This video is sponsored in part by Bright Cellars.
Maryland and Virginia
Two bordering Mid-Atlantic states in these United States. Separated by the Potomac River,
oh and DC! They’re the only two states to border the District of Columbia,
aka Washington D.C., which is the federal district that’s the capital of the entire country.
Is there a rivalry between the Maryland and Virginia? Yeah, I’d say there is,
at least in the DMV, aka the National Capital Region. And there’s the Maryland-Virginia
football rivalry which is kind of something. Overall, though, much of the difference between
these two states is rooted in history, which we’ll get to later on in this motion picture.
Both states are along the East Coast bordering the Atlantic Ocean,
but oh they got some mountains further inland. The Appalachian Mountains,
to be specific, although there are more mountains in Virginia overall.
Both states have oceanic, humid subtropical and humid continental climates. Being near the ocean,
both do have to worry about hurricanes. Being further north,
Maryland doesn’t get quite as hot in the summer months and Virginia doesn’t
get quite as cold in the winter months, but both have quite humid springs and summers.
If you can’t handle humidity…yeah, don’t move to Maryland or Virginia.
Both have a topography that’s diverse, with sandy dunes and low marshlands near the ocean,
to gently rolling hills in the Piedmont Region, to the aforementioned mountains out west.
The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the country, splits up both states. On the
east side of it is the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes both the Eastern Shore of
Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Eastern Shore of both states is more
rural and flat, and more vulnerable to hurricanes and rising sea levels due to climate change.
Both states have just one highway that links The Eastern Shores to the rest of each state. The
Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel links Virginia. It is one of only 12 bridge-tunnel systems
in the entire world. The massive Chesapeake Bay Bridge connects Maryland,
and it’s freaking busy and always backed up, especially during the summer, which is why
Maryland’s government has considered creating a second bridge that crosses the Chesapeake.
The median age in both is nearly identical. (M- 38.8, V- 38.4)
Both states have two of the lowest poverty rates in the entire country.(M- 9%, V- 10%) Only New
Hampshire currently has a lower poverty rate than Maryland.
The biggest religion in both is Christianity. Specifically,
Protestant, although Maryland has quite a bit of residents who identify as Roman Catholic.
More on why that is later in this motion picture.
Both have lots of historic sites. If you’re a regular viewer of my channel,
first of all thank you, and second um yeah you would love all the preserved history in both.
Both have residents who speak multiple, distinct accents AND dialects.
So what about differences?
Well, first of all Virginia is bigger in land area. About four times bigger, actually.
Virginia also has more people. (M- 6 million, V- 8.5 million). That said, Maryland has a higher
population density, and only four states have a higher population density than it. Maryland’s
largest city, Baltimore, also is much bigger than Virginia’s biggest city, Virginia Beach.
Maryland is completely part of the Northeast Megalopolis (mwhahahahahaha)
a part of the country that contains more than 17 percent of its entire population,
or some 50 million people on less than 2% of the country’s land area.
The cost of living is higher in Maryland, overall. That said,
around the District of Columbia, it’s all expensive for real.
Virginia borders more states. In addition to bordering the District of Columbia,
(which is not a state of course) and Maryland, Virginia also borders West Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and North Carolina. Maryland also borders Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia.
And now might be a great opportunity to uh, talk about how Maryland is totally the weirdest
shaped state in the country. What the heck is up with that anyway? I mean,
it’s almost broken into two right there. By the way,
this area is often called Maryland’s narrow waist or skinny neck. At its narrowest point,
there is less than two miles (3km) of Maryland between West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Well, before we get into how Maryland got its crazy shape,
let’s just get into the history of both states shall we? We shall? Well good. We shall indeed.
Humans have lived in the area of modern-day Virginia and Maryland for
thousands of years. Before European arrival,
eastern modern-day Virginia was dominated by the Powhatan Confederacy. However,
several other American Indian tribes are native to the area, including the Tutelo and Saponi,
Catawba, and Cherokee. Meanwhile, modern-day Maryland was also home to the Powhatan and Tutelo
and Saponi, but additionally the Nanticoke, Lenape, Susquehannock, and Massawomeck.
In 1607, the English came over. In fact, that’s why I’m speaking English to you right now. The
London Company established the Colony of Virginia, named after Queen Elizabeth the First of England,
who was known as the Virgin Queen. Eh? Ehhh? Anyway, the Colony of Virginia was the first
permanent English colony in the Americas, which is why Old Dominion is the state nickname today.
After a rough start, the settlement of Jamestown, located on the north bank of the James River,
eventually thrived as the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. They first settled
the area for gold, but ain’t no gold ‘round those parts. However, they soon figured out
how to grow tobacco, which might as well have been gold amirite since it became so valuable.
