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Landowner, Lawyer, Suffragette
The Remarkable Margaret Brent
1601-1671
Despite occasional conflicts between European settlers and local Indians, Mistress Margaret Brent of Saint Mary's City, Maryland, was granted the first land patent on Piper's Island (later known as Jones Point) in 1654. An extraordinary woman for her time, Brent appears here before the Maryland Assembly requesting not only the right to vote, but the right to two votes -- one for herself as a landowner and one as Lord Baltimore's attorney.
"Brents undertaking and medling with your Lordships Estate here? we do Verily Believe and in Conscience report that it was better for Collonys safety at that time in her hands then in any mans else in the whole province?"
-- Letter from the Maryland Assembly, describing Brent's management of Lord Baltimore's will, 1649.
Tobacco Farming
To hold title to her land, Brent was required to cut back the forest and plant tobacco. On most plantations, indentured servants and enslaved African Americans performed the arduous labor. |