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Revision as of 20:49, 25 June 2002

Maryland is a state in the east of the United States. Maryland is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, on the west by West Virginia, on the east by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south, across the Potomac River, by Virginia. Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state. The The state bird is the Baltimore oriole; the state flower is the black-eyed susan; and the state song is "Oh Maryland, My Maryland." As of 2000, the state's population was 5,296,486.

Government

As in all fifty states, the head of the executive branch of government is a Governor. The legislative branch is called the General Assembly, and consists of a Senate and an House of Delegates.

Geography

History

The English colony of Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore, and was one of the few dominantly Catholic regions among the English colonies in America. The Maryland toleration act was one of the first laws that explicitly tolerated varieties of religion (as long as it was Christian), and is sometimes seen as a precursor to the First Amendment.

Originally, based on an incorrect map, the royal charter granted Maryland the territory north of the Potomac River up to the fortieth parallel. This was found to be a problem, because this would put Philadelphia, the major city in Pennsylvania, within Maryland. The Calvert family, which controlled Maryland, and the Penn family, which controlled Pennsylvania, engaged two surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, to survey a line which would form the boundary between their two colonies. This line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767. (Mason and Dixon's survey also fixed the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania and the approximately north-south portion of the boundary between Delaware and Maryland. The Delaware-Pennsylvania boundary is a circle, and the Delaware-Maryland boundary does not run truly north-south because it was intended to bisect the Delmarva Peninsula rather than follow a meridian. However, the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary is a true east-west line.) The Mason-Dixon line thus surveyed became the symbolic boundary between the North and South, as Pennsylvania early abolished slavery, while Delaware and Maryland remained slave states until the American Civil War.

Maryland was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution.

Maryland remained neutral in the United States Civil War. As it did not secede (in part due to precautions taken by the government in Washington, D.C.), it was not included under the Emancipation Proclamation and retained legal slavery for some years after the Civil War.

Colleges and Universities

Professional sports teams

See also Maryland Cookies.

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