European settlement steadily increased after tobacco became a cash crop. In August 1619,
the first recorded slaves from Africa arrived near Jamestown and worked in tobacco fields. Over the
following decades, more and more Africans would be forced to migrate to Virginia to become slaves.
Meanwhile, a dude known as Sir George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, took quite an interest in
the English colonization of the Americas, not only because he wanted to make money there, but also
because he wanted to set up his own colony there as a place of refuge for persecuted Irish and
Roman Catholics. See? I told you I would bring up Roman Catholics again. You didn’t believe
me did you! Anyway, in 1632, King Charles I granted a charter to Calvert to form a colony,
but then Calvert died, so his son Cecilius got it going, with his other son,
Leonard, becoming its first colonial governor. They named it Mary Land,
and really pronounced it that way, not like us crazies today calling it “Maryland.” Besides,
it WAS Mary’s land. They named it in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I.
Anyway, this began many, many years of border disputes between Virginia and Maryland.
Many of the earliest settlers of the colonies of Maryland and Virginia were indentured servants, or
people who paid for their passage to the Americas by being forced to work for somebody for a certain
number of years before getting their freedom. This really picked up after King Charles I
was uh…ya know, executed for treason in 1649. That same year, Maryland passed the Toleration Act,
which kind of accidentally expanded religious liberty even though it made it illegal to deny
that Jesus was the son of God with the punishment of DEATH holy crap. Still,
it was the first law on religious tolerance in British North America so that’s something.
Beginning in the late 1660s, both Virginia and Maryland colonists would sadly pass
new laws that further restricted the rights of all blacks, both free and slaves. Meanwhile,
the British crown had taken over the Colony of Virginia
since they didn’t like how the London Company was running things. For the rest of the 1600s,
the colony grew quickly and brought a lot of wealth to England and certain plantation owners.
In 1682, Maryland wanted to take over all of the aforementioned Delmarva Peninsula
but the new king, Charles II, didn’t let them, instead giving what became known as
Delaware to Pennsylvania. Well, for the next 75 years or so, Maryland NOW had border disputes with
Pennsylvania, regarding both its eastern border AND northern border? Wait northern border? Yep,
that’s a pretty famous border. Today’s it’s known as the Mason–Dixon line,
named after Jeremiah Mason and Charles Dixon, who drew it up in the 1760s. They settled
the northern border between Maryland and Pennsylvania once and for all, dad gomit, and
that border eventually became an informal boundary between states in the North where slavery was
illegal and states in the South where slavery was legal. Meanwhile, out west Virginia still
had been disputing Maryland’s southern border. Maryland wanted it to be the southern branch of
the Potomac River. Virginia wanted it to be the northern branch. Long story short, Virginia won
the border battle since they were the bigger, more powerful colony. Virginia and Maryland
did settle disagreements over how to share the Potomac River, however, with the Compact of 1785,
which served as a model for other states on how to settle disputes in the future.
Oh I skipped over the American Revolution. Uh yeah the citizens of both Maryland and
Virginia played a big role fighting for independence from Great Britain.
Obviously, some of the most important figures from the revolution,
like Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington, came from Virginia.
After the United States became an independent country, both Maryland and Virginia thrived.
In 1790, Virginia was the most populous state and Maryland was sixth most populous.
In the War of 1812, Maryland saw a lot of action,
especially with the Battle of Baltimore at Fort McHenry. It was that battle which inspired Francis
Scott Key to write the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry,” which later became the lyrics for
“The Star-Spangled Banner,” which today is the national anthem of the United States.
Sadly, a big reason why the two states thrived in the early 1800s was slave labor. In 1831,
an enslaved preacher named Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Virginia, killing as many as 60
people. In response, around 30 African Americans were hanged or expelled from the state, and the
General Assembly passed harsher slave laws, like laws making it illegal to teach slaves how to
read or write. Both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in Maryland and both became
heroes to the abolitionist movement. Tubman even went back to Maryland at least 13
times afterward to rescue at least 70 more people out of slavery. Dang that’s courageous.
Virginia was also where the abolitionist John Brown tried and failed to incite
another slave rebellion in 1859. He attempted to take over a federal armory at Harpers Ferry,
but ultimately Brown was captured and executed.
After the election of Abraham Lincoln as President in 1860, Virginia’s General Assembly
voted to secede from the Union over the slavery issue, and this soon, along with other states
seceding, led to the American Civil War, with Virginia leading the fight for the newly formed
Confederate States of America. Maryland, even though it was still a slave state, decided to
stay with the Union. Meanwhile, several Western Virginians in Wheeling also opposed secession and
wanted to stay with the Union. In October 1861, they voted for a new state, and the next April
they had a new constitution. They were admitted to the Union as West Virginia on June 20th,
1863. So this split Virginia into two states, with West Virginia fighting for the Union
and Virginia fighting for the Confederates, and it was basically a smaller version of the entire
war. Many big name Confederate generals, like Jeb Stuart, George Pickett, and Robert E. Lee,
were from Virginia. Most of the battles in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War took place in
Virginia, mainly since the Confederates had to defend its national capital there, which was in
Richmond. There is no doubt that the Civil War left Virginia devastated, although Maryland was
where the horrific Battle of Antietam took place. The bloodiest day in American history still was
the day of that battle, which left around 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing.
After the Confederacy lost the war and the United States reunited,
Virginia’s economy struggled for the rest of the century. Maryland’s economy did better.
Racial segregation was also not nearly as pronounced in Maryland as it was in Virginia.
It wasn’t until World War One
when the economy really picked up again in Virginia. By that time Maryland was booming,
especially since it had attracted many more immigrants from around the world.
For much of the 1900s, Maryland was growing at a faster rate
than Virginia, but that trend has reversed since the 1980s.
Still, today the median household income remains higher in Maryland. (M- $87,063, V- $81,947)
Major industries today in Maryland include healthcare, government and public services,
and retail. Major industries in Virginia
also include healthcare and government and public services but additionally technology.
According to both CNBC and Forbes Magazine, Virginia is a much better state for business.
In fact, CNBC thinks Virginia is THE best state for business right now in the entire country.
And yes, you may not be surprised to hear that taxes are higher in Maryland, overall.
More Maryland residents have college degrees.
Maryland also spends more money per student on education.
The violent crime rate is much lower in Virginia. Thanks Baltimore.
Maryland leans more to the left politically. The last time Virginia has voted for a Republican
for President was 2004. Maryland? 1988. Maryland’s state legislature also currently
has more Democrats in power. That said, both states do currently have Republican governors.
Virginia residents are more religious.
Maryland has a much more ethnically diverse population.
There are no professional sports teams in Virginia, but Maryland has the Baltimore
Orioles and Baltimore Ravens. Oh, and technically the Washington Commanders play in Maryland,
although they may be building their new stadium in…you guessed it…Virginia.
Virginia often is nicknamed the “Mother of Presidents” since eight American Presidents
were born there. None have been born in Maryland, surprisingly, although a Vice President, Spiro
Agnew, was from there. Not saying it’s good to be proud of that, but ya know.
It’s much easier to gamble in Maryland.
Here’s something I learned only recently about Virginia. IT’S THE HOME OF THE INTERNET. Well,
it’s the home of the majority of the world’s internet traffic. Specifically,
much of this traffic passes through the town of Ashburn, due to its many, many data centers.
Maryland is known for its blue crabs and Virginia is known for its oysters.
Maryland has a better flag. I don’t care what anybody says.
It’s the coolest looking state flag in the country. Come at me bruh.
Virginia is the only state in the country in which its governor can only serve
1 four-year term. I can dig that.
Judges in the Maryland Court of Appeals randomly wear
red robes? Ok, it’s time to wrap this baby up because I’m talking about judge robes.
In conclusion, Maryland and Virginia continue to be two very desirable states to both live in
and visit. They also remain two states where the North meets the South,
and if you’ve never been to the United States, it makes sense to visit these two states first
to get a great sample of the country. Heck, you’ve even got the nation’s capital between them.
This video is once again sponsored in part by Bright Cellars. They once again shipped a box
of wine directly to our house and mrs beat is here with me again to open it she took the quiz online
i took the quiz online they match up the your palette you know on your tongue
what you're like what you like to taste that sounded kind of
bad but that's okay as always it comes with these informational cards let's
see what we got all right we got the california pinot noir rose petal press
petal press apostate with a bunch of naked people on color fast it's a subtle
rising tail which is also a pinot noir obscura another zinfandel which which of these wines are
you most excited to try out i want to try obscura let's learn about obscura so it says a classic
california zinfandel this wine is boosting with jammy strawberry and raspberry aromas
spicy black peppercorn and the pallets is balanced by a ripe round mouthfeel and you
pair with watching the evening news i don't think people watch the evening news anymore but
the evening youtube how about that the evening mr beat you go viewers of my channel will get 50
off a six bottle box like this one that includes shipping click on the link in the description of
this video to try it out you doing that helps out my channel as well thanks for sponsoring bright
sellers so which is better marylander virginia a lot of you wanted me to compare those two states
for this series speaking of which i only have one state left and that is michigan what should
i do with michigan should i compare it to ohio like many of my twitter followers suggested or
there's still the possibility of me comparing the upper peninsula and lower peninsula let me
know what i should do in those comments i'm still torn between those two options thanks for watching