America 250 – Baltimore Magazine

250 Years Ago: Baltimore’s Untold Role in the Toppling of a King

Ron Cassie — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:00:06 +0000

History

July 2026

The Continental Army was in shambles in the fall of 1776. The Declaration of Independence had been issued just months earlier, but the revolution appeared to be slipping away. Gen. George Washington had been defeated time and again, including at the disastrous Battle of Long Island where Washington himself escaped capture only because of the courage and sacrifice of Maryland’s First Regiment.

In mid-November, following a series of Continental Army retreats, the British laid siege to Fort Washington in Manhattan. The British and Hessian soldiers of King George III then advanced across the Hudson River to New Jersey, forcing the abandonment of Fort Lee. Thousands of American soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured during these British assaults, including 2,800 patriots at Fort Lee alone. Combined with mass desertions, the Continental Army dwindled to little more than 5,000 available men.

The surviving American troops fled to Pennsylvania with the British on their tail.

That December, however, with winter setting in, British Commander William Howe stopped the chase. He positioned outposts from central Jersey to the Pennsylvania line, in towns like Trenton, Bordentown, and Princeton. Believing the rebellion nearly crushed, he sent other troops back to winter quarters in New York.

The Continental Congress, which had been assembling in Philadelphia, did not anticipate Howe would temporarily halt his advance at the shores of the Delaware River. Just 30 miles from Trenton, they feared the British would sack the City of Brotherly Love next. After adjourning on Dec. 12, 1776, they hustled for safely to Baltimore Town—whose estimated population was just 6,000 at the time.

Congress convened again on Dec. 20 at the Henry Fite House, on the site of today’s CFG Bank Arena. The three-story, 14-room tavern, with fireplaces and a stable for 30 horses, was the largest building in Baltimore. It was near places to lodge and eat, but also on the western edge of town and out of cannonball range from Baltimore’s harbor. While Congress met there, Fite’s Tavern took on the name Congress Hall. Unfortunately, the building was destroyed by fire in 1860.

While in Baltimore, Congress members complained they could only get to the Fite House on horseback through deep mud. But they created the Board of War during this time and a new Treasury Committee, too. “We have done more important business in three weeks than we had done, and I believe should have done, at Philadelphia, in six months,” Samuel Adams declared early into the session.

Congress stayed in Baltimore through the end of February 1777. Famously surprising the British with a daring, Christmas night crossing of the icy Delaware River, Washington won several key battles during the intervening months, including the Battles of Princeton and Trenton, rejuvenating American hopes and morale.

Congress reconvened in Philadelphia again on March 5. Howe would eventually occupy Philadelphia in the fall of 1777, causing Congress to flee yet again, but to York, Pennsylvania, this time.

Although the American Revolutionary War would last another six hard years, no major battles were fought in or near Baltimore (unlike the War of 1812). And so, sandwiched between Philadelphia and the final victory in Yorktown, Virginia, the Revolutionary War story here has long been underappreciated. In particular, the crucial role played by local women, African Americans, immigrants, exiles, indentured servants, and foreign allies—in a revolution that reshaped the course of human history—has rarely, if ever, been told completely.

OPENING SPREAD: Mary Pickersgill’s 1813 hand-sewn Star-Spangled Banner (42' x 30') that flew over Fort McHenry. —COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY.

“Washington Crossing the Delaware” is one of three 1851 oil paintings by artist Emanuel Leutze, depicting the surprise Christmas night attack on Trenton, New Jersey. —EMANUEL LEUTZE, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

I. Baltimore Town’s Sons of Liberty

Nine years before the Revolutionary War broke out, Baltimoreans were already organizing in opposition to British colonial policies. Laid out in early 1730, Baltimore Town had become a growing urban center with an economy based on trade through its burgeoning port. By 1765, when Britain’s Parliament passed the Stamp Act, local merchants were already suffering the effects of a credit squeeze, currency shortage, and an adverse balance of trade with England and continental Europe.

Leading Baltimore merchant William Lux feared that the direct tax on colonial print materials—newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, legal and business documents, among other goods—“must inevitably ruin us.” Worse still, the Stamp Tax revenue was used to fund British troops stationed on American soil. Lux, whose father, Darby Lux, gave the anglicized version of his name to downtown’s Light Street, was a member of the Mechanical Company of Baltimore, the ad hoc representative government formed because the Maryland Assembly refused to allow Baltimore Town to officially incorporate with its own city government.

In February 1766, William Lux wrangled members of the Mechanical Company of Baltimore into a local chapter of the Sons of Liberty, following the lead of Boston, New York, and other colonial cities. These Baltimoreans, who were merchants and moderately well-off craftsmen motivated at least in part by economic self-interest, joined with the Boston Sons of Liberty—think Paul Revere, John Hancock, the Adams brothers—and enacted a nonimportation agreement with Britain in protest of the Stamp Act (aka, taxation without representation). Through community pressure in key cities, these early groups of antimonarchy agitators compelled colonial officials to illegally transact business without the stamps mandated by the Act.

After news arrived in Baltimore in April 1766 that the British Parliament had repealed the Stamp Act due to intense resistance in the colonies, the Sons of Liberty disbanded. Even so, their tactics and alliance, including the coalition between craftsmen (“mechanics” in the parlance of the time) and merchants that undergirded the Mechanical Company—set the precedents for political organizing in Baltimore during the Revolutionary War.

II. Tavern Business

In Baltimore Town, as well as most of colonial America, taverns were crucibles of Revolutionary fervor and venues for political assembly and debate. Referred to interchangeably as “inns” and “public houses,” too, taverns offered meals along with beer, hard cider, wine, and liquor—colonists drank roughly three times as much modern Americans—and lodging for travelers. Some taverns catered to elites, for example serving tea, hot chocolate, and coffee to genteel travelers for breakfast; some did not and served only simple fare, if they sold food at all. In general, taverns were places where white men drank and talked, making plans, holding court, and practicing politics while the white women and Black people who worked at the inns were excluded from social and political participation.

In 1773, the very first issue of Baltimore’s first newspaper, the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, ran an advertisement declaring that “Daniel Grant...hath opened an Inn and Tavern at the sign of the Fountain”—at the intersection of today’s downtown Light and Redwood streets, just north of the present-day Water Street Tavern. Grant “hath provided every Thing for the Accommodation of Gentlemen, their Servants, and Horses, in the best Manner.” In other words, this was one of those fancier establishments. Over the course of the war, the Fountain Inn accommodated a number of Founding Fathers and Revolutionary War leaders, including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and of course Gen. George Washington.

