Historic Saint Marys City, Maryland, 2024

My youngest had a school field trip to St. Marys City, the original capital of the colony of Maryland (the capital moved to Annapolis before the American Revolution). This trip took us to some new places that we hadn't seen back in 2022 when visited as a family (see our last visit here and here). Our first stop was the Godiah Spray Tobacco Plantation. The first building we saw was the barn, which naturally had livestock nearby.

Colonial barn

Bulls

Pigs

The guide said that the pigs were the same breed used in colonial times, so they are period-accurate without being a couple of hundred years old.

Around back of the barn, we had a presentation on tobacco. Back then it was a cash crop, meaning not only that it was a highly valuable commodity, but also it was actually used as cash. For example, a pair of shoes might cost ten pounds of tobacco (shoes were imported from England, so pretty expensive). I was amazed when he talked about the insecticide they used back then....Kids were sent into the fields to pick bugs off the plants. Not just the servants' kids either--all the kids had a hand in keeping the cash crop in top condition.

Tobacco presentation

Our next stop was the main house. Godiah Spray was a tenant farmer, meaning he did not own the land but worked it. Some people came to the colony of Maryland as indentured servants. They would work for seven or ten years and then receive payment in the form of three barrels of corn, a barrel of tobacco, and rights to fifty acres of land. Typically, the granted land was not yet cleared of forest, which meant some more work before it could be turned into a viable farm.

Tenant farm house

The main living area

Drying herbs in the kitchen

Typical kitchen implements

A lot of axe heads

Dishes and bottles

The docent in the house explained that farms tended to be much more self-sufficient than we are nowadays. Walking to town was a whole day affair, so no one just popped off to the drug store for a cold remedy. Colonists would make their own pharmaceuticals from the garden herbs. Feverfew was a popular plant that would be crushed in a mortar and pestle, mixed with water, and heated with a hot iron from the fireplace, just like the picture below. The brew would be drunk immediately. 

Home-made aspirin?

The house garden

We then walked over to the Woodland Indian Hamlet. This area was occupied by the Yaocomaco people. They built large buildings as homes, with many of the accoutrements that the Europeans had. To build the structure, they used a wooden frame and covered it with grass and tree bark. 

Native home reconstruction

The main living area

Pelts

Frame without coverings

The homes were more primitive but also mobile. They could be taken apart and reassembled in another area if they had to move for the seasons or for other reasons.

Further in the village, a docent demonstrated how animal pelts were treated to provide leather or furs for various purposes.

Fur processing

The natives used stone tools, like the small axe below. Ropes were made from deer tendons or woven from strong grasses. When the colonists came, metal tools were a popular trade item.

Native axe

Trade items

Canoes were made by burning out the insides of a log. By carefully packing wet clay in certain spots, they could have controlled burns that hollowed out the tree. Shells were used to scrape out the ash and smooth out rough spots.

Making a canoe

Our next stop was the waterfront. We saw a recreation of the Dove, one of the two ships that brought Leonard Calvert and the original colonists.

The Dove

My son and I

The dock and ship had several educational stations. The most impressive to me was the captain's station, where the costumed interpreter explained dead reckoning, i.e. how the colonial sailors would track their voyages by measuring their direction, speed, and time. The information was charted on a map so they knew where they were in the ocean. Getting lost at sea was basically a death sentence, so crews were very careful about charting their position.

Captain

We saw the archeological dig at Leonard Calvert's home. Since the original was built of wood, it has not survived. Many other items, like pottery and metal bits, are found in the ground and give clues to how the colonists lived.

Leonard Calvert House archeology

One of our last stops was at the Print House, where the printer demonstrated his press. Back in the day, they did not print books or newspapers at the colony. Legal documents and notices were more practical and necessary with a one-sheet printer. People would send over hand-written texts to be printed.

Printing press

It was a delightful visit. I was glad to go.