Making history come alive for our students!
Assistance League of the Chesapeake sponsored a performance by Mary Ann Jung, of History Alive, for the students at Georgetown East elementary school, a presentation is also planned for Meade Heights elementary. She performed as Margaret Brent. The students enjoyed how her presentation truly brought history alive! Here is some information Ms. Jung shared with students:
In 1638 a British Catholic named Margaret Brent fled religious persecution and landed in St. Mary’s City. The Maryland Colony had been the first place in history to be legally founded on religious freedom. Maryland had been started by her cousin Anne Arundel’s husband, Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Margaret Brent would lead a remarkable life helping the fledgling colony and the local natives. Along the way she would also become the first woman to own land in America, its first female lawyer, and the first woman in America to demand the right to vote!
Mistress Brent was educated and outspoken – something ladies were not supposed to be. Meet this amazing colonist and hear her lively account of her hardships in the wilderness. Her story is fleshed out with audience members playing Governor Leonard Calvert, the Piscataway Indians, and their chief. Will the settlers and natives in the Maryland Colony fight or become friends? Why did colonial records sometimes list her as “Gentleman”? Only the adventurous Mistress Brent can tell you.