Troop movements brought military officers like Washington and his young French protégé, Maj. Gen. Lafayette, to town. But when Washington slept here, who made his bed? Who brought the general his morning tea and his evening Madeira? Domestic laborers, largely enslaved African Americans, indentured servants, and free white women, who were critical to Baltimore’s Revolutionary War role as a staging point for the Continental Army. Some of this specific domestic labor was likely done by the Black women enslaved by Daniel Grant, including Nanny Smith, Catherine, and Penn, who are named in a subsequent city tax list. The tavern owner’s presence is still visible today in the name of Grant Street, which abuts the old Fountain Inn location.

In fact, Washington and his staff stopped at the Fountain Inn in September 1781 on their way to the decisive Battle of Yorktown. It was also from the steps of the tavern that Washington reviewed the Maryland militia in 1798, when war with France threatened.

Coincidentally, a recovered cannonball from Fort McHenry—fired by the British during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814—sits as a very small monument in front of today’s Redwood Place apartments near the site of the Fountain Inn.

Baltimore’s monuments to the Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington in Mount Vernon Place. —A. AUBREY BODINE

III. Revolutionary Roads

There remain few traces of Revolutionary War-era Baltimore Town in present-day Baltimore City, besides the names of many of our central streets. There is the aforementioned Light Street and two—Fayette Street and Lafayette Avenue—which pay homage to the beloved volunteer freedom fighter from France. Others include John, Eager, and Howard streets, which honor Maryland-born Continental Army Col. John Eager Howard. Eutaw Street commemorates the bloody 1781 Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, where Howard and Maryland troops fought fiercely.

Paca and Chase streets are named for two of Maryland’s Declaration of Independence signers—William Paca and Samuel Chase. Stricker Street is named for John Stricker, who served with Washington and later became a commanding general in the War of 1812. And then there’s Baltimore’s Lafayette Square, and the Lafayette statue and the city’s Washington Monument at Mount Vernon Place, which began construction in 1815. It must be noted all these men were also significant enslavers, outside of Lafayette. A lifelong abolitionist, Lafayette later tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the future first president—one of the richest men ever to hold the nation’s highest office—to emancipate the men, women, and children he enslaved.

Interestingly, Baltimoreans named Pratt Street, the city’s main harbor thoroughfare, as well as Camden Street (and thus Camden Yards) as an expression of their gratitude to British parliamentarian Charles Pratt, the 1st Earl of Camden. A staunch supporter of civil liberties, Pratt opposed the Stamp Act, insisting taxation was predicated on representation, and advocated for the American colonists.

The plaque inside CFG Bank Area, which commemorates the site’s one-time home of the Continental Congress. —ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBRARY/STATE LIBRARY RESOURCE CENTER

There are more markers of Baltimore’s involvement in the revolution: Tucked inside the northeast corner of the CFG Bank Arena is a large bronze plaque commemorating the Continental Congress’ three-month legislative session on that site.

From Dec. 20, 1776, until Feb. 27, 1777, Baltimore Town was the capital of the United States. By this time, Baltimore was more or less universally pro-Revolution in its politics and comparatively well-fortified with Fort Whetstone—later rebuilt as Fort McHenry—as well as artillery breastworks on Fells Point. Theoretically, Baltimore was also defensible because of geography—all told, a good place to flee from the approach of British forces.

During his stay, Massachusetts delegate John Adams wrote in his letters that “Baltimore is a very pretty Town.” He enjoyed long walks around Fells Point and other parts of town and dined with local civil and military Revolutionary leaders, but like other members of the Continental Congress, also complained repeatedly that the streets were “very dirty and miry” and “the muddiest I ever saw.”

Of course, Baltimoreans were not at fault for their miry streets, Adams noted, “because they had determined to pave the Streets before this War came on, since which they have laid the Project aside.” (Apparently, Baltimore’s imperfect streets have been an issue from the start, but their initial paving at least did resume after the war.)

Later in 1777 and for similar reasons, Maryland Gov. Thomas Johnson and the five-man Council of Maryland also “adjourned to Baltimore.” Like Congress before them, they were fleeing British forces who were en route to Philadelphia. The Brits’ fleet had sailed right past Annapolis on their way up the Chesapeake Bay. It is unclear where this executive branch of Maryland’s government sat in session while in Baltimore, although they had made use of Grant’s Fountain Inn on previous visits to town.

Wherever they met, the governor and council fretted over reports of loyalists and deserters and hashed out the logistics of military manpower and supplies. Arriving in mid-August, they adjourned to Annapolis at the end of September when they ran out of money to pay their debts in Baltimore.

A colorized photo of the old Fountain Inn. —ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBRARY/STATE LIBRARY RESOURCE CENTER.

IV. Allies and Immigrants

Warfare depends upon logistics and the Continental Army depended on Baltimore Town. Our history goes largely ignored in histories of the Revolutionary War, because Baltimore was not a battlefield—but it is incorrect to say nothing important happened here. As a port town with an agricultural hinterland and a well-established ironmaking industry, Baltimore was an important supply and distribution center for food, clothing, and ordnance for Revolutionary troops up and down the eastern seaboard.

In February of 1781, the quartermaster general and commissary general of the Continental Army sent word to Baltimore’s civic leadership that the Marquis de Lafayette was on his way to Baltimore with his detachment of troops. The Marquis was moving as rapidly as possible and required essential provisions for his troops on short notice. They emphasized, “we are assured of your readiness to do essential service by your country on every occasion.” So, Baltimoreans got to work.

When Lafayette arrived in Baltimore, it became clear the soldiers under his command were in dire need of clothing as well as food. Under the leadership of David and Elizabeth Poe—coincidentally, the patriotic, future grandparents of the celebrated poet by the same name—the prosperous families of Baltimore Town pitched in together. The gentlemen took up a collection to buy materials, and the ladies set up something like an assembly line and produced approximately 3,000 garments for the soldiers in less than three months. (One document suggests that the clothes were produced within three weeks.)

In response, the Frenchman wrote, “Permit me to request my respectful thanks may be presented to the ladies of Baltimore...not only from a general respect to the fair sex, but more particularly because I know the accomplishment of those to whom I am indebted.”

