[Sidenote:  Maryland given to Baltimore, 1632.]

[Sidenote:  Settlement of Maryland. Higginson, 121-123; Eggleston, 50-53; Source-book, 48-51.]

39.  Settlement of Maryland.—­Maryland included the most valuable portion of Virginia north of the Potomac.  Beside being the owner of all this land, Lord Baltimore was also the ruler of the colony.  He invited people to go over and settle in Maryland and offered to give them large tracts of land on the payment of a small sum every year forever.  Each man’s payment was small.  But all the payments taken together, made quite a large amount which went on growing larger and larger as Maryland was settled.  The Baltimores were broad-minded men.  They gave their colonists a large share in the government of the colony and did what they could to bring about religious toleration in Maryland.

[Sidenote:  Roman Catholics in England.]

[Sidenote:  Roman Catholics and Puritans in Maryland.]

[Sidenote:  The Toleration Act, 1649.]

40.  The Maryland Toleration Act, 1649.—­The English Roman Catholics were cruelly oppressed.  No priest of that faith was allowed to live in England.  And Roman Catholics who were not priests had to pay heavy fines simply because they were Roman Catholics.  Lord Baltimore hoped that his fellow Catholics might find a place of shelter in Maryland, and many of the leading colonists were Roman Catholics.  But most of the laborers were Protestants.  Soon came the Puritans from Virginia.  They were kindly received and given land.  But it was evident that it would be difficult for Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and Puritans to live together without some kind of law to go by.  So a law was made that any Christian might worship as he saw fit.  This was the first toleration act in the history of America.  It was the first toleration act in the history of modern times.  But the Puritan, Roger Williams, had already established religious freedom in Rhode Island (p. 33).

[Sidenote:  Tobacco and grain.]

[Sidenote:  Commerce.]

[Sidenote:  Servants and slaves.]

41.  Maryland Industries.—­Tobacco was the most important crop in early Maryland.  But grain was raised in many parts of the colony.  In time also there grew up a large trading town.  This was Baltimore.  Its shipowners and merchants became rich and numerous, while there were almost no shipowners or merchants in Virginia.  There were also fewer slaves in Maryland than in Virginia.  Nearly all the hard labor in the former colony was done by white servants.  In most other ways, however, Virginia and Maryland were nearly alike.

CHAPTER 6

NEW ENGLAND

[Sidenote:  The English Puritans.]

[Sidenote:  Non-Conformists.]

[Sidenote:  Separatists.]