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A map of the counties of Southern Maryland. According to the state of Maryland, the region includes all of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's counties (red) and the southern portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties (light red)[3]
Southern Maryland, also referred to as SoMD, is a geographical, cultural and historic region in Maryland composed of the state's southernmost counties on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. According to the state of Maryland, the region includes all of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's counties and the southern portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties.[3] It is largely coterminous with the region of Maryland that is part of the Washington metropolitan area.[8] Portions of the region are also part of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area[9] and the California-Lexington Park Metropolitan Statistical Area.[10] As of the 2020 Census, the region had a population of 373,177.[4][5][7][6] The largest community in Southern Maryland is Waldorf, with a population of 81,410 as of the 2020 Census.[1][2]
The first European settlement in Maryland was established in Southern Maryland at St. Mary's City in 1634.[11] This settlement is considered by historians to be the birthplace of religious freedom in North America.[12] Throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, the area developed an agricultural slave economy,[13][14] with agriculture maintaining prominence following emancipation.[15] Many historical events occurred in Southern Maryland during the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War.[16][17][18] Much of the area remains rural, however the region saw suburban growth in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as Washington's suburbs expanded southward.[8][19]
In 2023, the region was designated as the Southern Maryland National Heritage Area.[20]
The Patuxent River runs through Southern Maryland, separating Calvert County and Anne Arundel County from Charles County, Prince George's County and St. Mary's County.
Cecilius Calvert was granted a charter to establish a colony meant to be a safe-haven for Catholics in 1632. Expeditions were launched into modern day Maryland, with an expedition reaching St. Clement's Island in 1634.[25][11] Later that year, the Maryland Colony was established by Leonard Calvert, first Governor of Maryland and brother of Cecilius. The colony's capital, and first settlement, was the newly established St. Mary's City.[13]
The colony originally focused on tobacco farming and was very successful although disease was a problem and many settlers died until immunities built up in the population. Religious tensions and also periods of open conflict also continued to be a major challenge.
St. Mary's City is widely considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in North America.[28][25] The colony there started under a mandate of religious tolerance in a time when England was anything but religiously tolerant. This was due to the colony's charter, which did not prohibit non-protestant churches.[13] In 1649, the Maryland Colonial Assembly passed of one of the earliest laws requiring religious tolerance, known as the Maryland Toleration Act of 1649.[29]
After 61 years as Maryland's capital an uprising of Protestants put an end to religious tolerance, overthrowing the old Catholic leadership and putting an end to colonial St. Mary's City itself, moving the colonial capital to Annapolis.[30][31][32][25]
St. Mary's City was abandoned as a capital but was slowly consolidated from smaller farms into a large, single slave plantation by the late 1600s.[33][34] Originally, laborers were Indentured Servants, with African slaves arriving in 1639.[11]Tobacco and (later) also wheat plantations expanded there[34] and in Southern Maryland as a whole during the slavery era. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade brought African slaves by the boatloads, with 100,000 slaves disembarking in Maryland during the century before the American Revolution.[14] From the late 1600s to early 1700s, about half of Maryland's enslaved population lived in Calvert, St Mary's, Prince George's, and Charles counties.[13] By 1755, one third of Maryland's population were enslaved Africans.[14] Slavery proved vital to Maryland's economy, with the institution providing the foundation for Maryland's economy and society.[14] The profits from slavery also provided the means for Maryland's gentry to gain power and dominate politics.[14]
272 slaves from across Maryland, including the Southern Maryland counties of Charles, St. Mary's, and Prince George's, were sold during the 1838 Jesuit slave sale to two planters in Louisiana.[35]
