Beall-Dawson House (2)

By: Alex Williams
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

The historic site that I visited was the Beall-Dawson House. The picture attached is of the Beall-Dawson mansion which was built in 1815 in Rockville, Maryland. As I learned upon my visit, this was the first mansion built in Montgomery County, Maryland. I visited the Beall-Dawson House on June 6th 2009.
For many years I have driven past this house but I never thought that it had this type of history in its past. When I looked up historic sites to visit in Montgomery County and I saw that this location on the list, I became very interested in visiting it and uncovering its past. Knowing that so much history about this country happened so close to where I live really sparked my interest, thus, I went to visit this site. What I found the most fascinating about the Beall-Dawson House was that it allowed me to experience the different lifestyles that slaves, white servants, and slave owners gave me a great appreciation of the hierarchy of the time period.

The Beall-Dawson House depicts a transformation of Montgomery County, Maryland both time-wise and through the expansion of the area. Montgomery County historian and author Maureen Altobello, describes the change as “a time when the affluence of the colonial era met with the resolve of the new federal era; when the rural, agricultural society of Montgomery County began to see the growth of newer and larger settlements” (Altobello, M., 2000). As I toured the house, the tour-guides were very helpful in highlighting the differences between the quality of living amongst the Beall family, white servants and slaves.

Upon my visit to the Beall-Dawson House, I learned that white people who were seen as lower class lived in the same home as the slaves. There were different entrances and exits for both the working class whites as well as the slaves. This was shown when the museum curator informed me that slaves used a ladder to climb through a trap door that leads to their living quarters while the white servants used a small stairway to get to theirs. The Beall’s obviously used the master stairwell. Slaves also had a separate doorway to enter and exit the house. The slave quarters as well as the white servant’s quarters were very small, with little to no furniture, and overall the Bealls owned about 25 slaves.

For those who look to visit the Beall-Dawson House in the future, this building can be used to display the changing attitudes towards slavery as an institution during the Civil War era. The Beall family who once owned about 25 slaves during the early 1800’s until the Civil War, adapted to the Civil War time period by freeing their slaves and appropriating land plots at the northern edge of the Beall property. The acquisition of property allowed blacks in the area to form a small community within the Rockville area located on Martin’s Lane.

Stagville, NC

By: Ebone' Pruitt
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

As a visiting summer school student I am taking classes for Montgomery College online while I am living in North Carolina where my home school is, North Carolina Central University. After talking to one of my mass communication teachers, Mr. Chambers, earlier in the week he told me about the Stagville and, said it would be good place to do the assignment. I live Durham, NC and had no idea that I lived in an area that was once home to one of the south’s largest plantations. Now called Historic Stagville Plantation, it was once a thriving tobacco plantation housing at its peak in 1860 an estimated 900 slaves and comprised of 30,000 acres.

When I visited the site on Thursday, June 4, there were numerous locations that could be photographed that captured the lives of pre civil war African Americans in North Carolina. The first picture is of the Bennehan house, master’s house, which was built in 1787 and a second story addition was added in 1799. The next picture of is of the oak dresser that still sits in the Bennehan’s master bedroom which was crafted by a free African American. Finally I chose a picture of one of the slave’s cabins called Horton Grove, which was particularly different and rare compared to most slave quarters.

The first picture is that of the Bennehan house. This was the house of Richard Bennehan, his wife Mary, and daughter Rebecca lived. In 1787 Richard Bennehan bought 66 acres of land from Judith Stagg, hence that reason the area is called Stagville after the last name of Judith Stage. In 1787 the original one and a half house was built. In the picture that is the one level side on the left of the house. The second story and right side of the house was added 12 years later in 1799. One my tour of the plantation I was told that The Bennehan house, as well as other plantation houses in North Carolina, were considerable smaller than other plantation houses in the south. Still, the house was quite large. One room in the house is about the size the typical farm house.

In the picture of the house on just the back side you can count 8 windows. The windows might seem insignificant but, each one of those windows had to be made and sipped from England to North Carolina. The location of Stagville it is over almost one hundred miles from the coast and there are no major railroads or rivers that could get the windows to the house more easily so, they had to be shipped by land. Having so many glass windows at this time showed the wealth of this family. Along with the glass windows in the house, every nail also had to be shipped from England.