The chivalrous Lafayette was a frequent visitor to Baltimore and Maryland during and after the war. The inscription at the base of the statue of him on horseback in Mount Vernon Place reads:

LA FAYETTE IMMORTAL
BECAUSE A SELF-FORGETFUL SERVANT OF
JUSTICE AND HUMANITY
BELOVED BY ALL AMERICANS
BECAUSE HE ACKNOWLEDGED NO DUTY MORE
SACRED THAN TO FIGHT FOR THE FREEDOM
OF HIS FELLOW-MEN

Brigadier Gen. Casimir Pułaski, an exiled Polish officer who later became known as “the Father of the American cavalry,” also spent time in the Baltimore area during the Revolutionary War, recruiting for his regiment, colloquially known as “Pulaski’s Legion,” in early 1778.

Roughly six months earlier, Pułaski was credited with saving George Washington’s life, or at minimum preventing his capture, with a bold charge at the Battle of Brandywine that allowed the general time to escape. Pulaski, however, struggled to obtain both funding and respect from the Continental Congress and army leadership, so by all accounts he had a more frustrating time in Baltimore than did Lafayette. Despite the frustration—or even more so, because of it—his formation and training of a wildly diverse cavalry regiment led by immigrant officers was a truly remarkable accomplishment. His service is honored with the naming of Pulaski Highway as well as a massive relief statue at Patterson Park.

It’s worth noting today that historians estimate that up to one-third or one-half of the Continental Army were immigrants. Also, that Native and Black Americans fought on both sides and that a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry, Crispus Attucks, is traditionally regarded as the first person killed in the Boston massacre, and thus the first patriot killed in the American Revolution.

As a coda to the Pulaski story, recent osteoarcheological research on his remains has indicated Pułaski was likely intersex (born with both male and female sexual characteristics). Perhaps Pułaski’s Legion was more indicative of diversity in American history than anyone realized at the time.

the bronze relief sculpture of Gen. Casimir Pulaski at Patterson Park —RON CASSIE

V. Black Labor and Liberty

Despite the full-throated rhetoric about liberty, Baltimore’s contributions to the Revolutionary War effort were often produced by the hands of enslaved African and African-American laborers. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the town’s defenses. On Whetstone Point, at the site where Fort McHenry still stands today, around 250 laborers built Fort Whetstone in a few grueling months in 1776. One 19th-century historian specifically described all these workers as “colored.” Whether or not he had evidence for that claim, it is clear the available workforce for large public works projects in Baltimore was made up primarily of enslaved Black people.

During the Revolutionary War, indentured servants and free white men joined the armed forces. Marylanders, including Baltimoreans, who served heroically in the Continental Army (see the accompanying “Maryland 400 sidebar”) are immortalized in our state nickname, the Old Line State. But because Baltimore was a manufacturing and distribution hub for the Continental Army, enslaved people were kept on the home front where their labor was needed, instead of being sent off to fight. They toiled in hazardous conditions at forges and furnaces, making cannons and ammunition; they worked at Baltimore’s shipyards and built ships for the nascent United States Navy; at ropewalks, they made miles upon miles of rope for those same ships; and much more.

The laborers who constructed Fort Whetstone likely included the 100 (or more) people enslaved by Baltimore Town’s revolutionary leaders, as well as the approximately 137 people enslaved by the Principio Company—whose iron-working operations included a small iron mine on Whetstone Point. We don’t know all their names, but as of 1781, the enslaved miners who worked there included Chintz, Cyrus, Dick (noted as “Blind Miner”), Joe, Prince, Sypio, and Will (a “Lame Miner”). The civilians who worked at Fort Whetstone in the months after it was built included free and enslaved Black men. One was known as Nathaniel the carpenter and another was Ned the drayman (cart-driver). A Black woman named Bett carried water for the fort, according to the personnel rosters from the fort, at the Maryland State Archives.

The uncomfortable clash between the ideals of liberty and the reality of bondage did not go unnoticed by Black Americans. Enslaved people fled Baltimore Town and Baltimore County, seeking freedom, throughout the war. Troop movements in the Chesapeake region offered fruitful opportunities for enslaved people. On Nov. 7, 1775, the loyalist governor of Virginia—John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore—officially offered freedom to enslaved people who fled their revolutionary enslavers to join the British armed forces. This “Dunmore Proclamation” opened the metaphorical floodgates. Baltimore’s leading enslavers eventually responded by setting up an expensive system of slave-patrol boats in 1780, the cost of which they tried to foist onto the government of Maryland as an additional component of coastal defense against the British.

Gen. George Washington surrending his military commission to the Continental Congress at the Old Senate Chamber of the Maryand State House in Annapolis. —WIKIPEDIA COMMONS/YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY, TRUMBULL COLLECTION.

VI. An Independent-Minded Woman

From 1774 until 1784, the newspaper of Baltimore Town, the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, was published by an entrepreneurial and patriotic woman named Mary Katherine Goddard. One contemporary account described Goddard, who never married, as a “woman of extraordinary judgment, energy, nerve and strong good sense.” Such was her reputation that Benjamin Franklin appointed her the first postmaster of Baltimore, which made her the first woman to run a national government office. Her brother, William Goddard, co-edited the newspaper with her at other times, but the Maryland Journal was essentially her responsibility during the Revolutionary War.

Although Mary Katherine Goddard later enslaved and eventually freed multiple people, most notably a young Black woman named Belinda Starling, she does not appear to have relied on an enslaved workforce during her tenure as the newspaper’s primary editor.

At the request of the Continental Congress while stationed in Baltimore, Goddard also famously produced the first printed edition of the Declaration of Independence that included the names of all its signers.

She printed her full name at the bottom, too: a lot smaller than John Hancock’s name, but no less permanently inked and indented into the paper. A copy of this January 1777 printing is held in the collection of the Maryland Center for History and Culture, not far, of course, from our Washington Monument and the statue of Lafayette. The imprints of her name, and the signers’ names, remain tangibly present.

At noon on July 29, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read out loud to the people of Baltimore where the Battle Monument stands today, near the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. City Courthouse. At the time, it was the site of the courthouse of Baltimore County, which had jurisdiction in Baltimore town. Loyalist sheriff Robert Christie Jr. had refused to do the reading, and he fled town after threats of mob violence.

Local attorney and clerk William Aisquith read it instead. As Mary Katherine Goddard described the event in her newspaper afterwards, “the Declaration of INDEPENDENCY was proclaimed...at the Head of the Independent and Artillery Companies, and the several Companies of Militia, to the great Joy and Satisfaction of the Audience, with a Discharge of Cannon, &c. and universal Acclamations for the Prosperity of the Free UNITED STATES...

“In the Evening the Effigy, representing the King of Great Britain, was carted through the Town, to the no small Mirth of the numerous Spectators, afterwards thrown into a Fire made for that Purpose,” Goddard recounted. She added, “Thus may it fare with all Tyrants.”