Due to Southern Maryland's proximity to the national capitol, the region was deeply affected by the War of 1812, with the war severely disrupting the lives of the region's citizens.[17] During August and September 1814, the British launched a campaign in the Chesapeake region. British forces landed in Benedict, Charles County on August 19, 1814.[39] Intent on marching to Washington, the British marched to Upper Marlboro before engaging American troops at the Battle of Bladensburg. The battle resulted in a British victory. By nightfall on August 24, 1814, British forces entered Washington and burned several government buildings.[40] The British then marched back to Benedict.[41] Similarly to what occurred in the Revolutionary War, enslaved Marylanders fled to British controlled areas to receive freedom.[14]
Southern Maryland was traditionally a rural, agricultural, oyster fishing and crabbing region; linked by passenger and freight steamboat routes.[44] These steamboat routes operated on the Chesapeake Bay and major rivers until the 1930s before the building of highways and the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge on U.S. Highway 301. (The latter highway was named after Robert Crain, an attorney who owned the state's largest farm, Mount Victoria, and who campaigned for the road's construction[45]). Weekend excursion boats also carried Washingtonians to small amusement parks and amusement pavilions at numerous Potomac shore locations.[46] From 1949 (1943 in some places) to 1968, the region was known for its poverty and its slot machine gambling.[47]
Poverty was common in St. Mary's County in the 1960s,[48] and gambling in the region came to be seen as a blight and was outlawed by Governor J. Millard Tawes and the state legislature.[49] A local political figure, St. Mary's County politician J. Frank Raley Jr. organized a slate of local candidates with the platform of challenging the political status-quo and lifting the region out of its generations long poverty.[49]
The region's isolation was ended by having a series of bridges built and roads expanded into highways.[48][50] These developments are credited for enabling the development of modern St. Mary's County.[48][50]
Raley was falsely accused of working to end gambling outright in the region,[49] which ended in his defeat and his official political career.[49] In fact he had supported a referendum on gambling which would have put the decision directly in the hands of voters.[49] He continued nevertheless lobbying on behalf of the Southern Maryland region and sitting on development boards and continued to have a major influence on economic development in the region for the rest of his life.[50]
The Southern Maryland National Heritage Area was established in the National Heritage Area Act in 2022.[83] The National Heritage Area helps preserve and promote destinations in four counties.[84][85] The National Heritage Area was officially designated in 2023.[86]
It is also one of thirteen state heritage areas and is administered by the Maryland Historical Trust through the Maryland Heritage Areas Program.[87]
Oysters are still widely available although they were once fished from the bay and its tidal tributaries in greater numbers, and are served either fried, raw, or stuffed. "Rockfish", the Maryland word for striped bass, is considered the most prized fish dish in Southern Maryland.[95]
Perhaps the most notable food dish originating from Southern Maryland is stuffed ham, which includes cabbage, kale, onions, spices and seasonings that are chopped and mixed, then stuffed into deep slits slashed in a whole, corned ham.[96]
^ abcde"Legislative Election Districts: Southern Maryland". Maryland Manual Online. Maryland State Archives, State of Maryland. 14 March 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2022. Southern Maryland: Calvert, Charles & St. Mary's Counties & parts of Anne Arundel & Prince George's Counties
^"Reconstructing the Brick Chapel of 1667" Page 1, See section entitled "The Birthplace of Religious Freedom" "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2014-03-13. Retrieved 2015-12-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Maclear, J.F. (1995). Church and State in the Modern Age: A Documentary History. New York: Oxford University Press US. ISBN0-19-508681-3
^"The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Volume I: To 1877", By Paul Boyer, Clifford Clark, Karen Halttunen, Sandra Hawley, Joseph Kett, "Chapter: 4 The Bonds of Empire: 1660-1740" page 70, Cengage Learning, publisher, Jan 1, 2012,
^Frank D. Roylance, Evening Sun, "They're unearthing more than a chapel at St. Mary's site BURIED PAST", November 13, 1990 [1]
^"Christina Milian Biography". ChristinaMilian.org - The Official Site of Christina Milian. Milian Corporation. Archived from the original on 2007-11-20. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
^"Semmes, Rapheal". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 27 December 2023.