If you had the choice of living in colonial New York, Rhode Island, Virginia or Maryland, which would you chose? I think that if your decision was to be based on the advantages of each colony, then you would chose Maryland. You would have wanted to reside in Maryland for several reasons, among them were land grants, morals and freedom, economy, farming land, and government.

You might wonder: why not move to New York? Well, in Maryland, because our colony is on both sides of the Chesapeake Bay, we have fertile land covered with silt. In New York, they have rocky, thin soil, which makes it hard to grow crops. That's why they barely grow enough food for themselves, while we support ourselves and grow cash crops to sell to others.

Now on to Virginia. You might say, "Virginia is great; no taxes!" Well, to that I say...