Also the location of the house sits on top of a hill. Before the trees and brush grew up about 70 years ago it was a looking directly down on the slave cabins. For the slaves looking up to the large white house on top of a hill showed the dominance and power the master had over the slaves. I chose this picture because though slaves did not occupy the house, it was still a symbol of their enslavement. I thought it was significant the positioning of the house. The way the house looked down on the slaves, how the slaves looked up to the house, and house the house was so far away from the slave quarters showing the separation of the two was interesting. The next picture is of a dresser that was in the master bedroom of the Bennehan house. The reason the dresser was so important to me because I offered another look into the lives of pre-civil war African Americans. Unlike most African Americans of this area and time period that man who created this dresser was a free African American. Unfortunately the tour guide could not recall the man’s names he was able to tell us about his life. This man was born free and lived in the area. The Bennehan’s as well as other wealthy land owners in the area sought out his work. The dresser was made in approximately 1810 and, has stayed in the room since then. It is also known that he was a slave owner himself. It is reported that he owned five or six slaves in his lifetime. The top of the dresser top is made of solid marble. The entire dresser was crafted by hand. Being that it was entirely made by hand and the fine quality of the materials used to construct the dresser, it was an expensive piece of furniture for its time.

The reason I chose this picture was because it showed a life and history about African Americans that is not told. The man who created this beautiful piece of work was a free black man whose mother was free likewise. I chose this picture because I wanted to show to the contrary of what white Americans at this time thought about African Americans. They thought that they were inferior to the white race and this piece of furniture shows otherwise. It shows that blacks were talented and capable of the same things as their white counterparts. The Bennehan’s were extremely wealthy and could afford a piece made by anyone and, they chose that of an African American.This is a picture of the slave quarters called Horton House. This is one of four houses in this area that are similar in structure. For this time period most slave houses where one room shacks with one door and no place for proper ventilation. When this house is now there once stood a one room slave house similar to other slave quarters but, due to an alarming high death, illness, and disease rate these new slave quarters were built in the 1850’s. Each of the four houses housed up 40 slaves at a time. There are four rooms in the house and, each room housed one family. If you look at the base of the house you can see it is elevated because it helped keep the ground from flooding and, by the ground being raised disease carrying insects were less likely to reside in houses with elevated floors.

Also the walls are brick unlike most slave houses that had wood planks for walls. The bricks were used for installation purposes and less the likelihood of infestation of rodents. If you look at the fire place, which was bricked by slaves, there are indentations of the slaves fingerprints in the bricks. Also, the material used to hold the bricks together is similar to the materials used in Africa by Africans who constructed their houses.

I chose this picture because again it shows the massive size and wealth of this plantation. On the large 30,000 acre plantation these four houses only housed 180 of the slave population. Throughout the plantation there were other massive compounds if you would call it of slaves. To me it spoke of the extreme power the Bennehan’s had in this area that I now call home.

After visiting Stagville I found it quiet interesting that this major historical site was 20 minutes away from where I lived and I had no idea it even existed. This assignment was an eye opening experience. I might sound corny but , I swear I could feel the souls of the slaves on the land. Two hundred years ago for all I know some of my ancestors could have been slaves on this very plantation. The three pictures that I felt spoke to me most hopefully will inspire someone to look into their past.

Beall-Dawson House

By: Angie Powell
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

The Beall Dawson house located in Rockville, Maryland is a “restored 1815 Federal style home furnished in period.” (Historical Marker Database). As seen in the picture, it is a two and a half story home that exhibits the life of Upton Beall, his wife, three daughters, and their slaves. In the museum today, “the daily life and culture of the Bealls and their slaves are presented along with displays related to the War of 1812, architecture, the early history of Montgomery County, tobacco farming and medicine.” (Planetware Travel Guide).

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.

To find this historical site, I did a lot of searching on Google and found many web sites that listed multiple historical sites close to the Rockville area. I decided on the Beall Dawson house not only because of the convenience of location but also because it appealed to my interests. I was interested to see that slaves were passed down from generation to generation in the Beall family. Also, the Beall slave population did not increase because of buying and selling but because of birth from slaves which made them born into ownership by the Bealls (Historic Rockville African American Heritage Walking Tour).

What astonished me is the fact that it looked like a normal house that people might live in today. Knowing that the house was built in 1815 and even if it was restored, the condition it is in today is fantastic and is very interesting since the architecture is not so different to some houses today. What also attracted me to this historical site was the knowledge that slaves and people lived in this exact house less than 200 years ago which in and of itself is very impressive and almost unimaginable.

