The WPA Guide to Maryland

The Old Line State

Federal Writers' Project

• Publisher: Trinity University Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781595342188
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors—many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures—were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ralph Ellison are among the more than 6,000 writers, editors, historians, and researchers who documented this celebration of local histories. Photographs, drawings, driving tours, detailed descriptions of towns, and rich cultural details exhibit each state’s unique flavor.The WPA Guide to Maryland has some of the most thorough driving tours in the series. From the Allegheny Plateau to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast, the guide details Maryland’s diverse geography. The essays on the state’s two major cities—Baltimore and Annapolis—are especially engaging. Known as the Old Line State for its pivotal role in the American Revolution, Maryland’s rich history is also extensively detailed in the guide.

PART I

Maryland’s Background

Maryland, My Maryland

PROBABLY no other State in the Union has produced or will produce a man who in his will set aside several hundred thousand dollars for a university auditorium decorated with murals of one-time reigning beauties he had known. Each figure of a more glamorous day was to be painted at the height of her beauty, the bequest specified. Although there may be difficulty in finding an artist—or a group of artists—intrepid enough to attempt the task, some day Maryland will have, immortalized for the benefit of Johns Hopkins University students, representatives of an era Baltimoreans still think of tenderly and with regret for its passing. Although many non-Marylanders like to call the State English and for that matter, many visiting Englishmen say it is reminiscent of home, this sort of thing is almost Viennese in its grace and urbanity. This is an echo of the South that carried over into Maryland after the War between the States; a flavor still an integral part of the State’s charm.

To pick out one adjective or even a group of adjectives, and say, ‘This is Maryland,’ is, of course, impossible. Natives rarely try to define the State’s individuality; ‘outsiders’ try too hard, and, to existing knowledge, have not yet succeeded. English? Yes; for its conservatism, stolidity. Southern? Yes; in its frequent lassitude, its willingness to sacrifice prospects of progress to known, safe comforts. Northern? Yes; in its occasional outbursts of efficiency and industry. Maryland is all of these, and more.

Maryland is the Eastern Shore to New Yorkers who have found haven in handsome Tidewater homes. Maryland is Harford, Baltimore, or Howard County to others who come for hunting and racing. Maryland is the Chesapeake Bay to fishermen and lovers of crabs and oysters. Maryland is terrapin and good whiskey to gourmets, and a beautiful woman to connoisseurs of feminine beauty.

Maryland is only Baltimore to thousands of Americans who pass through the State’s metropolis and wonder at its rows of white steps, its remaining gas-lighted street lamps or its areas of crumbling residences. Or Maryland may be Annapolis to the tourist who comes to see the midshipmen during June week.

To the student and historian, Maryland recalls Poe, or Lanier, or clipper ships, or John Hanson, or Taney, or John Wilkes Booth, or Charles Carroll of Carrollton, or the burning of the Peggy Stewart, or the attack on Massachusetts troops in the streets of Baltimore, or bloody Antietam. To the romanticist, what State can surpass Betsy Patterson Bonaparte and Wallis Warfield, Margaret Brent and Anna Ella Carroll? Statesmen, soldiers, poets, beauties, teachers, doctors, parade through the State’s history. Perhaps many more as great may yet be born and bred in Maryland.

How did all this begin? What are Maryland’s roots and why are Marylanders what they are today?

Life that was close to the earth, work and sport on the Chesapeake Bay and others of Maryland’s waterways—these provided the beginnings of the substantial body of folklore, folk-customs and folk-language, which through three centuries has become a subconscious, rarely recognized part of life in Maryland. Slave-life in southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore also played a major role in enriching the State’s folkways, for white children, cared for by Negro servants and spending their youth in the company of Negro children, naturally absorbed the influence of their associates.

When the early settlers pushed on into their unknown country, many found homes and a new way of life in western Maryland. From this hardier, more practical type of pioneer, who faced constant conflict with Indians and the daily hardship of earning a living in his rugged countryside, came another sort of folklore. Tall tales of great hunters—hunters of animals and men—crop lore and superstitions absorbed from the Indians, imported customs brought by immigrating Mennonites, Dunkards, and Amish from Pennsylvania—these, too, have been passed down to present-day Marylanders.

