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Annotations / Notes: This intensive and insightful study of a single county offers insight into several large themes in Maryland history - "the American Revolution as a transforming, ongoing phenomenon, civilian's responses to the War for Independence, the tenor of the nation's formative years, and the nature of Chesapeake society." During this period Charles Country changed from prosperous economy, securely connected to the outside world through overseas trade, into a stagnant backwater, whose forward looking population searched for opportunity elsewhere. Unlike other areas of Maryland, where the Revolutionary years were tumultuous, there were few challenges to the status quo. Cut off from the empire, entrepreneurial whites left the county in search of wealth and opportunity, often as close as Washington, DC, and the population became overwhelmingly unfree.

Annotations / Notes: Early towns did not generally spring out of nowhere. Town planning was common and an important part of Chesapeake Maryland's colonial history. The government played an active role in the founding and formation of towns. Annapolis and the District of Columbia were unique in that their plans did not resemble those common amongst other English colonies.