Knowing that I was standing on the same ground that slaves walked on and that I was at a place that added dimensions to slave life in Maryland was exhilarating and unbelievable. Today, I couldn’t imagine seeing slaves being put to work or being punished, but when I was at the Beall Dawson house I realized the enormous change the United States took after the Civil War and the emancipation of all slaves in the U.S. I am grateful that the U.S. has made life how it is today so all of us wouldn’t have to find out what being a slave or owning slaves would feel like.

The relationship of African American history to the Beall Dawson house is the presence of slaves. Upton Beall, a wealthy landowner and Clerk of Montgomery County Court in 1815, built the house in 1815. He owned 25 slaves which were split to work on one of his three estates: the Beall Dawson house, one of Beall’s mills in Watts Branch, or Beall’s rural property in Beallmont. After Upton Beall’s death in 1827, the ownership of slaves transferred to his wife and three daughters. Under the ownership of Mrs. Beall and her daughters the slaves “worked the land, cooked, cleaned, tended kitchen gardens, canned, washed, ironed, and cared for livestock” (Historic Rockville African American Heritage Walking Tour). After their mother’s death, the three daughters inherited the estates and slaves which by 1853 that had 40 and by 1860 they had 52.

The Beall sisters never sold or bought any slaves except for John Henson of whom they sold to Josiah Henson, assumed to be John Henson’s brother, for $250. Josiah Henson was a famed fugitive slave who is known as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s prototype in her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. His family was sold and in 1830 he escaped his master with his wife and four children where he then helped over a hundred slaves escape, including his brother John Henson (Josiah Henson: Biography from Answers.com).

The growth of slaves happened because of births within the slave population that the Bealls already owned. The majority of their slaves lived in quarters on the three estates, while some slaves were hired out to families in D.C. In 1862, the Beall sisters freed the 17 slaves who worked in D.C. and received “$9400 for them under a federal compensation program.” (Historic Rockville African American Heritage Walking Tour). The Beall sisters freed the rest of the slaves on November 1, 1864 when emancipation was declared in Maryland. After the freeing of their slaves, the Beall’s sold some of their land to the free slaves and other African American families. Not much is known about what the Beall slaves did after they were free but we can generalize that some went to work in their skilled practices while others went on to raise families because many of the Beall slaves weren’t treated harshly and were able to become skilled workers.

The Beall Dawson house is an interesting historical site that future generations should take time to visit. They will be able to gain knowledge about what slaves did in and around the Beall Dawson house. In the house, slaves were under closer supervision by the Beall sisters and therefore probably worked harder and were more stressed. House duties included cooking, cleaning, washing, and ironing. The slaves who worked outside worked the land, tended kitchen gardens, canned, and cared for livestock (Historic Rockville African American Heritage Walking Tour).

The museum portrays the lives of these slaves as always working but not intensely working as in other places like southern plantations. From what I read, it seems as if we can generalize that the slaves were still treated as inferior by the sisters and had to live above the kitchen or in small slave quarters on the field, but conditions on the Beall Dawson house and fields was nowhere near as harsh or cruel as in other places in the Deep South. Future generations will enjoy the knowledge incorporated within and around this house and may bring to them an understanding of how slave life was in Maryland.

While visiting this historical site may be interesting and knowledgeable, future generations should keep in mind that it may be haunted. The Beall-Dawson house is a pre-Civil War house that survived through the presence of General Jeb Stuart’s Confederate troops and the invasion of General George McClellan’s Union Army (HAUNTED MARYLAND).

Not much is known about the haunting activity around and in the Beall Dawson house but a ghostly apparition has been seen in the house. It could have been Upton Beall, his wife Jane Beall, one of their three daughters Jane, Mathilda, and Margaret, or one of the six to eight household slaves that lived in the main house (Paranormal Everything). Since the house has been declared haunted, I warn all people to beware of visiting the site at night and encourage them to visit during the day because although it may be haunted, it is a great experience that introduces people to slave live in this area. However, if you wish to be daring, the Beall Dawson House offers ghost tours every Halloween (HAUNTED MARYLAND).

Works Cited:

"African American Historic Sites in Montgomery County, Maryland." Google Maps. 28 May 2009.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=p&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100339795778997243718.00046464a13be8bc4de17.

