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| Things to Do > Our Heritage |
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Annapolis' "Golden Age"
Annapolis enjoyed what's been called a "golden age" from the late 1750s to 1776. The town was described by Jonathan Boucher, rector of St. Anne's Church, as the "genteelest town in North America." The city serves both as the county seat and as Maryland's capital. Today, as you walk the streets of Annapolis and explore its historic buildings, the voices of its diverse and multilayered heritage can still be heard. |
Four Rivers and the Bay
William Wirt captured an enduring scene when he wrote in 1822 of a “broad bay animated with vessels in full sail.” The confluence of the Chesapeake Bay to the east and the area’s numerous creeks and four rivers – Severn, South, Rhode, and West – defined the area’s natural and man-made landscape and shaped the lives of those who settled along its shores. |
Life on the Land
The area's waterways have shaped the contours of the land, but it is in the loamy soil that the stories of those who lived here are best revealed. Indians first foraged for berries in the dense woods and shot venison and turkey to supplement their diets. By the mid-17th century, the English were creating plantations along the shore, smaller farms were settled inland, and tobacco was the economic mainstay. Today, though tobacco has given way to wheat and corn in South County fields, historic structures bear witness to a rich life on the land and horses still gallop across gentle uplands. |
African-American Heritage
As early as the mid-1600s, the institution of slavery was a growing economic, social, and cultural force in Maryland and other colonies. Slave-trading merchants reaped substantial profits from the slave trade. In the South, plantation owners relied upon the labor of enslaved people for their livelihood. Slavery and its legacy, including racism, have shaped our area's heritage for over 300 years. |
Sacred Places
In 1632, King Charles I granted a charter for the Maryland colony to Cecil Calvert, a Roman Catholic. Protestants and Catholics left behind a land of religious persecution in pursuit of what Calvert described as "unity and peace." Maryland's Toleration Act of 1649 was based on this foundation. The area's churches, synagogues, meeting halls, and graveyards reveal the roots of this story and the growth of diverse religious faiths in Maryland. |
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