Flags

Introduction: Maryland is located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. To the south and west Maryland borders Virginia,

While Plymouth, founded in 1620, wasn’t the first attempt at colonization in North America, not the first site settled by the British, Plymouth was the first European settlement in New England as the first settlement, Jamestown, was located farther south in what is today Virginia.  However, Plymouth has an outsize importance in the real and mythical tales of the formation of what would become the United States for this was the site where the famous Pilgrims landed with their equally famous ship the Mayflower.  Therefore it seems fitting that through an accident of timing this post will appear on the 4th of July Independence holiday.

Introduction: Connecticut is the fifth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States and therefore the fifth state to

Gold was discovered in the mountains of northern Georgia in 1829.  Predictably this led to the Georgia Gold Rush culminating in the establishment of a federal mint in the mountain town of Dahlonega.  This mint continued to operate until 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War.  The Georgia Gold Rush brought an influx of white settlers into territory that was previously almost exclusively Cherokee.  The white settlers put pressure on the government to take Cherokee lands, by force if necessary.  In response to this pressure, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830.  This resulted in the forced movement of many eastern Native Americans to reservations in present day Oklahoma, a territory and climate very different from the one left behind.  Even though the Supreme Court ruled in 1832 that states we not permitted to redraw Indian territorial boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling and persisted in the relocation effort.  President Jackson’s successor, Martin Van Buren, went further and ordered federal troops to gather the remaining Cherokee peoples and forcibly deport them west of the Mississippi River.  This forced displacement, which resulted in the death of over 4,000 Cherokee people is today known as the Trail of Tears.