"Beall-Dawson House, Rockville." PlanetWare Travel Guide - Hotels, Attractions, Pictures, Maps & More. 28 May 2009.

http://www.planetware.com/rockville/beall-dawson-house-us-md-bdh.htm.

Fuchs, Tom. "Beall-Dawson House and Park Marker." The Historical Marker Database. Ed. J. J. Prats. 5 Apr. 2006. 28 May 2009.

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=224.

"HAUNTED MARYLAND." Haunted Traveler Home Page. 28 May 2009. http://www.hauntedtraveler.com/haunted_maryland.htm.

"Historic Rockville African American Heritage Walking Tour." Rockville, Maryland - Official Web Site. 28 May 2009.

http://www.rockvillemd.gov/historic/AAHwalkingtour.html#site7.

"Josiah Henson: Biography from Answers.com." Answers.com - Online Dictionary, Encyclopedia and much more. 16 June 2009.

http://www.answers.com/topic/josiah-henson.

Paranormal Everything - paranormall.org. 16 June 2009

http://ozziefudd.paranormall.org/haunts/incityof/369.

"Rockville Campus, Beall-Dawson Historic Park." Montgomery Historical Society. 28 May 2009.

http://www.montgomeryhistory.org/museum_beall_dawson

The White House

By: Anonymous #1
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

During the inauguration earlier this year of the first African-American President of the United States, the media spoke of the irony of the President being sworn in on the very stone that slave laborers had placed nearly 200 years before. When considering African-American historical sites in and around the Washington area to research for this assignment, the U.S. Capitol interested me because historically, not much attention has been paid to the fact that the building was constructed in part by slaves. This is likely due to the fact that because such few relevant historical sources survive, relatively little is known about their involvement.

The U.S. Capitol is perhaps one of the most recognizable symbols of American democracy, and the center of the dome marks the very center of the nation’s capital. The many visitors that come to admire the Capitol’s rotunda, beautiful grounds, art, and history are largely unaware of the people who helped build the seat of our government back in the early 19th century.

In a 2005 report to Congress, William C. Allen an architectural historian with the Architect of the Capitol attempted to uncover and make public what is known about the slaves that labored to build the Capitol. Most of the information regarding slave labor and the Capitol’s construction concerns only the time period from 1790-1800, when the Capitol’s North Wing (Senate side) was completed. After that date, there are few historical references to slave labor, although it was most likely continually used.

The area that would become known as the District of Columbia was at that time a rural backwater with a scarce population and an agriculture-based economy. In order to turn this land into a world-class capital city as George Washington wished to do, a steady supply of manpower was necessary. Both the limited population and agrarian workforce posed a challenge to this, but one thing the area did possess was a very large number of slaves.

The commissioners (all slave-owners, incidentally) who were tasked by Washington to manage the city’s construction rented slaves from local owners to help build the Capitol and other public buildings. (Allen, 3) Because there were not many carpenters, stone masons, architects, and engineers, many had to be imported from elsewhere. Those who were hired and placed in charge of these various aspects of construction rented slaves to assist in quarrying stone, carpentry, mortar making, brick laying, sawing, painting, and clearing timber. Many slaves were hired as indentured servants who were rewarded for their work with their freedom.

Two prominent black men involved in the planning of the capital city and the construction of the capital were Benjamin Banneker and Philip Reid. Banneker, who we read about in Chapter 4 of our textbook, a free mathematician and astronomer, worked with head surveyor Andrew Ellicott as he laid the boundary stones that would mark the ten square mile area of the District of Columbia. Allen writes that Philip Reid was “the best known black person associated with the Capitol’s construction history.” (Allen, 15)

Reid, a slave, left the most lasting and most visible evidence of slave labor on the Capitol’s exterior, ironically named the Statue of Freedom. Reid was a slave laborer in a foundry run by a well-known sculptor from South Carolina, Clark Mills, who came to the District in the 1840s with Reid and was commissioned to cast a bronze statue of Andrew Jackson near the President’s House in Lafayette Park. In 1860, he was commissioned to cast the Statue of Freedom to crown the top of the Capitol’s newly completed dome. Reid played an important role in readying the plaster mold for the final casting, transporting, and assembling the statue before it was placed in its permanent home, where it remains today. (Allen, 16) In fact, this is one of the few aspects of the Capitol’s exterior relating to slavery that still exists today, and it can be seen in the accompanying photographs.

As Allen writes, “Philip Reid’s story is one of the greatest ironies in the Capitol’s history: a workman helping to cast a noble allegorical representation of American freedom when he himself was not free.” (Allen, 16) The same can be said of all the slaves who labored to build a glorified home for the treasured American ideals of liberty and equality – values that they themselves likely never experienced.

Works Cited:

History of Slave Laborers in the Construction of the United States Capitol, William C. Allen, Architectural Historian, Office of the Architect of the Capitol' June 1, 2005. http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/art_artifacts/slave_labor_reportl.pdf

Cultural Tourism DC. http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/info-url3948/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=213719&attrib_id=7965

"Uncle Tom's Cabin": Riley House, the Josiah Henson Home

By: Kris Lasko
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

On May 27, 2009, I visited the Riley House located at 11420 Old Georgetown Road in Rockville, MD. More commonly, this house is known as Uncle Tom’s Cabin from the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. I found this house by searching Google for: “African-American Historic Sites in Montgomery County Maryland.” Google lists a map of many historic sites in Montgomery County.

In the late 18th century and early 19th century, Josiah Henson lived in the Riley House. Josiah Henson was a slave whose master was named Isaac Riley. A narrative describing Josiah Henson’s life and living conditions is available online at http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_01238/cihm_01238_djvu.txt.

On page twenty-three Josiah describes his living quarters, “We lodged in log huts, and on the bare ground…In a single room were huddled, like cattle, ten or a dozen persons…We had neither bedsteads, nor furniture of any description.” The cabin was occupied by Josiah Henson from 1795 until 1825. After living in the cabin as a slave for about thirty years, Josiah Henson escaped and managed to make his way to Canada where he was safe from harsh laws against fugitive slaves (Maryland Historical Trust).

These pictures depict a very small cabin attached to a larger and much more modern house. It’s not clear whether or not an old house was attached to the cabin or not. The cabin seems to be a pretty nice cabin for a slave. According to the Washington Post, after Josiah and his master moved out of the house, the cabin has since been privately owned until 2005. During this time period the inside of the house had been renovated, and the former slave cabin was used as a study and temporary bedroom by the family living in it. Many slave quarters were not attached to the owner’s house. More importantly, these pictures depict that slavery was prevalent during the 19th century in Montgomery County.

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.

The future of the Riley House seems to be bright. It is currently owned by the Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. The MNCPPC is renovating the Riley House and will not allow visitors on the grounds. By 2012 the MNCPPC states that the house will be open to the public, and until then “there will be limited seasonal openings of the site.” Although I volunteer for the MNCPPC, I was not allowed to get up close to take clear pictures due to safety concerns. Volunteering with this organization provides opportunities that others cannot get. I have had access to numerous training opportunities and helped to keep the sites that they own safe. Not only does the MNCPPC own the Riley House, but there are many other historical sites they own that are available at http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/historic/education/siteslist.shtm .


Works Cited:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=p&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100339795778997243718.00046464a13be8bc4de17 -This website has a list of local historical sites and is where I found the Riley House.

Fisher, Marc. "Unique Montgomery County Property for Sale: Uncle Tom's Cabin." Washington Post 13 Dec. 2005. The Washington Poast. 13 Dec. 2005. 16 June 2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/12/AR2005121201387.html.

"Josiah Henson Site (Uncle Tom's Cabin)." Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission. 28 May 2009 http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/PPSD/Cultural_Resources_Stewardship/heritage/uncle_toms_cabin.shtm.

McGuckian, Eileen. "Uncle Tom's Cabin (Historic Site Survey)." MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST. Dec. 1978. 27 May 2009 http://www.mdihp.net/cfm/dsp_display.cfm.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin Study Guide." Book Rags. 27 May 2009 http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-uncletomscabin/intro.html.

Northhampton Plantation (2)

By: Min Park
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

It was 3rd of June when I visited this archaeological site called Northampton slave quarter located in Prince Georges County, Maryland. I found the Northampton slave quarter from the official site of the Maryland Office of Tourism. The address and phone number were shown on the web and I called ahead the office of the site to ask direction and to let them know that I was coming. It was located on Lake Overlook Drive between Water Port Court and Lake Overlook Place in Lake Arbor, Maryland.

The place used to be slave quarter for Northampton plantation and according to the information board for the park, the place first belonged to Thomas Sprigg from 1673 then it was sold to Dr. John Contee Fairfax in 1865. The house was taken care of by the family of Thomas Sprigg and servants for almost 200 years.

