GROWTH OF MARYLAND.—The population of the colony, meantime, grew rapidly. Pamphlets describing the colony and telling how to emigrate and acquire land were circulated in England. Many of the first comers wrote home and brought out more men, and were thus enabled to take up more land. Emigrants who came with ten or twenty settlers were given manors or plantations. Such as came alone received farms.
Most of the work on plantations was done by indented white servants, both convicts and redemptioners. [14] Negro slavery existed in Maryland from the beginning, but slaves were not numerous till after 1700.
[Illustration: HAND LOOM. [15]
Food was abundant, for the rivers and bay abounded with geese and ducks, oysters and crabs, and the woods were full of deer, turkeys, and wild pigeons. Wheat was not plentiful, but corn was abundant, and from it were made pone, hominy, and hoe-cakes.
NO TOWNS.—As everybody could get land and therefore lived on manors, plantations, or farms, there were practically no towns in Maryland. Even St. Marys, so late as 1678, was not really a town, but a string of some thirty houses straggling for five miles along the shore. The bay with its innumerable creeks, inlets, coves, and river mouths, afforded fine water communication between the farms and plantations; and there were no roads. As in Virginia, there was no need of shipping ports. Vessels came direct to manor or plantation wharf, and exchanged English goods for tobacco or corn. Such farmers or planters as had no water communication packed their tobacco in a hogshead, with an axle through it, and with an ox or a horse in a pair of shafts, or with a party of negro slaves or white servants, rolled it to market.
SUMMARY
1. The struggle of the Jamestown colony for life was a desperate one. For two years it was preserved by Captain John Smith's skillful leadership, and the frequent reinforcements and supplies sent over by the London Company; but in 1610 the settlers started to leave the country.
2. The arrival of Lord Delaware saved the colony. He brought out news of a new charter (1609) which greatly extended the domain of the company.
3. The settlers were now given land of their own, tobacco was grown, more settlements were planted, and prosperity began.
4. In 1619 slavery was introduced; a shipload of young women arrived; and a representative government was established.