How did African Americans free themselves? Where was Frederick Douglass born? Digging history, interpreting religious relics with Anthropologist Dr. Mark Leone.
Easton, capital of Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, is the birthplace of Frederick Douglass. He lived at the Wye House as depicted in his autobiographies. Dr. Mark Leone's team excavated Wye House slave quarters and kitchen gardens on The Hill in Easton where Douglass returned in 1878 to dedicate two historic black churches that exist today, Bethel AME Church and Asbury Methodist Church. Religious bundles were found at thresholds on the Wye House plantation as well as the churches. Listen to what these religious bundles mean. Learn how a marble, found in excavations, a simple toy, can unravel the history of a buffalo soldier in a game of cowboy and Indians.