DORCHESTER CO., MD - The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) has announced the discovery of numerous artifacts at the site where Harriet Tubman’s father’s home once stood in Dorchester County.
MDOT says a team of archaeologists have spent four years documenting hundreds of findings from the area where Ben Ross once lived and where Tubman spent her teenage years. The site is located deep in the wetlands of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and is not accessible to the public, but MDOT has created a virtual museum to share the findings.
“Pieces of plates, pitchers, bowls and more found at the site of Harriet Tubman's father's home give us more insight to how the family lived two hundred years ago,” said Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld. “The Maryland Department of Transportation is proud to highlight the state's untold stories from Ben Ross' home and share these artifacts with the world through our new virtual museum.”
MDOT says their archaeologists discovered Ross’ home in 2021 using historic documents to pinpoint the search area in Dorchester County. One thousand holes were dug along a historic road in Blackwater before a coin from 1808 along with ceramic shards were uncovered. Four years later, MDOT says they have uncovered hundreds of artifacts from the site.
Ben Ross was an enslaved timber foreman until 1840, overseeing the cutting and hauling of trees, according to MDOT. Researchers say Tubman worked alongside her father as a teenager before self-liberating in 1849. While she returned to the Eastern Shore to lead about 70 enslaved people north to freedom, Tubman also brought her parents north when her father was under suspicion for being apart of the Underground Railroad.
MDOT’s announcement of the findings coincides with Harriet Tubman Day, the anniversary of Tubman’s death in 1913. Officials say the virtual website highlighting the discoveries was coordinated with Tubman’s descendents and the Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians.