Last updated: September 30, 2024
Place
Southern Maryland National Heritage Area
Historic St. Mary’s City
Quick Facts
Location:
Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, and southern Prince George’s counties, Maryland
Significance:
Each era of Southern Maryland’s history reflects an American struggle to widen the circle of rights, inclusion, and opportunity. The Southern Maryland NHA focuses on 5 historical themes: 1. Piscataway People: The Land is Who We Are; 2. Sea Change: Time and Tide Shape Land and Life; 3. Tobacco: A Growing Concern; 4. Spirit of Faith, Spirit of Law, Spirit of Progress; 5. Defense of a Nation.
Designation:
National Heritage Area
Designated in 2023, Southern Maryland National Heritage Area showcases of thousand miles of shoreline, rich in socio-political, maritime, and agricultural heritage, and an impressive concentration of intangible traditions and tangible historic, natural, and cultural resources.
Southern Maryland is a land of contrasts and contradictions. It is where St. Mary’s City became the first place in the Western World to codify religious freedom into law, where the separation of church and state began, where the first woman petitioned for the right to vote, where the first person of African descent served in a legislature in America, and many more foundational stories of progress for our nation. But, for freedoms gained, freedoms were also lost. This region is the land of the Piscataway, who colonist dispossessed of their home, but who have survived and are creating a new legacy. Slavery became an intrenched institution, with enslavers forcing Africans to labor in the tobacco industry.
Mallows Bay Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary
Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center
Calvert Marine Museum
Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
Historic St. Mary’s City
St. Clement’s Island and Museum
Historic Sotterley
Maxwell Hall
Port Tobacco and Washington Burch House
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum
Drayden African American Schoolhouse
The Surratt House Museum
Darnall’s Chance
Point Lookout State Park
Piney Point Lighthouse Museum and Historic Park
Harmony Hall
Smallwood State Park and Smallwood’s Retreat
Commemorative to the Enslaved of Southern Maryland
African American Heritage House
Lord Baltimore Cecil Calvert
Mathias de Sousa
Margaret Brent
Josiah Henson Matthew Henson
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray
Alan Shephard Jr.
Harriet Elizabeth Brown
Thomas Stone
J.C. Parks
Washington Burch
General William Smallwood
Southern Maryland is a land of contrasts and contradictions. It is where St. Mary’s City became the first place in the Western World to codify religious freedom into law, where the separation of church and state began, where the first woman petitioned for the right to vote, where the first person of African descent served in a legislature in America, and many more foundational stories of progress for our nation. But, for freedoms gained, freedoms were also lost. This region is the land of the Piscataway, who colonist dispossessed of their home, but who have survived and are creating a new legacy. Slavery became an intrenched institution, with enslavers forcing Africans to labor in the tobacco industry.
Historic Sites and Points of Interest:
Religious Freedom National Scenic BywayMallows Bay Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary
Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center
Calvert Marine Museum
Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
Historic St. Mary’s City
St. Clement’s Island and Museum
Historic Sotterley
Maxwell Hall
Port Tobacco and Washington Burch House
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum
Drayden African American Schoolhouse
The Surratt House Museum
Darnall’s Chance
Point Lookout State Park
Piney Point Lighthouse Museum and Historic Park
Harmony Hall
Smallwood State Park and Smallwood’s Retreat
Commemorative to the Enslaved of Southern Maryland
African American Heritage House
Notable People:
Captain John SmithLord Baltimore Cecil Calvert
Mathias de Sousa
Margaret Brent
Josiah Henson Matthew Henson
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray
Alan Shephard Jr.
Harriet Elizabeth Brown
Thomas Stone
J.C. Parks
Washington Burch
General William Smallwood