During the major part of the nineteenth century, Baltimore was second only to New York as port of entry for immigrants from Europe. Thousands of men, women, and children of nearly every nationality brought with them habits and customs of their native lands, and some of these folkways, too, became part of the native Maryland scene, until today it is difficult in most instances to trace Marylandia to its sources.

Probably the richest body of lore and language that is peculiarly Maryland’s has sprung from the Eastern Shore, and is still current there. Since the livelihood of the natives might very often be dependent upon the results of a day’s work on the water, it is only natural that portents should play a large part in the activities of crabbers, oystermen, and fishermen.

‘It’s bad luck to swear while fishing.’ ‘Don’t go fishing in the sign of the Crab, fish won’t bite then.’ ‘Spit on your bait for good luck.’ ‘Fish begin to bite when the dogwood is in blossom.’ These and many similar expressions have come to be accepted and are faithfully observed.

Fishermen express their weather lore in an old bit of doggerel:

When the wind is from the north,

Sailors don’t go forth;

When the wind is from the east,

’Tis neither fair for man nor beast;

When the wind is from the south,

It blows the bait in the fishes mouth;

When the wind is from the west

Then it’s at its very best.

‘If you would catch oysters, sing; if fish, be still.’ This is an article of faith to which the Chesapeake oysterman strictly adheres, for he always sings at his work.

The influence of the moon is no more disregarded by watermen than by landsmen whose planting schedule may be based upon the position of the moon. For instance, crabbers say: ‘Hard crabs have more meat in them during the increase than during the decrease of the moon.’

To Eastern Shoremen, a ‘fly-up-the-creek’ is a flighty, scatterbrained individual. To be ‘as poor as gar broth’ is to be poor, indeed, for the gar is a thin almost meatless fish, offering little nutritional value.

Familiar to both the Eastern Shore and southern Marylanders is the custom originating with Negro slaves of ‘kotchin’ Marse’s Christmus gif.’ Until recent years it was still part of the holiday season in old Maryland families. Faithful slaves—and later old retainers—competed with each other for the honor and advantage of being the first to shout ‘Chrismus gif’, Chrismus gif’’ to members of the master’s family. The winner, according to ancient custom, would be rewarded with an especially generous supply of presents.

After all the presents had been distributed, the Negroes would sing, including in their varied repertoire old favorites and new versions improvised for the occasion, with flattering personal comments directed toward the master, his wife, and his children. Clapping of hands, shuffling of feet, and rhythmic body movements generally accompanied such a song as ‘Pattin’ the Juber.’

Juber do, an’ Juber don’t,

Juber will an’ Juber won’t;

Juber up an’ Juber down,

Juber all aroun’ de town.

Sif’ de meal an’ gimme de husk,

Bake de cake an’ gimme de crus’,

Fry de pork an’ gimme de skin,

Ax me when I’se comin’ agin.

Juber, Juber, Juber-ee!

The synchronization of body rhythm to song has long been recognized as of economic value by those in charge of groups of Negro laborers. Beginning in the earliest days of the colony with slaves working in tobacco fields or busy at similar chores, the custom continues in Maryland and can still be observed among gangs of Negro workers along Baltimore’s water front or any other group engaged in hard physical labor. A corn-husking song is an example of the older type of Maryland work-song:

De Jack Snipe said unto de Crane,

I wish to de Lawd dere would come rain;

De wile Goose said unto de Swan,

De comin’ winter’ll be sharp an’ long.

Dey say ole Marse is sick agen,

He suffer many a’ ache an’ pain;

When my old Marse’s dead an’ gone,

Dis ole nigger’ll stop huskin’ corn.

O, my ole Marse is good to me,

An’ when he dies, he’ll set me free,

We’ve possum fat an’ ’taters too,

Good enuf fo’ me an’ you.

