Ethnic groups in Baltimore

Following Baltimore's foundation as a subdivision of the Province of Maryland by British colonial authorities in 1661, the city became home to numerous European settlers and immigrants and their African slaves.

Since the first English settlers arrived, substantial immigration from all over Europe, the presence of a deeply rooted community of free black people that was the largest in the pre-Civil War United States, out-migration of African-Americans from the Deep South, out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia, out-migration of Native Americans from the Southeast such as the Lumbee and the Cherokee, and new waves of more recent immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa have added layers of complexity to the workforce and culture of Baltimore, as well as the religious and ethnic fabric of the city.

Baltimore's culture has been described as "the blending of Southern culture and [African-American] migration, Northern industry, and the influx of European immigrants—first mixing at the port and its neighborhoods...Baltimore’s character, it’s uniqueness, the dialect, all of it, is a kind of amalgamation of these very different things coming together—with a little Appalachia thrown in...It’s all threaded through these neighborhoods", according to the American studies academic Mary Rizzo.

[2] During the Late Woodland period, the archaeological culture that is called the "Potomac Creek complex" resided in the area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia.

In 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 170 miles from Jamestown to the upper Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River, named after the native Algonquians who fished shellfish and hunted.

It is the seventh oldest surviving English place-name in the U.S., first applied as "Chesepiook" by explorers heading north from the Roanoke Colony into a Chesapeake tributary in 1585 or 1586.

[6] In 2005, Algonquian linguist Blair Rudes "helped to dispel one of the area's most widely held beliefs: that 'Chesapeake' means something like 'Great Shellfish Bay.'

Lord Baltimore also wanted to maintain friendly relations with the native Algonquians in order to create a buffer from the Susquehannock, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe to the north that was hostile to the English presence.

[13] An annual festival called FestAfrica is held in Patterson Park in order to teach non-Africans about various African cultures and histories.

In 2011, Asian languages spoken among those who spoke English "less than very well" included Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Urdu, Japanese, Laotian, Hindi, and Thai.

The festival is sponsored by the Hare Krishna Temple of Catonsville and features live classical Indian music and dancing, arts and theater, literature, and a vegetarian feast.

[40] The Baltimore metropolitan area is home to 35,000 Koreans making up roughly 1.2 percent of the population, many of whom live in suburban Howard County.

The city has near equal populations of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Salvadorans, with a smaller number of Hispanics coming from countries like the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba, and Colombia.

Most of Baltimore's Hispanic population is in the Southeast section of the city, in areas around Patterson Park and north of Eastern Avenue, especially Highlandtown.

Another noticeable pattern is that neighborhoods west of Linwood Avenue such as Upper Fell's Point and Butchers Hill, Hispanics are mostly made up of first and second generation immigrants from Mexico and Central America, while neighborhoods east of Haven Street such as Greektown and Joseph Lee, more "American-ized" Hispanics such as Puerto Ricans and Dominican Americans are more prevalent, moving to Baltimore from other US states.

The organization holds an annual procession which honors the Lord of Miracles, a painting of Jesus Christ from Lima, Peru.

[15] Northern Americans in Baltimore are residents who were born in or have ancestors from Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, or the United States.

The Appalachian community has historically been centered in the neighborhoods of Hampden, Pigtown, Remington, Woodberry, and Druid Hill Park.

The survey was unsatisfactory since most Romani people refused to take part, with only members of Stevens' extended family expressed interest.

[32] The Haitian refugee population was multiracial and included white French-Haitians and their Afro-Haitian slaves, as well as many free people of color, some of whom were also slaveowners.

[73] During the Haitian Revolution, Baltimore passed an ordinance declaring that all slaves imported from the West Indies, including Haiti, were "dangerous to the peace and welfare of the city" and ordered slaveowners to banish them.

The committee was opposed to and joined in demonstrations against the Trump administration's decision to cancel temporary protected status for nearly 60,000 Haitians living in the United States.

[81] Furthermore, most Austrians who immigrated to the U.S. traveled first through Germany to reach the Port of Bremen, where they would embark on Norddeutscher Lloyd ships to Baltimore.

In 1880, English and Scottish Americans made up a small portion of the foreign-born population of Baltimore at 5% of all foreign born residents.

[27] Welsh immigrants, primarily from workers from South Wales, began settling in Baltimore in large numbers beginning in the 1820s.

The population began to decline during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as the community aged and many Czech Americans moved to the suburbs of Baltimore.

[83] Hungarians, alongside other Eastern European immigrants, worked in steel mills, shipyards, canneries, and garment factories.

The city's small Portuguese-Jewish community founded the Sefardic Congregation Beth Israel in 1856, but the synagogue closed after two years due to low attendance.

The Rumanian Relief Committee and the Industrial Removal Office (IRO) helped resettle Romanian Jews in the United States.

Many Egyptians first immigrate to New York City, then resettle in the Baltimore area due to more job opportunities and a lower cost of living.