HS 129, Summer 1 2009
In October 4, 1994 the doors of Reid Temple AME church opened for worship and were named after honoree Bishop Frank M. Reid Sr. Reid Temple went through many struggles doing their time of growth and also went through a series of ministers. Rev. Dr. Lee P. Washington is the current Minister of Reid Temple for over 10 years. Even though the church went through hardship, Reid Temple was still growing and continuing to have new members and a variety of ministries for the members of the church. In 1990, Reid Temple had approximately 300 members. In 2009, Reid Temple now has approximately 2,000 members.
My children and I joined Reid Temple in October 2009. I joined this organization because I am Methodist and I wanted to stay in the Methodist denomination. My mother visited the church first and told me that I should attend service one Sunday and I did. I felt Reid Temple had everything I needed on spiritual basics. After my family and I joined, we were told to attend a new- membership orientation that explains the history of A.M.E. and who founded Reid Temple.
I choose this item because of the history of A.M.E. that my family and I are part of as African Americans. Reid Temple symbolizes the spiritual growth being an African American in today’s society.
The school is a one-room 22 x 30 foot wooden building, heated by a wood stove. This school served as the only public school for African Americans in the Boyds area from 1895-1936. The schoolhouse served students in grades 1-8, many of whom walked for miles to attend classes at the school. The school was purchased in 1980 by BHS (Boyds Historical Society), the school was then restored to its original condition in approximately 1900.
Boyds Historical Society was organized in 1975 (as the Boyds/Clarksburg Historical Society). Their membership consists of local residents who share an interest in preserving the community's history. The Boyds Historical Society has done many things for the Boyds Community today which makes it very important for future generations to know to keep the BHS going. They have established an archive and museum facility for the community. They have preserved the Boyds Negro School as a Maryland Historic Site and they promote and encourage activities that educate, entertain, and develop community fellowship. They also provide space for community functions, events and festivals. This is just an overall great place for the community and is a great place to remember.
When a new Blockbuster Video opened across the street from the Dee’s Shop it forced her to shift her efforts to her beauty supplies. This move proved to be a smart business choice as there were few other beauty supply areas to compete with. Although there were many commercial hair products on the market, Dee’s Beauty Supply and Salon, allows African Americans to locate products specifically created for their hair. It was not until Dee opened a salon within the shop that her business truly began to flourish. This provided a convenient place for my sisters as well as other local women to get their hair washed and styled. In 2007 Dee was able to expand her business by opening another beauty supply and salon shop in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Dee’s Beauty Supply and Salon not only shows how African Americans were able to make their way in today’s business world, but how they were able to improvise as well as adapt in order to survive. In many ways, it resembles our days as a people trying to survive in this country’s founding years. 
Upton Beall built the house in 1815 (Montgomery Historical Society). Today it is located at 103 West Montgomery Avenue in Rockville, Maryland, which is where these pictures were taken. Two of the pictures show the restored Beall Dawson house that was built in 1815 and the other picture talks about the slavery in Rockville before emancipation was issued in Maryland on November 1, 1864 (Historic Rockville African American Heritage Walking Tour). I took these pictures of May 28, 2009 for the purpose of learning more about slave life in Maryland and also for this project.
I was interested in visiting this site because it is very well-known throughout the country because Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a novel based on the autobiography of Josiah Henson (Maryland Historical Trust). Future generations should realize the importance of the Riley House. This house is a great part of American literature of the 19th century. The novel written that takes place at the Riley House was the second most purchased book in the United States. The only book to sell more copies was the Bible (Book Rags). Future generations should also realize that African-Americans lived as slaves here in Rockville. It’s hard to believe that we have come so far in civil rights since then. The fact that according to the Washington Post, Montgomery County spent one million dollars to purchase the Riley House proves that Maryland is very interested in preserving African-American history.
I say “physically” because after Africans or Indians were taken from their homes they were put on ships that they called slavers. These ships transported slaves around the world, to many different locations. The slaves, who actually made it off the ship without dying from disease, ended up being owned by other people, the way we own our animals today. Unfortunately, I am not done yet; their experiences did not get any better for a long time. The slaves ended up working all day long and sometimes right through the night depending on what kind of work they were told to do by their masters. (Fieldwork, housework, watching kids, cleaning, cooking, etc...) The slaves had bad living situations, too. they lived in these little shacks some with dirt floors, of course not much furniture at all, and sometimes not even a bed to sleep on.
The wood on the log cabin was dated back to about 1850. This log cabin is what the Africans Americans both enslaved and freed would live in. Sometimes, families of ten to twelve people would live in this cabin all at once. You could imagine the struggles the slaves had to deal with. For example, they had to live in something that is no bigger than a 
Slaves were here, standing on the same ground that we are standing on today. Imagine standing in the same place and going back two three and four hundred years. This cabin housed people in what is now Olney, Maryland. The slaves that would have lived in this exact log cabin were probably tobacco farmers because remember the Chesapeake colonies (Virginia, Maryland before it expanded) were big on tobacco. That was their main form of profit in the late 1850’s and that is about the time that the cabin was built. 
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