To Inoculate Or Not To Inoculate?
I’ve written before about the scourge of smallpox and the potential risks and rewards of getting inoculated against it in colonial Maryland. Annapolis’s weekly newspaper, the Maryland Gazette, reported any […]
An Idea Of Equality
I’ve written before about William Eddis (see “Our Little Capital” from January 28, 2021), an Englishman who arrived in Annapolis in September 1769, three months after his patron, Governor Robert […]
The Happiest Nation Under The Sun
Two hundred fifty years ago, on January 30, 1772, Annapolis publisher Anne Catharine Green reprinted a positive piece of political prognostication penned by an “old Correspondent” to a London periodical. […]
Of Singular Advantage to this Country
By January 1772, the nonimportation associations of 1769 and 1770, which organized and enforced colonial boycotts of taxed English goods, were already a distant memory for many Americans. After all, […]
The Meanest House In Town
A year after actress Nancy Hallam captivated an anonymous Annapolis gentleman (most likely Rev. Jonathan Boucher—see “In Praise of Artistic Genius”) with her dramatic skills and attractive appearance, she and […]
Down A Rabbit Hole
Sometimes a 250-year-old clipping from the Maryland Gazette sends me down a research rabbit hole. The welcome mat into this week’s warren was laid out by an advertisement placed in […]
Five Pounds Reward
A little more than a year ago, I mentioned two projects that told the stories of nine freedom seekers who tried to escape from bound servitude between 1728 and 1864. […]
Where’s My Package?
“I will leave no stone unturn’d to find out who keeps them from me…” Online shipment tracking has really spoiled us. Through the magic of the interwebs, we can order […]
Five Years Before Independence
250 years ago, on July 4, 1771, the American colonies were only five years away from declaring their independence from England. Annapolitans of the time had no way of knowing […]
Coming Soon: A Theater Near You
Several months ago, I wrote about actress Nancy Hallam (“In Praise of Artistic Genius,” September 10, 2020) and the rundown playhouse (“A Dramatic Scheme,” October 8, 2020) in which she […]
The Propriety Of A Private Inspection
In the five months since Maryland’s official tobacco inspection system stopped functioning because of a political dispute between Governor Robert Eden and the lower house of the General Assembly, colonial […]
The Course of Human Affairs
I’ve commented before about the innate delays in 18th-century reporting. Because the latest news could travel only as fast as a horse could run or a ship could sail, it […]