Baltimore’s Mary Katharine Goddard’s printing of the Declaration of Independence commissioned by the Continental Congress. —COURTESY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR HISTORY AND CULTURE / RESOURCE ID 569

Epilogue: No Kings Day

The heavy fighting in the Revolutionary War finally reached a conclusion in October 1781 at the Battle of Yorktown, which forced the surrender of British Gen. Charles Cornwallis. Aided greatly by French troops and French naval support, the Continental Army surrounded the British forces and compelled the beginning of negotiations that ultimately led to the recognition of American independence.

However, Gen. Washington remained commander in chief of the Continental Army for two more years until a formal peace was agreed upon with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783.

In early December 1783, nine days after the last British soldiers left American soil, Washington bid farwell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City (a museum today). Overcome with emotion, Washington lifted a glass and said, “With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you; I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and honourable.”

Then he began making his way to Annapolis, where Congress was convening temporarily—ironically, a mob of still-unpaid Continental soldiers had threatened the Congress in Philadelphia—with the intention of resigning his military commission. The idea of a victorious general willingly surrendering absolute power without seizing the throne or a dictatorship would shock the world.

Washington resigned as commander-inchief on Dec. 23, 1783. In a ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber at the Maryland State House—the moment commemorated by Baltimore's Washington Monument—his action established the precedent of military subservience to civilian authority in the United States. Returning to life as a private citizen, Washington placed his trust in the fledging republic’s democratic experiment.

THE MARYLAND 400

The "Old Line State” regiment is honored with a monument in Brooklyn.

IN AUGUST 1776, Thomas Stone, one of Maryland's four signers of the month-old Declaration of Independence, sent urgent news from Philadelphia to Annapolis that a major battle loomed in New York City. Stone reported “...by the last accounts they [the British] were shipping their men and making all necessary preparations for an attack.” Fortunately, the unit that became known as the Maryland First Regiment was already headed north.

Anticipating the British assault, George Washington placed most of his Continental Army forces in Manhattan. The British, however, landed 10,000 infantrymen on Long Island's western edge where the Marylanders were now stationed—launching a brutal fight in what is today’s Brooklyn. As the morning of August 27 progressed, the overwhelming British troops surrounded the Marylanders. According to one survivor’s account, the British “infantry poured volleys of musket balls in almost solid sheets of lead.” Yet, the “Maryland 400” charged and charged again with their fixed bayonets.

The significance of the “Maryland 400,” roughly the size of the five companies that took the heaviest losses, cannot be overstated. (The moniker may have been a shout-out to the “Spartan 300” of lore.) The intense fighting stalled the British offensive for the day, allowing Washington and his army to safely retreat—thereby saving the Revolutionary War and also earning Maryland its “Old Line State” nickname. Watching the Marylanders’ charges from a hilltop, Washington is said to have cried out, “Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!” When it was over, 256 Marylanders lay dead, with a hundred more captured. Only Maj. Mordecai Gist, a 33-year-old Baltimorean, and a handful of others would make it back to the American camp.

Painting by Alonzo Chappel, 1858, depicts Lord Stirling leading an attack against the British in order to buy time for other troops to retreat at the Battle of Long Island, August, 1776. —ALONZO CHAPPEL, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON

—COURTESY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR HISTORY AND CULTURE/RESOURCE ID 2241

IN AUGUST 1791, Baltimore County-born Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught astronomer, agriculturalist, and surveyor, and son of a formerly enslaved father, penned a letter to Thomas Jefferson that challenged prevailing claims about Black people’s supposedly inferior intellect. Claims later expressed by the future president in his Notes on the State of Virginia, first written in 1781. Included was a copy of Banneker’s forthcoming almanac.

Banneker connected the conditions of enslaved people to the colonists’ struggle for independence from British tyranny and pointed out the hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence author, citing his own “self-evident” truth “that all men are created equal.” The letter also appealed to Jefferson’s belief in a just and merciful God. While Jefferson penned a brief reply, thanking Banneker for his almanac, he did not directly address the ethical and moral criticisms raised by the man often considered the first African-American man of science. Banneker’s 100-acre-plus property and 18th-century residence are now home to the Banjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in the wooded hills between Catonsville and Ellicott Ciy.

Here are excerpts from Banneker’s handwritten missive:

Sir, I freely and Chearfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that colour which is natural to them of the deepest dye, and it is under a Sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that I now confess to you, that I am not under that State of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed; but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favoured and which I hope you will willingly allow you have received from the immediate hand of that Being, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift.

Sir, Suffer me to recall to your mind that time in which the Arms and tyranny of the British Crown were exerted with every powerful effort in order to reduce you to a State of Servitude, look back I intreat you on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed, reflect on that time in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the Conflict, and you cannot but be led to a Serious and grateful Sense of your miraculous and providential preservation; you cannot but acknowledge, that the present freedom and tranquility which you enjoy you have mercifully received, and that it is the peculiar blessing of Heaven.

This Sir, was a time in which you clearly saw into the injustice of a State of Slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition, it was now Sir, that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publickly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remember’d in all Succeeding ages. “We hold these truths to be Self evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happyness.”

Here Sir, was a time in which your tender feelings for your selves had engaged you thus to declare, you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great valuation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings to which you were entitled by nature; but Sir how pitiable is it to reflect, that altho you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had conferred upon them, that you should at the Same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the Same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.

Sir, I suppose that your knowledge of the situation of my brethren is too extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved; otherwise than by recommending to you and all others, to wean yourselves from these narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to them, and as Job proposed to his friends “Put your Souls in their Souls stead,” thus shall your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence toward them, and thus shall you need neither the direction of myself or others in what manner to proceed herein...

...with the most profound respect your most Obedient humble Servant,

—Benjamin Banneker

THE BURNING OF THE PEGGY STEWART

Often overlooked, Maryland patriots held their own Annapolis "tea party."

The original 1896 painting by Francis Blackwell Mayer of the Peggy Stewart protest is on display in the Old House of Delegates Chamber in Annapolis. A three-panel 1906 depiction by Charles Yardley Turner of the events surrounding the Peggy Stewart burning hangs in Baltimore’s Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse. —COLLECTION OF THE MARYLAND STATE ARCHIVES: BURNING OF THE PEGGY STEWART / FRANCIS BLACKWELL MAYER (1827-1899) OIL ON CANVAS, 1896 / MSA SC 1545-1111

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY is a defining story of the American Revolution. Passed by the English Parliament, The Tea Act of 1773 granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the 13 colonies, adding fuel to the American colonists’ “no taxation without representation” rally cry. Less familiar, however, are similar episodes up and down the Atlantic coast. Roughly a dozen cities joined in with their own tea protests, including Annapolis, where angry mobs forced Loyalist merchant Anthony Stewart to row out to the ship he owned, the Peggy Stewart, and burn it—along with its import tea—himself.

