MARYLAND SETTLED—WHAT’S IN A NAME?—PECULIAR MONETARY SYSTEM.
Lord Baltimore was the oldest inhabitant of Maryland. He named it after Mrs. Charles II, whose maiden name was Henrietta Maria.
The name Henrietta Marialand was found rather unhandy for so small a province, so he afterwards cut it down to Maryland.
The first settlement was made at the mouth of the Potomac river by a colony of English ladies and gentlemen. They lived chiefly upon green corn and tobacco, which they cultivated in large quantities. When they ran out of funds the latter staple became their currency—the leaf tobacco being the paper money or “greenbacks,” and the same dried, mixed with molasses and pressed into blocks or “plugs,” represented specie or “hard money.” During the growth of the crop it was customary for the capitalist to dig up his stalks every night before going to bed, (previously watering them,) and lock them up in a patent burglar-proof safe, getting up before sunrise next morning to replant them.
The inflation or depression of the money market depended more or less upon the success of the tobacco crop, and as the soil was new there was seldom a panic. One phase of the old Maryland monetary system is graphically set forth on page [79].
“Liquidation”
CHAPTER XIII.
TWO BIRDS KILLED WITH ONE STONE—A COLORED CITIZEN DECLARES HIS INTENTIONS—IN SETTLING NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA THE AUTHOR IS HIMSELF UNSETTLED.
The early history of the Carolinas has few cheerful phases. The first settlers were Puritans, who, finding the business unprofitable, sold out and went to speculating in real estate. Preyed upon by speculators and Indians, as Carolina was, few inducements were held out to emigrants of good moral character. Happily, however, about the beginning of the eighteenth century a distinguished colored gentleman poetically but forcibly announced his intention of emigrating to North Carolina “Wid de banjo on his knee,”—or was it Alabama? perhaps it was, but no matter. We are positive as to the banjo at any rate. It is a matter of regret that he selected so unagricultural an instrument to begin life with in a new colony.