On Weems Creek in Annapolis, a grandmother operates one of Maryland's last swing bridges from her office tucked under the span. In his Baltimore workshop, a member of the Boulmetis family keeps the tradition of hat making alive in a city that once was among the hat-making capitals of America. Corny and Wilbur Messick of Bivalve will likely be the last of their family to make the graceful wooden tongs that watermen use to harvest oysters. The Day...

"Planting an Empire explores the social and economic history of the Chesapeake region, revealing a story of two similar but distinct areas of interaction and settlement during the colonial period. Linked by the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia and Maryland formed a prosperous and politically important region in North America before the American Revolution. Yet these 'sister' colonies--despite their similar climate and soil, emphasis on tobacco farming, and...