How was colonial Maryland governed?

How was colonial Maryland governed?

Maryland. Maryland was the first proprietary government, which means that the proprietor had executive authority. He created a government where he made the laws with the consent of the freemen landowners in the colony. A legislative assembly was created to consent to the laws passed by the governor.

What Mary is Maryland named after?

Maryland’s name honors Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-1669), wife of Charles I (1600-1649), King of Great Britain and Ireland, who signed the 1632 charter establishing the Maryland colony. Queen Henrietta Maria was the daughter of Henry IV of France (1553-1610) and his second wife, Marie de Medici (1573-1642).

What was the law of slavery in colonial Maryland?

As we have seen, the statutes of colonial Maryland established an absolute equation between blackness and slavery. The manner in which the courts handled freedom petitions indicates that proof to the contrary fell upon those who were presumed slaves.

What was the status of free blacks in colonial Maryland?

Although free blacks and mulattoes were not numerous, they did exist and they occupied a position in society above that of their servile brothers and sisters. An assessment of the legal status of blacks would be incomplete without regard for the treatment of free blacks.

What was the economy of the Maryland colony?

Furthermore, by the 1660’s, Maryland was firmly committed to a tobacco staple economy that demanded an abundance of cheap labor. After the first serious tobacco depression, the result of the Navigation Act of 1660, economic conditions in the colony favored those investors with considerable capital who could command large labor forces.

What was the purpose of the 1671 Slave Law?

But, the 1671 law reflected an ambivalent attitude toward the African-Americans. While its main purpose was to perpetuate black slavery, which implied the chattel status of the enslaved, the language of the law suggested the paradoxical assumption that blacks were people who possessed souls meriting salvation: