Maryland

On the morning of September 14, 1814, a lawyer named Francis Scott Key stood on a ship in Baltimore Harbor and squinted through the smoke. After 25 hours of British bombardment, a giant American flag, 30 feet by 42 feet, still flew over Fort McHenry.

Key started scribbling down words right there on the ship. He finished the poem the next day at a Baltimore hotel. It became "The Star-Spangled Banner," and in 1931 Congress made it the national anthem.

Maryland was founded in 1634 as the only English colony designed to be a safe place for Catholics. In 1649, it passed the Toleration Act, one of the first laws in the colonies granting Christians the right to worship freely.

The Piscataway, Nanticoke, and other native peoples had lived along the Chesapeake Bay for thousands of years before English settlers arrived.

As a border state during the Civil War, Maryland was deeply divided. President Lincoln stationed federal troops throughout the state to keep it in the Union.

On September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg became the bloodiest single day in American history. About 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing in just twelve hours. The battle gave Lincoln the moment he needed to announce the Emancipation Proclamation.

A brave woman named Harriet Tubman was born into slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore around 1822. After escaping in 1849, she came back at least 13 times and personally led about 70 people to freedom through the Underground Railroad. She never lost a single person.

Visit Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, where park rangers still raise a giant flag over the star-shaped fort every morning. On the Eastern Shore, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park lets you walk the same marshes and woods she used to guide people to freedom.

At Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, you can stand on the stone bridge where some of the fiercest fighting happened. And in Annapolis, the U.S. Naval Academy has trained officers since 1845.