Stewart had paid the import tax, which helped fund the British occupation and violated the colonists’ non-importation resolution, to ensure the ship’s breathing cargo—53 indentured servants—would be allowed to safely disembark, which they did.

The Oct. 19, 1774 burning of the Peggy Stewart, named for its owner’s daughter, incidentally, was destructive evidence of the revolutionary fire brewing in Maryland just five months before the start of the war.

Source

The List: July 2026

Sophia Naughton — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 20:32:32 +0000

—Courtesy of American Visionary Art Museum/Frankie Marsh

7/9-30. FLICKS FROM THE HILL
Film. Every Thursday, enjoy a movie night under the stars with outdoor screenings of family favorites like “The Wiz,” “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Men in Black,” and “Labyrinth.” Arrive early to snag the best spot on the hill, plus after-hours museum admission, movie-inspired activities, and food trucks. American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Hwy. Thurs. 5-9 p.m. Free.

7/4. INNER HARBOR FIREWORKS
Festivals. On America’s 250th birthday, there will be no shortage of celebrations throughout Mid-Atlantic, from nearby Washington, D.C. to our temporary U.S. capitol in Annapolis, to the historic streets of Baltimore. And if you find yourself near the Inner Harbor, you can bet on double the dazzle as colorful fireworks fill the sky over the waterfront.

For free family fun, festivities kick off at the amphitheater on Pratt Street, followed by live music along the promenade and a silent disco at Point Park. Also consider the Baltimore Museum of Industry as your vantage point for its epic views and evening activities. After the rockets’ red glare, catch a drone show that launches from Middle Branch Park.

7/3-4. BSO’S STAR-SPANGLED 250
Music. Pack a picnic and celebrate Independence Day with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra during its outdoor concert featuring classic patriotic tunes from “The Star-Spangled Banner” to the Star Wars score, followed by a spectacular fireworks show. Oregon Ridge, 13401 Beaver Dam Rd., Cockeysville. 8 p.m. $20-30.

7/4. B&O’S 250TH ALL-AMERICAN BASH
Festivals. All aboard the American Freedom Train No. 1., which last hit the tracks was nearly 50 years ago during the nation’s Bicentennial. Step into history with live music, a BBQ lunch, craft beer, and more for the whole family. B&O Railroad Museum, 901 W. Pratt St. 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. $12-20.

—Shutterstock

7/5. BACH HANDEL & FAURE
Music. Celebrate 250 years of American music with a performance by the Bach In Baltimore Concert Choir and Orchestra, which will be one of Maestro T. Herbert Dimmock’s final shows of his nearly 40-year tenure. St. Joseph Parish, 100 Church Ln. 4 p.m. Free.

7/6. LADEW BUTTERFLY HOUSE
Outdoors. The Ladew Butterfly House opens for the season until late September with a guided tour to learn about these insects, their favorite plants, and how to support their habitat, as well as a chance to view them at different life stages. Ladew Topiary Gardens, 3535 Jarrettsville Pke., Monkton. 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Free-$22.

TO 7/8. UNFINISHED REPUBLIC
Exhibitions. This group show explores the unfinished business of the American experiment, featuring works by local artists like Sonya Jclark, Joyce J. Scott, Paul Rucker, Elizabeth Talford Scott, and more. Goya Contemporary, 3000 Chestnut Ave. Tues.-Fri. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 12-4 p.m. Free.

7/8. BENSON BOONE: WANTED MAN TOUR 2026
Music. After his recently sold-out global American Heart Tour, this rising pop star is backflipping right back into the spotlight in downtown Baltimore. CFG Bank Arena, 201 W. Baltimore St. 8 p.m. $53-406.

7/9-22. YOUNG BLOOD
Exhibitions. Since 2008, the Young Blood program has helped give local Masters of Fine Arts students both a platform and opportunity to connect with other blossoming artists. In the Bromo Arts District, see extraordinary selections from their recent thesis projects. Maryland Art Place, 218 W. Saratoga St. Tues.-Sat. 12-4 p.m. Free.

7/9-26. VARIATIONS ON SILENCE
Theater. For the 22nd year, Rapid Lemon Productions presents a series of 10-minute plays from local playwrights, exploring last year’s audience-selected theme: “Silence!” Strand Theater, 5426 Harford Rd. $10-25.

7/10. ORIOLES TURNSTILE NIGHT
Music. The Birds take on the Royals with a special collaboration with this Baltimore-bred, Grammy Award winning hardcore band, with fans who purchased special tickets taking home a limited-edition Turnstile-Orioles jersey. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 333 W. Camden St. 7:05 p.m. $75.14-124.23.

7/10-12. BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON ONE CARNIVAL & CARIBBEAN FESTIVAL
Festivals. For one full weekend, this annual fete brings a Caribbean-style parade complete with colorful masquerade bands, live music, dancing stilt walkers, and more family-friendly festivities to Druid Hill Park. Druid Hill Park, 900 Druid Park Lake Dr. Fri. 3-10 p.m., Sat. 12 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Free.

TO 7/11. CLAIMING THE FUTURE
Exhibitions. High-school students and undergraduates across Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia showcase artworks on the theme of “Claim the Future,” exploring vulnerability, climate solutions, and a future to strive for. Crow’s Nest, 116 W. Mulberry St. 1-4 p.m. Free.

7/11. 90 YEARS OF THE LINOTYPE
Festivals. Celebrate the machine that revolutionized printing and was printed right in Baltimore with hands-on activities, Twilight Zone film screenings, and a birthday cake to boot. Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Hwy. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Free,

7/11. PLRLS
Music. This beloved Baltimore-based New Wave punk band celebrates the release of their fourth album, Sleeping in a Dress, joined by other local opening acts Twings, Party Nerves, and Choking Boys. Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard St. 7 p.m. $21.17-31.45.

7/16-10/31/27. THE LINES WE CROSS
Exhibitions. To coincide with America’s 250th birthday, this new multi-floor exhibition traces how Black Marylanders shaped the social, cultural, and political landscape of America. Reginald F. Lewis Museum, 830 E. Pratt St. Mon. Thurs.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. 12-5 p.m. Free-$12.

