Qualla: St. Mary's City, Maryland

St. Mary's City, Maryland: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1976, a young actor named Denzel Washington made his stage debut in an outdoor drama at St. Mary's City, playing Mathias de Sousa, one of the first Black men to arrive with the original colonists. It was a fitting place for a first performance. St. Mary's City has always been about beginnings: the beginning of Maryland, the beginning of religious freedom as colonial policy, and the beginning of a democratic assembly that would outlast the town itself. Founded in March 1634 on a bluff above the St. Mary's River near where the Potomac empties into the Chesapeake Bay, this settlement served as Maryland's capital for sixty-one years before being abandoned, built over, and very nearly forgotten. Today, with over 200 archaeological digs completed, the original town is being excavated and reconstructed piece by piece.

Image: Acroterion | CC BY-SA 4.0

St. Mary's City, Maryland: A Catholic's Dream in a Protestant World

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Oliver, Public domain. The colony began as one man's vision. George Calvert, an English lord born in Yorkshire to a Catholic family, had been compelled by local authorities to study under a Protestant tutor at age twelve. He conformed to the established religion and built a career serving the Crown, bu...

Image: Peter Oliver | Public domain

St. Mary's City, Maryland: The Ark, the Dove, and the Yaocomico

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0. In November 1633, two ships, The Ark and The Dove, set sail from the Isle of Wight carrying settlers, Jesuit missionaries, and indentured servants. After a grueling ocean crossing with a resupply stop in Barbados, they reached Maryland in March 1634. Leonard Calvert chose a bluff...

Image: Acroterion | CC BY-SA 4.0

St. Mary's City, Maryland: Freedom's Fragile Foothold

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pubdog (talk), Public domain. What set St. Mary's City apart from every other colony was its founding mandate: religious tolerance. It was the first North American settlement established with a specific provision offering haven to both Catholic and Protestant Christians. That principle was tested almost immed...

Image: Pubdog (talk) | Public domain

St. Mary's City, Maryland: Buried and Reborn

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AnnOm.nous, CC BY-SA 4.0. After losing its status as capital, St. Mary's City did not just decline; it vanished. The remaining farms were consolidated into a large antebellum slave plantation by the Brome-Howard family, their plantation house built directly over the ruins of a Calvert residence. During th...

Image: AnnOm.nous | CC BY-SA 4.0

St. Mary's City, Maryland: What the Ground Remembers

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kathleen Tyler Conklin, CC BY 2.0. The archaeological discoveries at St. Mary's City read like a catalog of colonial ambition and daily life. Excavators have unearthed the site of the Nuthead printing house, identified by scattered lead type. They found a 1645 fort with a surrounding moat, the only known structura...

Image: Kathleen Tyler Conklin | CC BY 2.0