St. Mary's College of Maryland, originally known as St. Mary's Female Seminary, began in 1840 as a secular state-sponsored boarding school for women. Since 1966 it has been a four-year public liberal arts college and in 1992 it became a designated public honors college. One of only two in the nation to hold such a distinction at the time.
The college’s history spans from the early colonial days of St. Mary's City through to the present, including the establishment of religious tolerance and its later loss, long periods of oppression followed by the expansion of freedom as the result of the American Civil War, and through the 19th and 20th centuries to the modern-day public honors college.
On its special research capacity, the school also researches and studies the following historic events and periods as they relate to the local area:
Background
Colonial setting
Seventeenth century
St. Mary's College of Maryland is located on the original site of Maryland's first colony, St. Mary's City, which was also the first capital of Maryland and is considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in America.
Colonial St. Mary's City was actually only a town and at its peak had between 500 and 600 residents. However, as the colony quickly expanded and settlements spread throughout the Eastern part of what is now Maryland, the town remained the capitol and representatives would travel from all over the colony to participate in the Maryland General Assembly, the colony's first legislative body.
The Colony was founded under a mandate by the colonial proprietor, Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore of England, that the new settlers engage in religious tolerance of each other. The first settlers were both Protestant and Catholic during a time of persecution of Catholics. This mandate was unprecedented at the time, as England had been wracked by religious conflict for centuries.
Original Native American village
St. Mary's College, which has a close partnership with Historic St. Mary's City, was able to put together the following events through a combination or archeological and historic research.
In 1634, at the time of the arrival of the first colonists, there was a Native American village on the site that was a part of the Yaocomico branch of the Piscataway Indian Nation. Archeological research shows the presence of native peoples in the area going back more than 10,000 years.
When the colonists first came ashore, the paramount chief of the Yaocomico was already well aware of Europeans due to earlier contact with explorers and traders, as well as news from Virginia tribes that were already co-existing with British colonial settlements. The chief was keen to establish trade with the English and he was also in the process of relocating his people due to war with another tribe. Soon after the new colonists arrived in what is now St. Mary's City, he ordered the Indian village cleared and he sold it to the settlers.
The colonists initially lived in Indian longhouses from the prior village, along with some remaining Yaocomico people who had stayed behind to help them. During this period, the Yaocomico taught the colonists how to survive in Maryland's challenging environment. The chief also later put his daughter, the Piscataway Indian princess, Mary Kittamaquund, under the guardianship of a prominent colonist, Margaret Brent, so that Mary could learn English ways and become a bridge and a translator between the two cultures. Her English first name was given to her by the colonists.
1640s: first law requiring religious tolerance
In the early days of St. Mary's City the young colony suffered from many problems, including periods of violent religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, in spite of Lord Baltimore's mandate of tolerance, as well as disease and the establishment of slavery. Nevertheless, after a period of religious fighting, the residents of St. Mary's City were finally able to establish peace between religious groups for more than 40 years under the Maryland Toleration Act, the first law mandating religious freedom and religious tolerance for people of all Christian faiths, which was conceived, written and ratified by the Maryland Assembly in St. Mary's City.
