The Maryland History and Culture Bibliography
Johnson, Robert C., ed. "Virginia in 1632." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 65 (1957): 458-466.
Categories: African American, Agriculture, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Intellectual Life, Literature, and Publishing, Native American, Politics and Law, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Seventeenth Century
Adler, Georgia. "How Distinctly I Now Recollect What Then Passed: The Journals of William E. Bartlett." Maryland Humanities (March/April 1994): 2-3.
Carroll, Kenneth L. "The Berry Brothers of Talbot County, Maryland: Early Antislavery Leaders." Maryland Historical Magazine 84 (1989): 1-9.
Categories: African American, Biography, Autobiography, and Reminiscences, Seventeenth Century, Talbot County, Eastern Shore
Kester, John G. "Charles Polke: Indian Trader of the Potomac." Maryland Historical Magazine 90 (Winter 1995): 446-65.
Krech, Shepard, III. Praise the Bridge That Carries You Over: The Life of Joseph L. Sutton. Boston: G. K. Hall and Co. (cloth); Cambridge, MD: Chenkman Publishing Co. (paper), 1981.
Notes: Biography of a black resident of Miles River Neck in Talbot County. Based on extensive oral history interviews, this personal narrative by a long-time Talbot County resident offers a unique look at the life of African Americans on the Eastern Shore. Joseph Sutton (1885-1980) led a long and eventful life, and his reminiscences are rich in personal detail. In addition to his own experiences, Sutton's words are a valuable source for understanding the personal impact of racism on African Americans.
Categories: African American, Biography, Autobiography, and Reminiscences, Twentieth Century, Talbot County
Marsh, Joan F. "William Henry Holmes and 'Holmescroft'." Montgomery County Story 42 (August 1999): 89-100.
Categories: Biography, Autobiography, and Reminiscences, Geography and Cartography, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Montgomery County
"Meet Talbot's Delegates." Historical Society of Talbot County Newsletter (Fall 1987): 1-2.
Categories: Biography, Autobiography, and Reminiscences, Politics and Law, Twentieth Century, Talbot County, Eastern Shore
Preston, Dickson J. Young Frederick Douglass: The Maryland Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.
Notes: There are a number of excellent biographies of Frederick Douglass including works by Eric Foner, William McFeeley and Benjamin Quarles. For the student of Maryland history, Preston's short but well-researched book focuses on the first twenty years of Douglass' life spent in Talbot County and Baltimore City. His experiences as a slave in Maryland shaped his subsequent career and thus are critical to understanding one of the greatest spokesmen for human rights.
Categories: African American, Biography, Autobiography, and Reminiscences, Nineteenth Century, Baltimore City, Talbot County
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.
Categories: African American, Maritime, Native American, Politics and Law, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Nineteenth Century
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.
Categories: African American, Native American, Politics and Law, Seventeenth Century
Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.
Categories: African American, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Native American, Politics and Law, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Before 1600 AD, Seventeenth Century
Berlin, Ira. Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South. New York: Pantheon Books, 1974.
Notes: The author spends some time discussing Maryland, and the Upper South in general, in order to emphasize geographic distinctions which impacted the status of free Negroes. He postulates that the treatment and status of free blacks foreshadowed the treatment of black people in general after emancipation. In addition, the author examines the various classes of free blacks to understand how different groups viewed their social role. For the elite, positions of leadership continued after the Civil War. Maryland is of particular interest since by 1810, almost one-quarter of Maryland's black population was free. Maryland therefore had the largest free black population of any state in the nation.
Categories: African American, Geography and Cartography, Politics and Law, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Nineteenth Century
Buford, Carolyn Bames. The Distribution of Negroes in Maryland, 1850-1950. M.A. thesis, Catholic University, 1955.
Categories: African American, Geography and Cartography, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century
Clemens, Paul G.E. The Atlantic Economy and Colonial Maryland's Eastern Shore: From Tobacco to Grain. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980.
Categories: African American, Agriculture, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Kent County, Queen Anne's County, Talbot County, Eastern Shore, Eighteenth Century
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.
Categories: African American, Ethnic History, Native American, Seventeenth Century
Davidson, Thomas E. "Jacob Armstrong: Pioneer Black Capitalist on Maryland's Eastern Shore." Maryland Pendulum 4 (1986): 4-6.
Categories: African American, Biography, Autobiography, and Reminiscences, County and Local History, Economic, Business, and Labor History, Caroline County, Cecil County, Dorchester County, Queen Anne's County, Somerset County, Talbot County, Wicomico County, Worcester County, Eastern Shore
Donaldson, O. Fred, and Richard L. Morrill. "Geographical Perspectives on the History of Black America." Economic Geography 48 (1972): 1-23.
Harvey, Lamont W. "Black Oystermen of the Bay Country... particularly St. Michaels, Maryland." Weather Gauge 30 (Spring 1994): 4-13.
"Selected Readings on Afro-Americans and Maryland's Eastern Shore." Maryland Pendulum 5 (Fall/Winter 1985): 6-7.
Categories: African American, Intellectual Life, Literature, and Publishing, Caroline County, Cecil County, Dorchester County, Queen Anne's County, Somerset County, Talbot County, Wicomico County, Worcester County, Eastern Shore
Wilson, Emily Wanda. The Public Education of Negroes on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. M.A. thesis, Howard University, 1948.
Categories: African American, Education, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Caroline County, Cecil County, Dorchester County, Queen Anne's County, Somerset County, Talbot County, Wicomico County, Worcester County, Eastern Shore
Bodenstein, William G. "St. Michael's, Maryland: An 18^th Century Speculative Development." Maryland Historical Magazine 80 (Fall 1985): 228-239.
Categories: Architecture, Historic Preservation, and Town Planning, Eighteenth Century, Talbot County
Hughes, Elizabeth. Historic St. Michaels: An Architectural History. St. Michaels, MD: Historic St. Michaels Bay Hundred, Inc., 1995.
Categories: Architecture, Historic Preservation, and Town Planning, County and Local History, Talbot County
Ludlow, Cynthia Beatty. Historic Easton. Edited by David Reed Freeman. Easton, MD: Historic Easton, Inc., 1979.
Olson, Sherry. Baltimore: The Building of an American City. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.
Notes: Geographer Olson's book, by far the most thorough illustrated history of Baltimore, is strong on geographic and commercial development, and gives less attention to the arts, including architecture. However it does feature many historic photographs of buildings and contemporary news accounts of their construction.
Categories: Architecture, Historic Preservation, and Town Planning, County and Local History, Geography and Cartography, Society, Social Change, Folklife, and Popular Culture, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Baltimore City
Silverman, Sharon H. "Ashby 1663." Maryland 25 (Autumn 1992): 26-31.