Prince Georges County
Maryland

The county is named after Prince George of Denmark (1653–1708), the consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and the brother of King Christian V of Denmark and Norway. Prince George’s County was created by the English Council of Maryland in the Province of Maryland in April 1696 from portions of Charles and Calvert counties. The county was divided into six districts referred to as “Hundreds”: Mattapany, Petuxant, Collington, Mount Calvert, Piscattoway and New Scotland.

A portion was detached in 1748 to form Frederick County. Because Frederick County was subsequently divided to form the present Allegany, Garrett, Montgomery, and Washington counties, all of these counties in addition were derived from what had up to 1748 been Prince George’s County.

In 1791, portions of Prince George’s County were ceded to form the new District of Columbia (along with portions of Montgomery County, Maryland and parts of Northern Virginia that were later returned to Virginia).

During the War of 1812, the British marched through the county by way of Bladensburg to burn the White House. On their return, they kidnapped a prominent doctor, William Beanes. Lawyer Francis Scott Key was asked to negotiate for his release, which resulted in his writing “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Since much of the southern part of the county was tobacco farms that were worked by enslaved Africans, there was a high population of African Americans in the region. After the Civil War, many African Americans attempted to become part of Maryland politics, but were met with violent repression after the fall of Reconstruction.

In April 1865, John Wilkes Booth made his escape through Prince George’s County while en route to Virginia after shooting President Abraham Lincoln.

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 863,420 people, 304,042 households, and 203,520 families residing in the county.The median income for a household in the county was $71,260 and the median income for a family was $82,580.