Saving History Saturday: Cabin Site Discovered Where Harriet Tubman Lived

It started with an archaeologist finding a coin dated 1808, and ended with the discovery of a cabin site identified as the dwelling of Harriet Tubman’s father. Located in swampy land on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the home once belonged to Ben Ross, an enslaved lumberjack. Ben had been granted freedom, the cabin, and a 10-acre tract of land after his slaveholder died. Additional artifacts around this site point to daily life in decades between 1808 and the 1840’s, including the time when Harriet would have lived here with her parents.

There has been a lot of excellent reporting on this discovery, and here are a few of the link  links with more details.

NPR: Location of Harriet Tubman’s Home Discovered (short article, recording of program available)

Baltimore Sun: Archeologists Discover Site of Harriet Tubman’s Father’s Home in Maryland (longer article with lots of photographs)

New York Times: Archaeologists Solve a Decades-Old Harriet Tubman Mystery (written article with a couple of photos)