By Lauren Beville

      During the 1600s in England most people didn’t like Catholics.  Have you ever wondered why? Now you can learn as we discover how the colony of Maryland came to be.
      In the 1600s and the 1700s some people did not get along because of their religions.  Catholics could be thrown in jail or killed because of their religion.  Sir George Calvert, a rich Englishman, had wanted to create a place where Catholics could live freely without  people who didn’t have the same religion bothering them. 
     Europeans who were looking for a new life settled in America.  Calvert decided that he would live there, too.  In 1632 King Charles I of England gave Calvert’s family a charter to start a colony to the north of Colonial Virginia.  Calvert’s family used their money to start the colony, but they made their own laws.  The colony was going to be called Maryland after King Charles’ wife, Henrietta Maria. 
     George Calvert died before he could go to Maryland.  Calvert’s oldest son, Cecilius wanted to stay in England so he sent his brother Leonard on the first voyage to the colony.  Leonard and 200 other colonists sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and ended up in Maryland on March 15, 1634.
     Twenty-five out of 200 colonists were rich enough to pay to go on the trip to America. Those people paid for the others who would become their servants. Calvert gave the land to the rich colonists.  Each of the landowners was called a lord of manor.  Most of the lords were Catholics.   When a lord of Manor paid for his servants they had to work for the lord for seven years.  At that time many bond servants never became free.
     Life in  Colonial Maryland was very hard in the 1600s.  Colonists were still learning how to grow food in soil.  Colonists went hungry most of the time.  Sicknesses were caused by insects that filled Maryland swamps.  Almost every child had lost one parent.  Most parents remarried if a husband or wife died. 
     Maryland’s main business was farming.  People called yeoman farmers worked on their own farm.  They fenced their cornfields but their cows and pigs roamed everywhere.
     The yeoman farmers worked on small farms while lords had huge plantations.  Bond servants worked on plantations until the lords wanted to use slaves.  Calvert made slaves illegal before the colony was formed because he thought people should not own other people.
     Maryland’s people were having a hard time from 1644 to 1646.  In England people were fighting.  Calvert had to leave and return to England.  There  was no one n charge for two years.  People did not respect the laws.  There was stealing and fighting.  This time was known as "The Plundering Time."
     Maryland was not like other colonies. Sir George Calvert started the colony of Maryland as a place that welcomed Catholics. The act of toleration made it possible for different types of Christians to live and work together.  It was passed in 1649. Maryland was different because they allowed Christians who weren't Catholic to hold public office and own their own land. Other colonies didn't tolerate different religious beliefs.  Across America some worship wasn't allowed like that of Jews, African slaves and Native Americans.

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