7/17-8/29. THE BIG SHOW
Exhibitions. This beloved Highlandtown arts center presents its annual members show, with works for sale, too. Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. Tues.-Sat. 12-5 p.m

7/18. DISABILITY PRIDE ARTS FEST
Festivals. Celebrate Disability Pride Month with Make Studio, the Maryland Department of Disabilities, and the Enoch Pratt Free Library with arts organizations, mini-art workshops, stage performances, and more. Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

7/18-19. STAVROS HALKIAS: THE DREAMBOAT TOUR
Comedy. This unabashedly brazen comedian, writer, and actor may live in the Big Apple now, but he hasn’t forgotten his Baltimore roots on tour. Known for his Ravens superfan character Ronnie, the comedian returns home to bring laughs to the city that raised him—a rescheduled date from April after Stavvy broke his arm in a motor scooter accident. The Lyric, 140 W. Mt. Royal Ave. 7 p.m. $38.90-257.05.

7/18-19. PHISH
Music. On the heels of their 14th studio album, this iconic, cult-followed jam brand lures the masses to Columbia for two nights of funk, psychedelia, and rock n’ roll, with the performance featuring all four original members. Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy., Columbia. 7 p.m. $62-186.

7/21-25. DOLL PARTS…
Theater. In this one-trans-woman show about self-discovery and transitioning gender in later life, walk with Nikki Ann Hartman through hormone-therapy-induced puberty, dating, menopause, and self-realization in her 60s. The Voxel, 9 W. 25th St. 7:30 p.m. $10-30.

7/25. KOJO ASTRONAUT
Music. A perfect pairing to the museum’s current Douriean Fletcher exhibition, Afro House presents a new work that thumbs through love, liberation, and our relationship to the universe, with artistic director Scott Patterson pushing the boundaries of music beyond sound. The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St. 3 p.m. Free.

—Courtesy of The Walters Art Museum/Matthew D'Agostino

7/25. FETE CHAMPETRE
Festivals. This lavish garden party takes picnicking to the next level with live entertainment, local vendors, and next-level food and drinks overlooking Middle Branch Park’s beautiful waterfront. Middle Branch Park, 3301 Waterview Ave. 4-10 p.m. $69.40-1,116.16.

7/25-8/2. FLUID MOVEMENT
Performance. In their Candy Land production, the beloved water-ballet performance troupe takes you on a flavor-filled journey through the city to save the Domino Sugar Factory from the evil Lord Natty Boh. Riverside Park Pool & Clifton Park Pool. Sat.-Sun. 5 & 7 p.m. Prices vary.

7/31. BALTIMORE’S BIRTHDAY BASH
Festivals. Baltimore is celebrating its 297th birthday, and you’re invited. Dance the night away with DJ Tanz, an open bar, light bites, and birthday desserts from local vendors. Baltimore War Memorial, 101 N. Gay St. 7 p.m. $58.85-132.49.

7/31. MUSIC UNDER THE DOME: THE GRATEFUL DEAD
Music. Roll away the dew and take a trip through the cosmos set to the Grateful Dead’s greatest hits with this dance party at the Maryland Science Center’s planetarium. Maryland Science Center, 601 Light St. 8 p.m. $35.

TO 8/9. FRIENDS OF PATTERSON PARK SUMMER CONCERT SERIES
Music. Enjoy live music beneath the beautiful Patterson Park Observatory for select Sunday evenings each month. Performances include Downtown Tumbao, U.S. Army Band Downrange feat. Charm City Sings, and the Haitian Caribbean Festival Concert. Patterson Park, 2601 E. Baltimore St. Days vary. 6-8 p.m. Free.

TO 8/22. 5×5 BALTIMORE: THE ART OF BLACK MEN
Exhibitions. In the Bromo Arts District, view works by Black male visual artists from Baltimore and Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, exploring themes of memory, identity, resilience, cultural sovereignty, and self-determination in a variety of mediums. Eubie Blake Cultural Center, 847 N. Howard St. Wed.-Fri. 1-6 p.m., Sat. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free.

TO JULY 2028. FLAG HOUSE 250TH EXHIBIT
Exhibitions. This two-year exhibit features eight specially selected artists representing communities across the state to chronicle the last 250 years through the lives of Marylanders. The community is encouraged to engage with the artwork to create an evolving narrative during the span of the exhibit. Star-Spangled Banner Flag House & Museum, 844 E. Pratt St. Tues.-Fri. 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free-$9.

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Thirteen Famous (and Nearly Famous) Waypoints on the Road to America’s Founding

Marty LeGrand — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:40:33 +0000

George Washington's war tent theater at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. —Courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution

As the United States throws itself a bang-up 250th birthday party, the Mid-Atlantic will be front and center. Ground zero could be Philadelphia, home to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Or perhaps Washington, D.C., with the nation’s capital boasting copies of its original founding documents.

If you’re traveling this summer, don’t miss smaller commemorations, either. The Eastern Shore’s tribute to a pair of homegrown heroes. Allegany County’s trail of pedigreed trees. Or George Washington’s favorite soaking spot in West Virginia.

In honor of America’s original 13 colonies, we’ve collected a baker’s dozen regional destinations—all relatively close to Baltimore—worth visiting during this celebratory season.

PENNSYLVANIA

When the Founding Fathers formally bade Great Britain adieu in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, Pennsylvania became the birthplace of a revolution that quickly enmeshed even its peaceable Quaker settlers.

York (52 miles)

Who knew this modestly sized colonial town—an hour’s drive north of Baltimore today—once served as the U.S. capital? It’s true. The Second Continental Congress fled Philadelphia for nine months beginning in September 1777 when the Brits occupied the city. At the York County History Center, learn how John Adams, John Hancock, and other delegates from the 13 original colonies convened at the county courthouse to adopt the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution’s precursor.

Here, leave enough time to explore the campus. Don’t miss the acclaimed, hands-on History Center Museum, opened in 2024, where touchscreens literally put the past at your fingertips and guided tours include a reconstructed courthouse where the Continental Congress met.

Valley Forge (100 miles)

Ninety miles east of York, in suburban Philadelphia’s King of Prussia, lies one of the Revolution’s most hallowed grounds, Valley Forge. Now a 3,500-acre National Historical Park, it marks the riverside encampment where Gen. George Washington and his Continental Army endured disease, starvation, and brutal weather in the winter of 1777 and ’78.

Drive, hike, or bike a scenic 10-mile loop to see the soldiers’ recreated log barracks, tour the stone house that served as Washington’s headquarters, and take in stirring monuments, including the National Memorial Arch, honoring the soldiers’ “incomparable patience and fidelity.”

