Archaeologists with the Maryland Department of Transportation recently showed off a trove of “interesting artifacts” found at the Ben Ross home historical dig site; the place where the father of Civil War-era abolitionist Harriet Tubman lived and where she spent her teenage years in Dorchester County.
[Above photo by Maryland DOT]
The agency said its archaeologists spent the past four years processing hundreds of artifacts collected from the Ross home, which is deep in the wetlands of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
Using historic documents to identify a search area, archaeologists dug one thousand holes along a historic road before finding an 1808 coin and a handful of broken 19th century ceramic sherds.
More digging revealed outlines of bricks, window glass and nails. The archaeology, dates of the artifacts and historical record confirmed this site as Ben Ross’ home, the agency noted.
While the Ross home dig is not open to the public, Maryland DOT said it created a “virtual museum” that features photographs, three dimensional models, and intact examples of certain artifacts along with detailed descriptions from the site.
“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 Paul Wiedefeld, secretary of the Maryland DOT, in a statement. “[We are] proud to highlight the state’s untold stories from Ben Ross’ home and share these artifacts with the world through our new virtual museum.”
[Editor’s note: The Maryland DOT, alongside descendants and relatives of Frederick Douglass, recently unveiled a new roadside historical marker commemorating his birth in Talbot County, MD; his self-liberation from slavery; plus his work as an abolitionist, orator, and human rights advocate.]
Even pre-contact artifacts, associated with the Nanticoke Indians, are displayed on the Ross home website. The stone tools and pottery shards are evidence of 2,000-year-old Native American campsites, added Dr. Julie Schablitsky, Maryland DOT’s chief archaeologist.
“This virtual museum is an interactive and educational tool that teaches the public about the archaeological discoveries from Ben Ross’ homeplace,” she said.
Enslaved until 1840, Ross was a timber foreman directing the cutting and hauling of trees, with Tubman working alongside her father as a teenager. Tubman subsequently “self-liberated” in 1849, returning to Maryland’s Eastern Shore roughly 13 times to lead around 70 enslaved people north to freedom on what was then known as the “Underground Railroad.”
Many state departments of transportation are involved in a variety of archeological and historic preservation efforts.
For example, in August 2024, the North Carolina Department of Transportation – in partnership with N.C. State University’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education – launched a two-year project aimed at mapping unmarked burial sites belonging to historically marginalized groups statewide.
In October 2022, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet helped establish a new website highlighting more than 100 prehistoric and historic archaeological sites across the state’s 64 counties. The agency launched that website – Discover Kentucky Archaeology – in collaboration with the Kentucky Heritage Council-State Historic Preservation Office, an agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet.
In addition, in January 2022, the Colorado Department of Transportation debuted a documentary called “Durango 550 – Path of the Ancestral Puebloans” to show how the agency worked with archaeologists and regional Native American tribes to document, study, and ultimately share the discoveries unearthed near Durango in southwest Colorado.
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