Introduction |
These pages hold transcriptions of text found in the weekly issues of the Maryland Gazette from January and February of 1795. There's a wealth of information to be gleaned from these pages.
Historians will appreciate the details relating to the early settlers of the state. International news is to be found as well. Many times the printing office relied on interviews of those who had recently arrived from the "Old Country". At times you'll find news being reported that was included in a letter someone in the area received. There are many first-hand accounts of battles being waged between the English and the French.
If you love history, and enjoy finding tidbits of information relating to your ancestors, you'll want to check these pages out.
Many, many books have been written with the genealogist in mind, but if your ancestor wasn't one of the earliest colonists, or a mover and shaker in the state, there seems to be little or no evidence that they ever existed. Here in these pages you'll find mentions of those who had recently passed, or rather long lists of names of those who needed to pick up mail that laid undisturbed in the post office too long. Criminals and victims both found their names in the weekly news.
Many transcriptions or newspaper abstracts concentrate on the articles. You'll find the full text of ads that were a large part of these weeklies. As you read of the merchandise that had recently been shipped from abroad to the local general store, you can almost hear the hum of activity in the street outside.
You'll be saddened to see the slaves listed with kitchenware and livestock for sale. Many are the names of slaves who so desperately desired the freedom that was their God-given right, that they risked death or a terrible beating to run when the opportunity presented itself. You'll hope as you read later issues, not to find their names listed in an ad calling for their masters to come retrieve them.
Whether our ancestors were good law abiding people or not, they're ours to claim, warts and all. We don't choose the era into which we're born. We need to read of them, because they're our tie to the early years of the great state of Maryland, and to OUR history.