Philadelphia (99 miles, or 1-hour train trip)

Next up, Philadelphia, where you can’t swing a cheesesteak this year without hitting some reminder of the city’s bragging rights. Weekly neighborhood “Saturday Firstivals” mark Philly’s many other national feats—first bank, zoo, flower show, hot-air-balloon flight, World’s Fair, and even…Slinky.

For the core historic celebration, head to the Old City District, home of Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the Benjamin Franklin Museum.

While taking in those must-see attractions, leave ample time for the nearby Museum of the American Revolution and the National Constitution Center. The former hosts a truly inspiring exhibit, “The Declaration’s Journey,” tracing the history and impact of the document from 1776 through struggles for civil and women’s rights, to freedom movements around the world. The latter brings the story of that founding document to life—almost literally in Signers’ Hall, where you stroll among 42 life-size bronzes of the framers (including three Marylanders).

Brandywine (78 miles)

Forty-five minutes west via I-95 lies Chadds Ford and the Brandywine Battlefield Park, honoring the largest single-day land battle of the Revolution. On September 11, 1777, British forces led by Gen. William Howe clashed with Washington’s Continental Army. Some 30,000 soldiers fought on multiple fronts near the Brandywine River. Howe’s troops eventually won, forcing the fledgling American government to flee Philadelphia for York, but the patriots’ battlefield tenacity boosted troop morale.

At the Visitors Center, watch an orientation film and see military artifacts. Take guided tours of the houses of two Quaker farmers caught up in the conflict, including one that was used as Washington’s headquarters.

The Liberty Bell at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. —Shutterstock

MARYLAND’S EASTERN SHORE

Although no major Revolutionary War battles occurred on its soil, Maryland supplied some of the war’s most stalwart patriots, and the Eastern Shore’s fertile fields became the “Breadbasket of the Revolution.” For some, independence took longer to arrive.

Easton (69 miles)

Massachusetts has Paul Revere’s midnight dash; Maryland has Tench Tilghman’s 200-mile marathon. Gen. Washington’s trusted aide-de-camp, Tilghman carried news of Britain’s surrender from Yorktown to Philadelphia, an arduous journey thought to have shortened his life. On the Eastern Shore, Tilghman’s native Talbot County hasn’t forgotten him, or its more famous son, abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

About an hour from Baltimore, stop first at Old Wye Mill, a restored gristmill that, twice monthly, grinds grain as it has since 1682. During the Revolution, its flour sustained Washington’s troops. Today, its artisanal flours are still for sale. Talbot’s county seat, Easton was the Eastern Shore’s colonial capital. A historical marker denotes Tilghman’s long-vanished birthplace, “Fausley,” but you’ll learn more about him—and Douglass—at “We the People of Talbot County,” a new exhibit at the Talbot Historical Society’s Larry Denton Museum.

Also visit “Bear Me Into Freedom,” a unique exhibit at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in nearby St. Michaels where you can “ask” questions of a Douglass hologram and receive AI generated replies. Better yet, go stand in front of his bronze statue at the nearby courthouse and take some time to ponder his legacy yourself.

Oxford (79 miles)

On to Oxford via the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry, which has been plying the Tred Avon River since 1683. Once a bustling colonial port, Oxford endures as a quiet village reflecting its seafaring past. The now-shuttered Robert Morris Inn was the home and place of business of wealthy merchant Robert Morris Sr., whose son, Robert Morris Jr., personally financed the patriots’ war effort before a central bank could be established.

The old inn, closed since last fall, is awaiting its own savior to restore the property to its former glory. Here, visit the small Oxford Museum, where you can learn more about the Morris family. Look for Tench Tilghman’s gravesite in the Oxford Cemetery.

Chestertown (75 miles)

Heading home, make a detour to Chestertown, up north in Kent County. Known for its reenactment of a 1774 patriots’ protest each summer, the town boasts plenty of colonial cred. Stroll the historic district and admire the buildings—Widehall, River House, and the circa-1746 Custom House—that define this former British port of entry.

Chestertown’s Washington College, founded in 1782 and named for George himself, was the first college chartered in the nation. Originally the residence of a prominent colonial slave trader, the Custom House is now home to the college’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, a wellspring for powerful projects like Chesapeake Heartland, in which students and scholars preserve local African-American history.

Every Memorial Day weekend, residents and reenactors don tricorns to celebrate the Chestertown Tea Party Festival, commemorating the day when tax-weary townspeople teatotaled a cargo of the British beverage into the harbor. The original event has yet to be historically verified, but the legend merrily lives on.

Frederick Douglass statue in Easton, Maryland. —Shutterstock

Colonial women dancing at the Chestertown Tea Party Festival. —Courtesy of The Chestertown Tea Party Festival

THE NATION’S CAPITAL

The nation’s current capital literally was a swamp in the 1770s—marsh surrounded by woods and plantations. Back then, prominent politicians and thinkers of the day lived across the Potomac River in Virginia.

Washington, D.C. (40 miles, or 45-minute train trip)

D.C.’s waterlogged landscape has changed, to say the least, and now includes a wealth of free, federally run museums. Don’t miss the National Archives, where the nation’s founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights—are preserved for viewing. To avoid long waits, make timed reservations online.

The Smithsonian Institution’s museums are collectively celebrating “Our Shared Future: 250.” See Abraham Lincoln’s top hat and 249 other priceless historical objects at the National Museum of American History. Meanwhile, the National Portrait Gallery will showcase an impressive wax diorama last on view 50 years ago. In intricate detail, the restored work depicts members of the Second Continental Congress at the signing of the Declaration.

Alexandria (60 miles)

Old Town Alexandria exudes colonial American history. Tour Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, two 18th-century hostelries whose patrons included the Washingtons and other prominent Virginians. A new exhibit highlights colonial women, specifically Hannah Griffith, an enterprising businesswoman and tavern operator. The city will honor its 277th birthday plus America’s 250th on July 11, culminating with a grand fireworks display.

Potomac River (70+ miles)

Here, less than an hour’s drive from Alexandria, you can tour two stately Potomac River estates, George Washington’s Mount Vernon and George Mason’s Gunston Hall. If you haven’t visited Mount Vernon recently, you’re in for a treat. A new exhibit immerses visitors in Washington’s “Revolutionary Life.” Eavesdrop on vital political conversations he held in Philadelphia. Interactively face decisions he made as general. And meet historical interpreters at a mock Continental Army encampment.