The reason why I chose this site for the assignment was because it always has been fascinating for me to visit historical sites. Visiting there where you can tell that something actually happened on the exact spot where you stand gave me the feeling that I can be the part of history.

The site is located in the middle of town houses. Coming out from I-495 to small streets, I passed many single houses and town houses. The park was surrounded by these houses; it looked like people who live in the neighborhood can actually walk from their backyard to the park.

There used to be plantation of tobacco and crops and many slaves were gathered to work on the farm. The plantation was about a 1000-acre tract of land. Even though it was the only foundation of building left there, it was enough for me to draw a picture in my head how big the house was and a well at the back yard of house showed that people in the houses were getting water from the well.

Some tenants and slaves who worked in the plantation still reside in Prince Georges County. After James and Raymond Smith moved away from the house, they visited their grandmother, Susie Smith in 1930s. It is an archaeological site, the information board included what the archaeologist found in the buildings; animal bones, potteries, and tobacco pipes, etc. Unfortunately there were not displays of the findings available. I thought that it might have been more fun if I got to do the digs with them. Visiting the slave quarter I developed a better understanding about life in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

Sandy Spring Slave Museum: Slaver Cross-section

By Cory Watkins
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

I chose to go and check out the Sandy Spring Slave Museum & African Art Gallery, It is located in Sandy Spring, Maryland. I found this location on the list of sources on the blog assignment sheet. I chose this site over anything else because it was close to home and I was really interested to physically see a slaver ship. It is located off of Brook Road, a back road in Sandy Spring.

I visited this site on June 5th, 2009. There they had a replica slaver ship and a log cabin which slaves would have lived in. I chose to talk about the slaver ship in particular because I thought it was very interesting. It caught my eye and put into perspective what African Americans had to go through during the Middle Passage. Just reading the chapters in our textbook, African American Odyssey, does not really show you all that they went through, but actually going and seeing it really opened my eyes. The boat was a lot like the reading, just I couldn’t actually see it while reading, so it was a great experience to actually see it

I liked that they had an actual boat that you could walk up to and look inside. This was not an actual boat from that time but was created using information from that time period. It was not a full boat but, rather, part of the boat that the slaves were kept in. This slaver ship depicts where slaves would have been kept during their transportation from Africa on the boat during the Middle Passage. It was about three feet high and there were many people in close quarters. There were shackles everywhere, people bleeding, and just overall nasty conditions. The individuals inside had very little clothing and inside they had a bucket to eat from. The people who created this exhibit were definitely trying to show viewers the experience that African Americans had during the Middle Passage.


The dates associated with this slaver ship would be any dates where slaver ships were used. This slaver ship does not represent a particular boat but just the conditions aboard these slaver ships in general. So dates could range from 1451 to 1870.

This exhibit tells me a lot about African American History. For one, it tells me that African Americans went through way too much undeserved pain and suffering. It tells me that they treated African Americans like animals and not people. It tells me that people can be really mean and will do anything for money. I’m just glad that this era is over with and no one goes through this pain any longer.


I think this museum is very important for people to see. People need to realize that racism is so wrong and that people are just people. No one deserves to be held unwillingly unless they have broken a law. These African Americans never did anything do deserve the maltreatment they received. Everyone needs to see this exhibit because they need to see for themselves what these African Americans had to go through. I would tell future generations that they should visit this museum and to not forget about the past history because we would never want anything like this to ever happen again.


Works Cited: Sandy Spring Slave Museum website: http://www.sandyspringslavemuseum.org/

The Homes of Many: Sandy Spring Slave Museum, Slave Cabin

By Ashley Hungerford
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

As many know by now slaves had a hard life. For starters, many people were taken from their family and everything that they knew by people who they had never met before in their lives. Both slaves and freed slaves had to deal with the hurt from being belittled, segregated, and wanted only for work purposes by almost every white person just because of a system that people created, which in turn shaped what I believe to be unjustified beliefs. This sounds like a very painful experience both mentally and physically. I say mentally because they lost everything, I mean even their freedom. They also had to deal with culture shock: a state of bewilderment and distress experienced by people who are suddenly exposed to a new, strange, and foreign environment.

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.

