Maryland

Granted to the Calvert family in 1632, Maryland was established as a haven where English Catholics could worship freely. Its 1649 Act of Toleration was an early, if limited, experiment in religious liberty, and its tobacco plantations along the Chesapeake tied it tightly to enslaved labor.

Maryland was the last state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, holding out until 1781 over Western land claims. It ceded the land that became the District of Columbia, and the defense of Baltimore in 1814 produced the verses that became the national anthem.