, Eastern Shore

Annotation / Notes: Much of this book captures a mood equally applicable to Maryland's sea islands. I suspect Norwood, in 1650, landed on a Maryland Island anyhow!

Categories: County and Local History, Environment, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: While primarily about boats on the Bay, Brewington's book has many contemporary environmental insights.

Categories: County and Local History, Environment, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: African American, County and Local History, Environment, Ethnic History, Medicine, Politics and Law, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Transportation and Communication, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: Primarily on the political process paralleling environmental change but containing many references to contemporary conditions and problems.

Categories: County and Local History, Environment, Politics and Law, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: County and Local History, Environment, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: Middleton, subsequently a retired Episcopal Canon, for years directed work at Colonial Williamsburg. This defining volume on Chesapeake Maritime History contains valuable environmental references coupled to the region's colonial economy.

Categories: County and Local History, Environment, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Before 1600 AD, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Nineteenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: County and Local History, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Environment, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: These essays, while largely anthropological, tell a lot about how the Bay region was settled, the problems with this process, and how European practices moved across the landscape.

Categories: County and Local History, Environment, Science and Technology, Seventeenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: County and Local History, Politics and Law, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: County and Local History, Politics and Law, Seventeenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: Carr contends that the experience of moving from England to the Chesapeake region of America in the seventeenth century was not simply a change of homeland, but a drastic change in lifestyle. She evaluates such factors as marriage, birth rates, life expectancy, diet, housing, working conditions and social freedoms for the English who chose to emigrate to America in that first century. Carr argues that, with the exception of diet, the standard of living may have been higher had the colonists remained in England, but in terms of economic independence and some degree of political participation, their prospects in the New World were superior.

Categories: County and Local History, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: County and Local History, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: Carr and Walsh make detailed use of probate records from seventeenth and eighteenth century Maryland to argue that the period in Chesapeake area history represented a shift from an early emphasis upon material necessities to an improved standard of living marked by "gentility." The authors contend that this change reached across class lines and helped to fuel, rather than check, the productive economy of the colony. The article includes extensive tables and graphs of evidence regarding consumer items for several Maryland and Virginia counties.

Categories: County and Local History, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Anne Arundel County, St. Mary's County, Somerset County, Chesapeake Region, Southern Maryland, Eastern Shore

Categories: County and Local History, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: County and Local History, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Categories: County and Local History, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / Notes: The authors advance the case that the conventional view that Southern colonies were devoid of urbanization derives from a confusion of form and function, as well as size and significance. The article presents case studies of Camden, South Carolina, and Cross Creek, North Carolina, as well as examples from Virginia and Maryland, to demonstrate that towns often played an important urban function in the economy of the Southern colonies, though their examples are hardly convincing in contradicting the prevailing interpretation.

Categories: County and Local History, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Chesapeake Region

Annotation / 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.

Categories: County and Local History, Native American, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century, St. Mary's County, Chesapeake Region