I have just visited the Sandy Spring Slave Museum and Art Gallery, in Maryland! I chose this museum because it was fairly close to where I live, and when I looked the museum up, they were showing pictures of the cabin and the model of the slaver! I thought that the house was more interesting when I got there because it was a real house, one that has not been rebuilt just for show. Another interesting fact about the log cabin is that it has been in Maryland since it has been built.

It was not open because it opens by appointment only. You must call a week in advance and it is five dollars a person. This pays for the guided tour! I did not know this until after I went, so I did the best I could with taking pictures of a log cabin. The address of this museum is 18524 Brooke Road, Sandy Spring MD, 20860.

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 full size master bathroom, living with ten to twelve others.

Not only did they have to deal with the discomfort of being right on top of everyone else all the time, everyone would probably smell bad. They would smell bad because of working all day in the fields and then coming home to a house full of people and no bathroom to take a shower in.

Inside the house, there was probably a cooking stove, one mat to sleep on, and dirt floors. So everyone that lived in the house back then probably washed themselves and everything else that needed to be washed (clothes, dishes, etc..) in a nearby creek or river. In 1992, this exact cabin was relocated from nearby Olney, Maryland, which is just west of Sandy Spring!

I chose these pictures because they show and are real life evidence of the hardships that African Americans have encountered. The pictures show that compared to today African American life has changed significantly. The pictures also help us to see how things gradually got better, very little things changed first for example, the places the African Americans lived. They gradually got better when the slaves in the north started being able to live on their own and work to pay for their freedom.

It is amazing to see real living situations of people that existed way before our time. These people have suffered things that are unimaginable to me. My heart goes out to the people that had to live this life. These slaves freed or not, lived in a shack that they probably had to build, and worked for people that were not giving them anything in return. They had no freedom and depending on where they were and on the time that they became enslaved, they might not have ever gotten it back. The pictures that you see here are history and proof of Africans struggles as slaves just over a century ago!

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.

Works Cited: http://www.sandyspringslavemuseum.org/

Northampton Plantation

By: Juanita Fisher
HS 129, Summer 1 2009

The Northampton Plantation is a self-guided archaeological site that is located in Northlake residential in Lake Arbor, MD, which is in Prince George’s County at a community park. I was fortunate to find this location doing an internet search. I chose this site because it is approximately 15 miles from where I reside and I had no idea of the history that was so close to where I live. I recently visited the location on May 30th with my family, who really enjoyed the history of seeing a slave quarter.

Excavation took place in the 18th century with artifacts, oral histories, and historical documents. The excavation continued from dwelling, while the foundation and partial walls of the brick quarters have been constructed three centuries later which I have taken pictures of. Many of the slaves remained in the Prince George’s county surrounding area.

The Northampton Plantation was a tobacco plantation that also produced other crops from the 1600s. The land was granted by Charles Calvert, Esq. the third to Thomas Sprigg. Thomas Sprigg and his family lived and owned slaves for 200 centuries . If you would visit this location as of today you would find the remains of the main plantation house, out building, and two slave quarters. The site relates to African American history because of the plantation on which slaves reside on for 200 centuries, and this was a prominent plantation in Prince George’s County for growing tobacco.

Caulking Tools and Shackles

By: Jada Monet
HS 129, Summer 1, 2009

Last Saturday (May 30, 2009), I went to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture. I was really skeptical about going, because I really wanted to go to the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, located in Baltimore, Maryland. I’ve never been to either, but I’ve heard positive comments about the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. In fact, when I asked my friends and family if they knew of an African American Museum that relates to African American history before 1865, almost all of them said, with authority, “The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, in Baltimore, Maryland.” So when my aunt picked me up and headed towards Baltimore, I was surprised that she did not arrive at The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. Apparently, there was a misunderstanding as to which museum I wanted to go when I asked if she could take me to the African American museum in Baltimore. It never dawned on me that there were other African American Museums in Baltimore.

Regardless, I had to settle for the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture, which I’ve never heard of. To make matters even worst, upon entering, I was unhappy to hear that cameras were prohibited. I immediately panicked because I was unsure of how I would go about completing my project. As a result, I had to find images on the web that coincided with those at the museum.

While touring the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture, I stumbled upon a section located on the third floor that depicted life of the African American slaves during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The dimly lit room was comprised of several items associated with the daily work and conditions of African American slaves. Amongst all, the caulking tools and wrist shackles were most appealing; I was familiar with both but had never seen either. Amazed, I hurried over to examine them.

