money that could be found there . . . the situation was 

 critically similar in Maryland. In the end, little of what 

 Jefferson had called the "hereditary" debt was ever paid 

 off. 



N, 



ew nation — new growth 



Following the revolution many land reforms took 

 place in Maiyland. Six manors totaling 26,300 acres 

 were repossessed and sold in tracts of 175 acres each to 

 150 growers in St. Mary's county. Compared to the 

 upper counties, industrial development remained negli- 

 gible in Southern Maryland, but the tobacco trade did 

 revive in the post-war years. 



By the time Maryland had ratified the new Constitu- 

 tion of the United States and entered the Union in 1788, 

 and as other industries grew, the relative importance of 

 tobacco production was dechning as compared with its 

 earlier days. Many felt that the golden age of Mary- 

 land tobacco was now nothing more than a musty 

 anachronism. In the 1790's, one Marylander, Roger B. 

 Taney, who was later appointed Chief Justice of the 

 U.S. Supreme Court by President Jackson, observed the 

 decline of tobacco production in his home-state and 

 decided to turn to law rather than be a planter. 



T 



obacco goes west 



But the growth of Baltimore helped boost the tobacco 

 economy of Southern Maryland. Much of the tobacco 

 trade had been moving west by the end of the War of 

 1812. Tobacco was grown in Ohio, Missouri and in 



27 



