Earleville in Cecil County, Maryland — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
Tobacco and Mount Harmon
Photographed By Don Morfe, October 30, 2015
1. Tobacco and Mount Harmon Marker
Inscription.
Tobacco and Mount Harmon. . , Colonial Tobacco Trade , Before you stands a crop of tobacco planted to reflect the historic tobacco trade that flourished at Mount Harmon in the colonial era. Tobacco was an important cash crop that helped build early American settlements, and by the mid-1600s had evolved into the main cash crop of the Tidewater region. Tobacco was even used as legal currency by planters to make purchases, pay fines, and taxes! By the mid-1700s, Mount Harmon was a bustling 1,200-acre tobacco plantation, trading with the British Empire via the Chesapeake Bay.
Seventeenth Century Farming , Tobacco plantations were very labor intensive. It took one person to cultivate 2-3 acres of tobacco. At first, indentured servants and other European immigrants did this hard work, but by the late 1600s slaves were imported from the Caribbean and Africa. Slave labor was used on Mount Harmon by tenant farmers until the Civil War, although Mount Harmon owners, Mary Louttit George and Ann Eliza George Fisher, freed their own slaves in 1808.
Twentieth Century Farming , Over time, tobacco was found to deplete the soil. As the soil grew poor and tobacco became less profitable, planters at Mount Harmon and other Cecil County farms switched over to wheat production and other crops. By the American Revolution, Tobacco was not a major crop at Mount Harmon, and was replaced by wheat, rye, flax, hemp, cattle, and orchards. Mount Harmon continued to be a productive agricultural farm into the 20th century, and today reflects four centuries of agricultural history on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
[Inscription next to the image at the left bottom] , Ships full of tobacco sailed from the Mount Harmon wharf, down the Sassafras River, into the Chesapeake Bay, and across the Atlantic Ocean to England. The ships returned full with necessities and luxuries for the plantation and its inhabitants. Mount Harmon relied on tobacco for income, but also produced grain and livestock, and had skilled tradespeople including blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters and tobacco agent. , [Inscription on sketch at top center] , A Tobacco Plantation
Colonial Tobacco Trade Before you stands a crop of tobacco planted to reflect the historic tobacco trade that flourished at Mount Harmon in the colonial era. Tobacco was an important cash crop that helped build early American settlements, and by the mid-1600s had evolved into the main cash crop of the Tidewater region. Tobacco was even used as legal currency by planters to make purchases, pay fines, and taxes! By the mid-1700s, Mount Harmon was a bustling 1,200-acre tobacco plantation, trading with the British Empire via the Chesapeake Bay.
Seventeenth Century Farming Tobacco plantations were very labor intensive. It took one person to cultivate 2-3 acres of tobacco. At first, indentured servants and other European immigrants did this hard work, but by the late 1600s slaves were imported from the Caribbean and Africa. Slave labor was used on Mount Harmon by tenant farmers until the Civil War, although Mount Harmon owners, Mary Louttit George and Ann Eliza George Fisher, freed their own slaves in 1808.
Twentieth Century Farming Over time, tobacco was found to deplete the soil. As the soil grew poor and tobacco became less profitable, planters at Mount Harmon and other Cecil County farms switched over to wheat production and other crops. By the American Revolution, Tobacco was not a major crop at
Click or scan to see this page online
Mount Harmon, and was replaced by wheat, rye, flax, hemp, cattle, and orchards. Mount Harmon continued to be a productive agricultural farm into the 20th century, and today reflects four centuries of agricultural history on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
[Inscription next to the image at the left bottom] Ships full of tobacco sailed from the Mount Harmon wharf, down the Sassafras River, into the Chesapeake Bay, and across the Atlantic Ocean to England. The ships returned full with necessities and luxuries for the plantation and its inhabitants. Mount Harmon relied on tobacco for income, but also produced grain and livestock, and had skilled tradespeople including blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters and tobacco agent.
[Inscription on sketch at top center]
A Tobacco Plantation
Location. 39° 22.882′ N, 75° 56.212′ W. Marker is in Earleville, Maryland, in Cecil County. Marker is on Mount Harmon Road. The marker is on the grounds of the Mount Harmon Plantation. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Earleville MD 21919, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Mount Harmon Plantation at World's End (within shouting distance of this marker);
Credits. This page was last revised on September 21, 2020. It was originally submitted on November 17, 2015. This page has been viewed 416 times since then and 53 times this year. Last updated on September 21, 2020, by Carl Gordon Moore Jr. of North East, Maryland. Photos:1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on November 17, 2015, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. 5. submitted on October 13, 2019, by Bill Coughlin of Woodland Park, New Jersey. • J. Makali Bruton was the editor who published this page.
