1738-1793: Boom and Bust

1738-1793: Boom and Bust. The Oxford Museum. , 1738 , Robert Morris Sr. arrives in Oxford from Liverpool. As manager or "chief factor" for trading company Foster Cunliffe and Sons, he supervises the trade in tobacco, pork, hides and lumber, and leads Oxford's first great economic boom., 1742 , For the first time, 355 enslaved Africans are brought directly to Oxford aboard the ship London Friggot., 1747 , Robert Morris Sr. imports 106 indentured Scottish prisoners taken at the Battle of Culloden to work on Oxford's tobacco plantations., 1750 , On July 6, Robert Morris Sr. is accidentally struck by debris from a saluting cannon of the ship Liverpool Merchant arriving in Oxford harbor. He dies and is buried at White Marsh Churchyard, Trappe., 1760s , Most Eastern Shore plantations have shifted from labor-intensive and falling tobacco cultivation to wheat., Oxford is a cosmopolitan trading center, second only to Annapolis in the amount and variety of imported goods., 1770 , The Barnaby House is built on High (Morris) Street. It is the only colonial house in Oxford surviving on its original foundation., 1770-71 , Slave ships arriving in Oxford unloaded 226 total persons from Senegal., 1773 , After making 30 trans-Atlantic trading voyages for a London firm, prominent Captain Jeremiah Banning retires to his Oxford estate , The Isthmus , as their Eastern Shore agent., 1774 , As Britain blockades Boston Harbor and deploys troops in Massachusetts, American Colonists gather for the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia., 1775 , On Sept. 11, the last British ship departs Oxford, ending nearly a century of profitable European trade., Colonel Trench Tilghman of Oxford becomes one of Washington's aides-de-camp., After battles at Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill, George Washington takes command of the new Continental Army., 1776 , On July 4, Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence., 1783 , The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending war with Great Britain., Annapolis becomes the nation's capital for ten months from November 1783 until August 1784., 1784 , Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris, officially recognizing the United States as an independent and sovereign nation., Maryland's constitution formally prohibits the transportation of slaves from Africa., 1787 , A new constitution for United States of America is drawn up by Congress., 1789 , George Washington is elected the first President of the United States., 1790 , Oxford's economy, built on trade with England, is in ruins. The town's population declines to 98. There are just 13 houses., 1791 , George Washington appoints Jeremiah Banning the first official Customs officer of the United States. His Customs House is at The Isthmus, across the Tred Avon River from Oxford on Plain Dealing Creek., Three quarters of the states approve 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing individual freedoms to all Americans., Maryland donates land for the new national capitol, Washington, D.C., 1793 , Banning laments: "Poor drooping and forsaken Oxford… has more the appearnce of an uninhabited island than where human feet have ever trod."