
Maryland was an active participant in the events leading up to the American Revolution, and by 1776, its delegates signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1760, Maryland's current boundaries took form following the settlement of a long-running border dispute with Pennsylvania. Demand for cheap labor from Maryland colonists led to the importation of numerous indentured servants and enslaved Africans. Its economy was heavily plantation-based and centered mostly on the cultivation of tobacco. Maryland's early settlements and population centers clustered around rivers and other waterways that empty into the Chesapeake Bay. Nevertheless, religious strife was common in the early years, and Catholics remained a minority, albeit in greater numbers than in any other English colony. Accordingly, in 1649 the Maryland General Assembly passed an Act Concerning Religion, which enshrined this principle by penalizing anyone who "reproached" a fellow Marylander based on religious affiliation. Unlike the Pilgrims and Puritans, who rejected Catholicism in their settlements, Lord Baltimore envisioned a colony where people of different religious sects would coexist under the principle of toleration. In 1632, Charles I of England granted Lord Baltimore a colonial charter, naming the colony after his wife, Henrietta Maria. As one of the original Thirteen Colonies of England, Maryland was founded by George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, a Catholic convert who sought to provide a religious haven for Catholics persecuted in England. īefore its coastline was explored by Europeans in the 16th century, Maryland was inhabited by several groups of Native Americans – mostly by Algonquian peoples and, to a lesser degree, Iroquoian and Siouan. It is named after Henrietta Maria, the French-born Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, who was known then in England as Mary.

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Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State.

Baltimore is the largest city in the state, and the capital is Annapolis. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west Pennsylvania to its north and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. Maryland ( US: / ˈ m ɛr ɪ l ə n d/ ( listen) MERR-il-ənd) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
