Freemasonry is an initiatory fraternal organization whose members freely associate for a mutually beneficial purpose such as for social or honorary principles.

While fraternal organizations date back to ancient Greece and the mystery schools, they were in their ‘golden age’ in the United States from the 1870s to the 1920s. At the turn of the 20th century in the United States, one in five men belonged to one or more fraternal societies. Today, we have fraternities and sororities in college, as well as fraternal organizations like the Elks, Owls, Fraternal Order of Police, Freemasonry and many more. An initiatory organization is one with a formal rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. These exist today in religion (baptism, Bar Mitzvah, etc.) as well as in fraternal organizations.

​The earliest mention of Freemasonry that is generally agreed on is the Regius Poem (circa 1425). However, many consider its beginning to be 1717, when the first formal governing organization was formed in the U.K. Originally, it was defined as “a system of morality, veiled in allegory (or a story) and illustrated by symbols”. Freemasonry continues to be a course of moral instruction which uses both allegories and symbols to teach its lessons. While most Freemasons in the United States are men, women have been involved in affiliated organizations since at least 1850 (Eastern Star) and in other Masonic organizations with lodges that admit all human beings or women only (sometimes referred to as feminine).
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Freemasonry was popular in colonial America. During the late 1700s, it was one of the organizations most responsible for spreading the ideals of the Enlightenment: the dignity of man and the liberty of the individual, the right of all persons to worship as they choose, the formation of democratic governments, and the importance of public education.​

​In Maryland, the first lodge was established in 1770, and the Maryland Grand Lodge formed after the Revolution in 1787. Freemasons fought on both sides during the American Revolution, as depicted at the Friend-to-Friend Masonic Memorial in Gettysburg, PA. After the Revolution in Maryland, the first lodge of Black Masons was established in Baltimore on February 2, 1825, as part of a movement that became known as Prince Hall Freemasonry.

​Freemasons were active in the creation of this country with at least eight of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence being Freemasons, thirteen out of the 39 signers of the Constitution were Freemasons, and at least fourteen of our Presidents, including George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), and Harry Truman were Freemasons. There is still research going on to determine how much influence Freemasonry has had on the documents and institutions of American government.

​In a Mitch Horowitz article in US News titled, “Masons and the Making of America”, it stated, “Freemasonry’s real impact on America is richer and more significant than anything that entertainment or speculation would hold. As a radical thought movement that emerged from the Reformation, Freemasonry was the first widespread and well-connected organization to espouse religious toleration and liberty —principles that the fraternity helped spread through the American colonies.”