Eastport, a neighborhood of Annapolis, was a working class village and best known as home for local watermen of the Chesapeake Bay. For hundreds of years these watermen tonged for oysters, crabbed, and made their living from the waters of the Chesapeake. Small, local businesses thrived on the bounty of resources the Bay provided and helped to build the Eastport community that we know today. These small businesses employed a diverse workforce, a reflection of the community. Seafood processing, boat building, and other maritime industries were mainstays of the Eastport neighborhood. The McNasby Oyster Company was the most popular place to get local oysters while Sadler's Seafood House held the market on crabs. Oral histories gathered from community members in the last three decades allude to the role women played in the local maritime industry. Women were employed in working at the docks, building boats, packing oysters, picking crabs, and more.
