ST. MARY’S COUNTY, MARYLAND—WTOP News reports that the possible site of a 300-year-old slave quarter has been found near an eighteenth-century brick manor once inhabited by Jesuit missionaries. Julie Schablitsky, chief archaeologist for the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, and her colleagues have recovered clay pipes, ceramic cups, and nails where the cabins are thought to have stood. Schablitsky explained that although the Jesuits were prolific record keepers, very little information about the enslaved African Americans who worked their fields has survived. Historical documents do indicate that 272 enslaved people from Maryland were sold in 1838 at a site located near the manor. To read about a Union Army camp in Kentucky where enslaved men, women, and children fought to be free, go to "A Path to Freedom."