An Eastern Shore and southern Maryland custom, which has spread throughout the rural sections of the State, is the tournament, a curious survival of a vanished age. Since earliest Colonial days, tilting tournaments have been held at Prince Frederick, Calvert County, and today it is possible to witness these colorful events at many county fairs, church carnivals, and horse shows. For years the only tournament in the East for women riders was held at My Lady’s Manor, in Baltimore County.

At Prince Frederick, plumed knights, bearing the names of their ancestral acres, are clad in riding breeches and silk shirts, and each proudly flaunts a favor from his lady as with lance a-tilt he gallops down the field. Mortal combat is not the order of the day, however. The knight must merely transfix with his lance small metal rings suspended from overhead arches. Many of the lances are family heirlooms, handed down from generation to generation.

At the conclusion, the victor of the joust crowns his Queen of Love and Beauty, while runners-up select maids of honor to wait upon the Queen. The entire event ends with a picturesque square dance staged by the royal court, followed by a general dance for guests and spectators.

Headless blacksmiths, phantom black dogs, haunted houses—Maryland has its share of legends of this sort. Old houses, old families, old graveyards breed such lore, and the State’s supply of antiquities is not alarmingly diminished. Probably one of Maryland’s few claims to a unique ghost is that which deals with a mournful wraith who haunts the western border of the State, striving to expiate a sin undiscovered until after his death. He moved a boundary marker, the legend goes, in all likelihood a story born at the time of the disputes between Maryland and Pennsylvania over territorial lines.

In the Middletown Valley section of western Maryland the fabulous ‘snallygaster’ flies into a little settlement of log cabins that served as slave quarters prior to the Civil War. The great bird preys upon Negro children out after dark, and on occasion has even been known to carry off a full-grown man to its lair in the near-by mountains. The name, those who have investigated the legend believe, may well have been a corruption of the German schnellegeister, meaning ‘quick spirit,’ since that section of the State has been heavily infiltrated with German families who migrated from Pennsylvania.

In the farther reaches of western Maryland, neighborhood woodchoppings are still popular, relics of pioneer days when small settlements lived on a communal basis, sharing their meager goods, their work, and their pleasures. On these occasions, the women prepare an elaborate meal, and a barrel of cider is conveniently placed near the workers, who neither expect nor receive any pay for their labors. The day usually ends with an old-fashioned square dance.

Customs and habits inherited from their Swiss and German forebears are still markedly evident among members of the Dunkards, the Mennonites, and the Amish sects in the northern central and western parts of Maryland. Utter simplicity—of life and of apparel—is the creed of these industrious people, most of whom are successful farmers.

Communities of Dunkards gather once a year for a Love Feast and Footwashing. Members of the congregation sit around a large table in the center of the church, and after singing a hymn, dip pellets of bread into a common dish of lamb stew, and eat sandwiches of roast lamb. Finally, each man removes his coat, takes up a towel, bathes and dries the feet of the man beside him, and gives his neighbor the ‘kiss of charity’ on each cheek. The women then perform the same ceremony. Basins used at the footwashing are kept in the church for this one purpose.

The Maryland idiom, with the exception of that native to the Eastern Shore, has been catalogued by Dr. Hans Kurath as Western American, the type of speech in general use among the overwhelming majority of Americans. ‘When you get as far south as Maryland,’ James Fenimore Cooper said in 1828, ‘the softest and perhaps as pure an English is spoken as is anywhere heard.’ This is owing, primarily, to the fact that the colony was first settled by immigrants from the British Isles. To the true Northerner, however, the accents of a Marylander have a pronounced suggestion of a Southern drawl, while to a Virginian or a Carolinian, the Marylander’s pronounciation may frequently be tainted with the harshness of the Yankee tongue. Amiable raillery is aimed from every direction at residents of both shores of the State for their pronounciation of Baltimore, which from a native sounds something like Bawlamur.

Contributions made by Negroes to ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Preface
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Maps
• General Information
• Calendar of Annual Events
• Part I. Maryland’s Background
• Part II. Cities
• Part III. Touring the State
• Part IV. Appendices