Long before libertarianism existed, there was George Mason, a planter-politician fiercely protective of individual liberties (except, notably, those of his slaves) and wary of government tyranny. He helped write Virginia’s Declaration of Rights. Learn more about him at Gunston Hall, his 1759 estate, whose grounds include a Georgian-style mansion, formal gardens, and a visitors’ center.

The Declaration of Independence diorama at the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. —Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

MOUNTAIN TOWNS

By the time the first shots of the American Revolution were fired in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, the Western frontier had breached the Appalachian Mountains, where a certain future president made his mark as a young surveyor and a promising officer.

Big Pool (100 miles)

Ninety miles west of Baltimore, in Big Pool, Maryland, sits Fort Frederick, built by English colonists for protection during the French and Indian War and repurposed to imprison His Majesty’s troops during the Revolutionary War. The fort’s 18-foot-tall stone wall and two barracks have been restored so visitors to this state park can, for example, inspect the spartan quarters in which the POWs lived in overcrowded conditions.

Berkeley Springs (108 miles)

To the west of this citadel of armaments and suffering, Berkeley Springs remains a recuperative retreat in West Virginia. Its healing, thermal waters have beckoned spa-goers since 1776, when founders named the town Bath. George Washington not only slumbered here, but he also bathed in its springs.

Today, Berkeley Springs State Park has recreated his bathtub, a stone-lined trench touted as “the country’s only outdoor monument to presidential bathing.” Dip your toes where George soaked his saddle-sore tush, then book a full spa treatment, including massages and saunas, at the park’s bathhouses. A natural 74.3 degrees year-round, the springs running through the park are free to serenity-seeking soakers.

Cumberland (140 miles)

Further still into the western panhandle of Maryland, mountainous Cumberland guarded the colonial frontier and forged the military career of our first commander-in-chief. As a young officer during the French and Indian War in decades prior, Washington served at Fort Cumberland. The fort itself is gone but one original structure survives: a 1750s log cabin that served as Washington’s headquarters and now sits in lovely Riverside Park.

Although you can’t enter, a peep into its window displays offers a glimpse of 18th-century military life. Washington first visited Cumberland as a surveyor and last visited in 1794 as the first U.S. president. Learn about his local connections at the Allegany Museum’s “Crossroads of America” exhibit. Don’t miss its detailed model of Fort Cumberland and an AI-aged bust of Washington as he looked in the 1750s.

Follow Allegany County’s Liberty Tree Trail to find 15 genetic descendants of Maryland’s original Liberty Tree, a tulip poplar beneath which the colonial Sons of Liberty met. Local forester Champ Zumbrun has become the Johnny Appleseed of Liberty Tree conservation, propagating and sharing seedlings from this living symbol of American independence.

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UMD Historian’s New Book Reevaluates Our Understanding of The Revolutionary War

Ron Cassie — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 22:30:04 +0000

—Book jacket: Courtesy of Penguin/Random House; Author photo: Courtesy of the University of Maryland

The Revolutionary War is remembered as a fight won by Americans who had the nerve to ignore the edicts of King George III, dump British tea into the Boston Harbor, and go toe-to-toe with the world’s greatest military power. But it was larger than just the 13 colonies’ battle for independence. The war was also a full-throttle global conflict, as other European empires, namely France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic, assisted the American cause and challenged British dominance across North America, the Caribbean, and India.

In fact, it is very unlikely the Americans would’ve prevailed without their allies. The French and Spanish, in particular, forced England to divert military resources away from America to defend their empire. They provided foreign financing and credit as well, bankrolling much of the eight-year campaign.

In The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, University of Maryland historian Richard Bell, British-born coincidentally, reevaluates our understanding of the Revolution. Not just the global nature of the conflict, but that here at home it was, in fact, a civil war, with African-Americans and Native Americans fighting on both sides. It’s a must read for those who want to expand and deepen their understanding of American history.

A good place to start is the framing of the Revolution as America’s first civil war. Not just because the Founding Fathers were British citizens, but because most Americans weren’t on board initially.
There wasn’t the polling we do today, but the best estimates are 40 percent of white residents [in America] would’ve been considered patriots, maybe 40 percent neutral—think of them as today’s swing voters—and 20 percent strongly loyal to England.

And there was a great propaganda battle. Today’s conspiracy theories are not exactly a novel political tactic.
There’s a fierce battle waged by patriot writers and loyalist writers to win the hearts and minds of those who are neutral at the start. Writers like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams try to persuade them to adopt George Washington’s side and maybe even pick up arms. Patriots try to convince their fellow colonists that British East India Company tea has been packed down into chests by Chinese warehouse men with filthy feet. . . . [Meanwhile] loyalists are weaponizing their fellow colonists’ fear of foreigners by spreading ugly, untrue rumors that the arriving French Catholic soldiers have orders to persecute American Protestants, steal their lands for King Louis of France, and even ban the speaking of English in America.

Everything considered, Harry Washington might have the most compelling personal saga in the book.
What I like about the remarkable life of Harry Washington, who, at one time, was enslaved to George Washington, is that both have their own way of pursuing ideas of liberty. For George Washington, that means liberty from the control of the British government, and it has to do with land, trade, and political power. For Harry, it’s freedom from slavery, most immediately, and then all that comes after that in terms of seeking self-determination, civil rights, and political power. It’s a journey that takes him from revolutionary America to British Canada, and then to Sierra Leone in West Africa.

We’re also reminded the Revolutionary War, like nearly every war, was not good for the American or British economy.
The war was an economic disaster for almost everyone involved, on every side. The British economy was ruined by the suspension of trade with its biggest customers in America. The economies of the 13 rebel colonies completely collapsed when trade was cut off with their biggest trading partner, the British Empire, including Canada and the Caribbean. It’s calamitous. Shipping is halted, which creates huge shortages, price hikes, and hyperinflation. People lose their jobs. Companies go out of business.

On both sides of the Atlantic, that puts enormous pressure on politicians to end the war. In Britain, those economic concerns drive numerous peace petitions sent to Parliament and to the king by ordinary hard-up British people, who want this economic hardship over as quickly as possible.

What does Thomas Paine mean in 1776 when he declares Americans “have it in our power to begin the world over again?”
He’s encouraging readers to take the leap, to embrace the cause of independence, to fight this war and win it, because as humans we all have extraordinary amounts of political power and agency. When we work together, we can do great things. He’s also noting that for a group of rebel colonies to break away from an empire in the 18th century would be unprecedented and send a signal around the world that the king’s control over his colonies is neither permanent nor invincible. That such an example could reshape the modern world, and it has, right? There have been loads of revolutions in the wake of the American Revolution.

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