Friday, May 20, 2016

Maryland Flag And Its History

By Miguel Sanches


Before Europeans arrived in Maryland the land was inhabited by Native Americans. Most of the Native Americans spoke the Algonquian language. They lived in domed wigwam homes made from tree branches, bark, and mud.

Initial settlers of Maryland were estimated to have come to the region around 10,000 BC. By 1000 BC it was the Algonquian-speaking Native Americans, the Nanticoke, Susquehanna, and Powhatan tribes, who took up residence. When the European explorers arrived, many of the Native Americans were wiped out by disease.

The Maryland flag was adopted officially by the state on 9th March 1904. It was the 7th state to gain entry into the Union on 28 the April 1788 and also one of the first 13 Colonies that merged to give shape to the United States union. Prior to the American War of Revolution , it used a gold and black flag. It was at the time of the American Civil War, that Maryland bore allegiance to the North Union, whereas others had sympathies for the southern Confederacy.

These people expressed their sympathies for the Confederacy by putting on a garb of white and red emblems. The soldiers of Maryland, who fought against the south, similarly dressed in their own emblems that marked their original state. When the war ended, all the colors of red, white, gold and black were connected with Maryland.

As is the case with most early heraldic arms, there is no known symbolism in the yellow-and-black design; it was simply distinctive. In contrast, the Crossland family (maternal family of Sir George Calvert) had a coat of arms with clearer symbolic origins. It made a pun on the family name by showing a quartered white-and-red shield bearing a counterchanged cross botonée (a cross whose arms end in three balls).

George Calvert was the first Lord Baltimore and he was granted the black and gold coat of arms, incorporating the colors of his paternal family. The red and white arms are of the Crosslands, his maternal family in 1622. The Calvert founded Maryland as a British colony in 1634. The state was named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, King of Britain and Ireland. The Flag Company Inc specialized in flag designs offered a special edition of decals and flags to memorize the history of Maryland Flag for the future.




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