Famous People In Maryland History
From the Native Americans to the Pilgrims, from the plantation owners to the slaves, from the political poets to the religious figures and from the famous then to the famous now shows the diverse history of Maryland and how it has made an impact on our country.
The Native Americans of the Maryland area, called the Accohannock, were a sub-tribe of the Powhatan nation. The Accohannock tribe was one of the tribes that welcomed the pilgrims and remained friendly to the white settlers when the majority of the Powhatan nation fought them. The Accohannock resided on the Eastern shore and their land was not overtaken by the white settlers due to their strong relationship with them until colonial policy began to make rapid changes in the 1640s. The tribe continued to be friendly even though they were losing their land and warned the settlers of a plan by the Chief Opechancanough, the successor to Chief Powhatan, to poison their water and wipe them out. The Accohannack still exist today and host the Native American Heritage Festival and Powwow on the first weekend in May to promote their heritage and culture.
The Powhatan nation is known by most everyone throughout the US, because of the movie Pocahontas. Pocahontas was the daughter to the Chief of the Powhatan nation when the first settler came to the United States. Pocahontas was taken prisoner and was later released to be married to a man named John Rolfe who later became known for commercializing tobacco.
In the 1700s there were a lot of plantations that grew tobacco as their primary crop. Plantations, or farm lands, had many slaves and of them were born Harriet Tubman, born in Dorchester County, Maryland, famous for leading thousands of slaves to freedom and Josiah Henson, born in Charles County, Maryland, famous for his autobiography Uncle Tom's Cabin. The plantations that held slaves can still be found today as hotels like the Merry Sherwood Plantation or continuing as farms like the River Plantation who make all kinds of dairy products.
Political figures range from Thomas Kennedy who was a Maryland legislator that helped to extend political rights to Jews to John Wilkes Booth, born in Bel Air, Maryland who caused a national devastation by assassinating the president, Abraham Lincoln. Everyone remembers the poetry of Francis Scott Key, born in Frederick, Maryland. He was a lawyer who enjoyed writing poetry and was inspired to write the "The Star Spangled Banner" which was adopted as the national anthem on March 3, 1931. Now played at every sports event and other national events to remind us what our country had to go through to become its own.
Famous people in Maryland history are continuing to be made and who knows who will make a big impact in our country in the future?