Much different than present day caulking tools, the caulking tools used by the slaves in the early seventeenth century had simplistic designs, were made of heavy iron, and required more strength to handle. The caulking tools contained a circle similar to the head of a nail, but much bigger. The caulking tools narrowed and flattened as it reached the bottom. Modern caulking tools are usually associated with bathtub fixes. However, in the early seventeenth century, caulking was a skilled trade, used to maintain a ship’s structure. The museum had an interactive display of caulking tools, which allowed visitors to manipulate the tools and experience the hard work and strength required for caulking. As I banged the caulking tools against the wooden surface, I imagined that I was a slave working on a ship on a hot and sunny day like Frederick Douglass. I couldn’t fathom how one could work tirelessly, around excessive loud noise, with minimal breaks completing such a task. The idea alone left me perturbed.

I then proceeded to walk towards the wrist shackles. I realized that I would not have the opportunity to have the hands-on experience of handling the museum’s only set because they were confined to a clear boxlike display. Nevertheless, I observed the shackles from several angles, noticing its thickness, structure, and overall condition. (See attached image of shackles). From its appearance, it was obvious that the shackles were tightly fitted and could cause skin irritation to those who wore them. I’ve always known that it wasn’t uncommon for African American slaves to be bound, but to see the actual shackles made my encounter all the more surreal. I realized then that my doubts of going to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture instead of another African American museum were ludicrous.

Wrist shackles were essential for slave owners to maintain control over African American slaves. Shackles symbolized the lack of authority African Americans had in their own lives and the oppression they endured as slaves. Without shackles, slaves could attempt to escape their owners or possibly form rebellions. The shackles were especially beneficial during the Atlantic Slave Trade, which began around the sixteenth century, in which slaves were captured and traded throughout several countries. On the slavers, which carried the slaves from one location to the next, slaves were separated in groups and bound together by shackles. The ships were “tightly packed” with many men being chained by shackles, leaving little room to move. The attached image shows how tight the shackles would fit. On land, shackles kept the slaves in order as they worked as human manufacturers or as potential buyers inspected them. The use of wrist shackles exemplifies the plight of African American slaves and demonstrates how freedom for African American slaves was far-flung.

Caulking tools provided African American slaves with jobs while on the slavers. The ships required daily maintenance to uphold its structure. Therefore, caulking was a necessity. The task, itself, was difficult, requiring patience, steadiness, and a substantial amount of force. The fact that white Americans, slave owners, or overall authoritative figures would have slaves work on slavers in such a skilled trade as caulking reveals the inevitable need of slaves in multiple areas.[1] However, those involved in caulking were considered skilled and consequently, had the opportunity to somewhat gain independence. These slaves often “hired their time” and was even able to leave to get their own tools.

The use of shackles to keep the slaves confined is of relevance today and will continue to be in the future. For example, currently, instead of shackles handcuffs are used in jails and prisons around the world. They, however, are not limited to only African Americans. Since shackles were used in the earlier centuries and handcuffs are used in the present, it is evident that history really does repeat itself. Those incarcerated are limited in what they can do; their food, clothing, and schedule are chosen for them. Most interestingly, like in the past, those individuals of the poor classes are most commonly incarcerated. Thus, it is important that current and future generations become familiar with artifacts that are exhibited in the museums or of locations of great significance.

It is amazing how items from the past can be linked to the future. If current and future generations take note of what is occurring during their time, they could almost always find a connection with the past. I will never know, firsthand, the ill-treatment African American slaves experienced. Yet since these items provided me with a glimpse of the lives of slaves, I am certain that I have a better comprehension of their struggles.

Works Cited
Hine, Darlene Clark, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. The African-American Odyssey Volume One: To 1877. 3rd. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.

Jean Boudriot Hitchcok, “Hitchcock” 06 June 2009 http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/SlaveTrade%20/collection/medium/H001.JPG

“Live Auctioneers” 06 June 2009
http://photos.liveauctioneers.com/houses/early_american_auctions/9700/0466_1_md.jpg

“Maryland Historical Society” 07 June 2009
http://www.mdhs.org/education%20documents/caulkingirons.jpg

Williams, Walter E. “Are Americans Pro-Slavery.” “A Minority’s View.” 11 June 2008. 18 June 2009 http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/08/AreAmericansPro-Slavery.htm

[1] See last citation regarding Frederick Douglass.