Time Line of the Seventeenth Century

1603	Maryland is colonized.
1618	By granting monopolies to English trading companies, the British government sanctions the slave trade.
1634	St. Mary's City is founded by 200 settlers, half of them Protestant. Granted to Cecil Calvert, Lord of Baltimore, it allows the tolerance of Puritans. Started as a Catholic colony, it was supposedly named for Charles I's wife, Queen Henrietta Maria but really it was named for the Mary. From the beginning, it had a Protestant majority. Matthias De Sousa (Matt Das Sousa) arrives to Maryland aboard a ship named the Ark as an indentured servant. As an indentured servant, De Sousa must face seven years of servitude to pay off his debts, then he will be granted his freedom. DeSousa will later become an interpreter between the colonists and the Native Americans, pilot a trading vessel, and become a member of the Maryland Colonial General Assembly. Slavery is introduced to Maryland.
1640	To discourage slaves and indentured servants from running away as well as to discourage sympathizers from sheltering them, the English colonies begin to pass punitive laws.
1642	Matthias De Sousa (Matt Das Sousa) is the first African-American to sit in a legislative assembly. In 1642 he votes in the Maryland Colonial General Assembly.
1663	African-Americans beware! A law is passed in Maryland, enslaving all African-Americans brought into the colony.
1664	The lower House of Maryland asks the upper House to draft an act declaring that the baptism of slaves did not lead to their freedom.
1664	Maryland passes a law that a white woman who marries an African slave should serve the master of such a slave for life.
1667	Severe restrictions are placed upon African-Americans after ther passing of the British "Act to Regulate the Negroes on the British Plantation." The restrictons include but are not limited to not leaving the plantaton on Sundays, the requirement of a pass to leave the plantation Monday- Saturday, the condemment of possesion or use of a weapon, as well as the possession or use of horns, drums or any other signaling device. The act also states that if a slave strikes a Christian, the punishment is a whipping. The second offense results in a brand upon the face of the aggresor.
1681	Under Maryland state law, children born to white mothers and African-American fathers as well as children born to free African-American women are considered free. In St. Mary's County, the first documented interracial marrige in Maryland history took place. The union took place between Eleanor "Irish Nell" Butler, a servant of William Boreman, and "Negro" Charles, a slave of Boreman's.
1692	A law is passed in Maryland that forces white men to serve seven years of servitude if they marry or have children by African-American women. African-American men who have sexual relations with white women are also penalized.

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