Harriet Tubman's lost Maryland home found, archaeologists say

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post




Archaeologist Julie Schablitsky found the coin with her metal detector along an old, abandoned road in an isolated area of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She dug it out of the ground and scraped off the mud. She hadn’t been finding much as she and her team probed the swampy terrain of Dorchester County last fall searching for the lost site where the famous Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman lived with her family in the early 1800s.

She’d been frustrated that there had been no hint that she was anywhere near the home of Tubman’s father, Ben Ross. But as she cleaned the coin, the profile of a woman with flowing hair, and wearing a cap that said, “Liberty,” emerged. At the bottom was the date: 1808. Tuesday morning state and federal officials announced that Schablitsky, guided in part by the coin, believes she has found the site where Tubman lived with her parents and several siblings during formative teenage years before she escaped enslavement.

It was the spot, experts said, where a long-vanished cabin stood, which had served for a time as Tubman’s family home. The structure, of unknown form, was owned by her father. A timber foreman and lumberjack who had been enslaved, he had been given his freedom, the house where he lived, and a piece of land near the Blackwater River by his enslaver. Officials said bricks, datable pieces of 19th-century pottery, a button, a drawer pull, a pipe stem, old records, and the location all pointed to the spot being the likely site of the Ben Ross cabin.

The announcement was made at 10 a.m. at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, in Church Creek, Md. The find is a crucial piece of Tubman’s story, experts said. And it illuminates the role that her father, and her family, played in her development into the fearless Underground Railroad conductor that she became.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/04/20/harriet-tubman-maryland-home-found/

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Congrats on them at least IDing the area of the site so they can perhaps cordon it off for more research.

[chowder66]

1. This is so cool! Thanks for posting. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

2. You are welcome!

I wasn't aware of what more they were doing related to her and her family but this was a great find!

[chowder66]

4. It really is. I recently found out that my Canadian ancestors lived fairly close to her

which made my day since she was my very first hero.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. That's pretty cool!

Since the site is near a river, I expect there may have been floods over the past 2 centuries that would make finding stuff more difficult.

[chowder66]

7. Probably. I hope they keep finding stuff though. I'll be watching for updates on this.

[MuseRider]

13. She was my very first hero too!

Mine because of my first book report in, maybe 3rd grade, was from a simple kids book about her and what she did. I remembered her always. Also because I have relatives who were Free Staters here and rode with John Brown here in Kansas.

I am so interested in this discovery. I am dying for her to be on the $20.00 bill.

[chowder66]

18. Neat!!! I just finished watching The Good Lord Bird

which was fantastic!

[MuseRider]

19. I started it and never got back to it.

I should watch it now, my life gets calmer after this weekend!!

I had not heard much about it, I am glad to know it was really good.

[chowder66]

20. Ethan Hawk looks like an old tin type photo come to life.

It's a fantastic hoot. There is an important but small Harriet Tubman part.

[momta]

5. I read a biography of her last summer.

What an incredible woman.

When she was young she stepped in to try to stop the beating of another enslaved person, and was hit so hard it probably cracked her skull. Nearly killed her. Damn she was tough.

[TheJillMill]

8. Live Close to Auburn NY

I have the pleasure of living near Harriet Tubman's final home and resting place in Auburn NY. Many of her descendants (x times great nieces and nephews) live in or near Ithaca, New York. My sister lives in southern Maryland now right near St. Mary's, the former capital. The Catholic colony had at least freedom of religion and the church and the state house were at opposite ends of town to emphasize separation of church and state (though only for white people). The Protestants who came later closed the church and destroyed the town to the point it had to be dug up by archeologists and recreated. The posted story reminded me of this historic event of which I was entirely unaware.

[Deminpenn]

9. Always cool to unearth history

Agree that an archelogical dig site should be established.

[BobTheSubgenius]

10. My SIL bought a semi-grand old house in N PA that used to be a stop on the underground railway

Hidden rooms and the whole nine. An historical society had a little dedication there last year.....no, must have been the year before, because COVID....putting up a plaque on a pedestal and naming it a national historic site. Very, very cool.

He bought it because the purchase of a deconsecrated church looked like it was going to drag on till the Second Coming, then it came through, too. He's going to convert that into one of the coolest and funkiest dwellings you've ever seen. He has BUCKETS of talent and knowledge about stuff like this.

[lunatica]

11. I always wanted to be as brave as her

She’s one of my life heroes. I like to think that I had my brave moments because of people like her. My heroes are all people who fought for and worked for others who couldn’t fight for themselves. What an amazing person she was!

[NurseJackie]

12. Part of the NPR story I heard explained that the exact location was being kept secret...

Part of the NPR story I heard explained that the exact location was being kept secret, so that it would remain undisturbed while the archeologists continue their work. They also said that at some future date the location will be made public.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. They usually do that with a number of historic or important finds, including with shipwrecks

to keep the riff raff away.

[NurseJackie]

15. This makes me proud even more proud to call myself a Marylander.

PS: When I was a very young child, and I first heard the words "Underground Railroad" ... I imagined secret tunnels with tracks and a train.

[electric_blue68]

16. Exciting to find something more about a hero! Especially an...

American one. 👍

[beveeheart]

17. My grandson had to write a report on Harriet Tubman

when he was in elementary school in the mid-'90s. We lived in Virginia at the time, but he knew that I had grown up about 60 miles from where she lived. So we went back to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to see what we could find out about her. We didn't find much, but a local black man told us about a small sign alongside a country road in an area where she probably worked and lived.
If my grandson had to research Harriet Tubman today, there is the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument and National Historical Park to visit. I was there 2 years ago and I highly recommend it if you are ever in Dorchester County, MD.

One more thing, as I said earlier, I grew up on the Eastern Shore and never saw anything about Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglas (born in nearby Talbot County) in any of our history books back then (1950s).