{"id":39189,"date":"2017-09-09T14:29:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T21:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soulofamerica.com\/?page_id=39189"},"modified":"2020-11-07T19:40:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T03:40:38","slug":"annapolis-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.soulofamerica.com\/us-cities\/annapolis\/annapolis-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Annapolis History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maryland

Maryland State House, seen from Francis Street<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Annapolis History<\/h2>\n
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Native Americans often crossed through the Annapolis area during hunting expeditions to the other side of Chesapeake Bay. So when the British claimed the territory in 1649, it was wild and virgin. Though founded in 1649, Annapolis received its name in 1695 to honor the youngest daughter of British King James II’, Princess Anne, at the same time it became the Maryland Colony capital. In 1770 Charles Wallace, a merchant and builder, subdivided this tract of land in the Cornhill, Fleet and East Streets area of Annapolis for craftsmen, tradesmen, shopkeepers, livery stables and taverns. From 1783-1784, during the Revolutionary War, Annapolis became the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

African descendents often passed through Annapolis via portside slave auctions. Others were more fortunate and arrived as or became free skilled tradesmen. In a fast growing port city such as this one in the 18th and early 19th century, European Americans capitalized on tradecraft of all people regardless of race. Many of Anne Arundel County’s 5,000 Black residents worked as free civilians for the U.S. Naval Academy, or worked the city’s docks, or owned businesses and a few built residential properties and streets for African-American workers. The remaining African Americans were freed on 1 November 1864, by Maryland’s fourth Constitution. Between 1885 and 1930 the Clay street neighborhood changed from one of scattered Negro tenements, coal yards, and flats to a community of over 200 houses and some 30 stores. Many African Americans owned stores and businesses in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Frederick Douglass’ sons, Charles and Lewis were members of the Massachusetts 54th Colored Troops who served in the Civil War. Major Charles Douglass was refused a meal at an upscale waterside cafe in Annapolis, Maryland in the 1890s. That insult motivated him to purchase 44 acres of tree-lined beachfront property slightly southwest of Annapolis along the Chesapeake Bay, where he founded the Highland Beach resort in 1893. Thus Highland Beach was consciously planned as America’s oldest Black resort community. Charles, built a cottage in the resort for his father Frederick Douglass, though Frederick passed away shortly before its completion. The Frederick Douglass’ summerhouse, Twin Oaks, remains a landmark in this bucolic resort, which is now a community of private homeowners.<\/p>\n

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