A Historic Home Found

Nearby, Schablitsky soon found broken pieces of pottery that dated from the 1820s to 1840s. It was evidence that she had found the spot where a cabin belonging to Tubman’s father, Ben Ross, once stood. Growing up, Tubman didn’t always live there. She wasn’t always allowed to.

Like nearly 4 million other Black people in the U.S. at the time, Tubman’s family was enslaved. They had no freedoms or rights and were forced to do backbreaking work without pay. They were treated like property and could be bought and sold. Many enslaved families were forced to live apart.

For more than a decade, Tubman, her mother, and her siblings were forced to live and work on their enslaver’s farm. Though her father lived in the cabin 10 miles away, the family remained close.

“Her parents played a huge role in her life, even though she couldn’t always be with them,” says Kate Clifford Larson, a historian who wrote a biography about Tubman.

In 1836, Ross’s enslaver died. He left the land where the cabin was located to Ross, who was freed four years later. Though she was still enslaved, Tubman lived in the cabin from about 1839 to 1844, when she was roughly between the ages of 17 and 22. Like other enslaved people, Tubman was determined to gain her freedom. Her time living in the cabin would help her achieve that goal.

Tubman’s father was a skilled carpenter and lumberjack. In the marshy forests around his cabin, he taught his daughter how to find her way in the woods. He showed her where to find food, how to protect herself, and how to make medicine using plants.

“What she learned there made her the most successful Underground Railroad agent,” Larson says. 

The Underground Railroad wasn’t a train. It was a secret network of people, routes, and safe hiding places (called “stations”). It enabled thousands of people to escape to freedom. In 1849, Tubman used the Underground Railroad to flee from Maryland. 

She had taken a huge risk. Freedom seekers who were captured faced severe punishment and sometimes were even killed. 

Though Tubman was free, the family and friends she had left behind weren’t. Despite the risks, she decided to return to the Underground Railroad as a “conductor.” She led dozens of people, including some of her family, to freedom.

In March, Schablitsky’s team returned to the site of Tubman’s former home and found more artifacts, including bricks, pottery, glass, and buttons. The team will continue searching the area for more clues. 

Larson hopes these artifacts will teach us more about how Tubman’s everyday life led her to the important work she did on the Underground Railroad. 

“She’s one of the greatest freedom fighters in our history,” Larson says. “She reminds us that even the most ordinary person can do extraordinary things.”

1. How does the author support the claim that Tubman’s time in the cabin helped her achieve her goal of freedom?

2. What was the Underground Railroad?

3. What artifacts have been found at the site of Tubman’s former home? What could we learn from them?