Harriet Tubman's Childhood Home Remnants Found In MD

DORCHESTER COUNTY, MD — Years of searching for the childhood home of famed Maryland abolitionist Harriet Tubman have unearthed artifacts from the historic homesite once owned by the enslaved father of the Underground Railroad conductor.

The former home of Tubman’s father, Ben Ross, was discovered on marshy property acquired in 2020 as an addition to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County. An archaeology team led by the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration conducted research that led to the discovery.

“Today, I am excited to announce our archaeologists have confirmed that this site (searched in the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge) was once home to Ben Ross, and may have been where Harriet Tubman spent her early years,” Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford said at Tuesday's ceremony announcing the tangible link to Tubman's early life.

Tubman was born a slave about 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland. She used the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom in the North in 1849, then used it to help others gain their freedom. She also actively spied against the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Tubman overcame abuse, war, chronic illness and extreme injustice to make her mark on American history as a suffragette, an abolitionist and a Civil War veteran, Gov. Larry Hogan's office said previously. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitors Center in Church Creek, which Hogan marked the grand opening of in 2017, receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each year from all 50 states and over 60 countries.

After a four-year delay by the Trump administration, efforts to put Tubman on the $20 bill have resurfaced as President Joe Biden's appointees head federal agencies.

The move to replace President Andrew Jackson on the front of $20 bills with onetime slave Tubman in 2020 was put on hold while Donald Trump was in office.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the 2,600-acre Peter’s Neck property for $6 million to provide future marsh migration and outdoor recreation. The property contains 10 acres bequeathed to Ben Ross by Anthony Thompson in the 1800s. As outlined in Thompson’s will, Ross was to be freed five years after Thompson’s death in 1836. Ross was freed from slavery and received the land in the early 1840s, a news release said.

“When we protect vulnerable habitats, we help preserve the stories of those who came before us, like Harriet Tubman’s father, Ben Ross,” said Cynthia Martinez, USFWS chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System, in an MDOT SHA news release. “Acquiring Peter’s Neck last year was a critical addition to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, as the area is predicted to naturally convert to marsh by 2100 because of sea-level rise.”

The state’s archaeology team, led by MDOT SHA Chief Archaeologist Dr. Julie Schablitsky, began searching for evidence linked to Ross in November 2020. When they returned in March to continue their search, Schablitsky and her team found numerous artifacts dating to the 1800s, including nails, brick, glass, dish fragments and a button.

Confirmation that these artifacts were from Ross’ cabin was announced Tuesday, and Schablitsky discussed their historical and cultural significance.

“The importance of discovering Ben Ross’ cabin here is the connection to Harriet Tubman. She would’ve spent time here as a child, but also she would’ve come back and been living here with her father in her teenage years, working alongside him,” Schablitsky said. “This was the opportunity she had to learn about how to navigate and survive in the wetlands and the woods. We believe this experience was able to benefit her when she began to move people to freedom.”

“The significance of the discovery of the home site of my great-great-great-grandfather Ben Ross, and of a spellbinding assortment of artifacts that were once held in the hands of the man himself, but have since been long-inhumed in the soggy Dorchester County soil, is truly inestimable,” said Douglas Mitchell, the great-great-great-grandson of Ross. “Dr. Schablitsky’s findings hold the promise of both deepening and broadening our understanding of the remarkable life not only of the patriarch and his beloved wife, but also, of course, that of his legendary daughter and heroine, Harriet Tubman. On this joyous occasion, more than 160 years after Ben Ross departed his humble cabin never to return, all freedom-and-justice-loving Americans are Ross kin, celebrating this immensely important archaeological discovery and the priceless revelations it is destined to offer.”

Related: Placing Harriet Tubman On $20 Bill To Speed Up: Biden Officials

Tubman was born Araminta Ross in March 1822 on the Thompson Farm near Cambridge, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She escaped from slavery to become a leading abolitionist who helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad.

“This discovery adds another puzzle piece to the story of Harriet Tubman, the state of Maryland, and our nation,” Rutherford said Tuesday at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center at Church Creek, WUSA reported.

The Ben Ross home site will be highlighted on the historic Thompson Farm, where Ross and his family were enslaved. It will be added as a new point of interest to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway.

The byway is a 125-mile, self-guided scenic drive that includes more than 30 sites related to Harriet Tubman’s life and legacy.