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MARYLAND: Ongoing digs in historic Annapolis are revealing the birth of the African-American middle class in the 19th century. Tableware from the home of James Holliday, a freed slave who worked at the U.S. Naval Academy, shows that his family was relatively well-off. Like white families, they purchased porcelain, but, perhaps because of financial limitations, in small quantities. Bottles suggest they were self-medicating, a common practice among African Americans then, who lacked access to professional care in the still-segregated city.
