8-year-old African American boy from Colonial Maryland found buried with white Colonists, and it's unclear if he was enslaved

A composite image of Anne Wolseley Calvert, whose skeletal remains excavated from a 17th-century cemetery have been superimposed onto an image of what she may have looked like in life. (Image credit: Chip Clark/Smithsonian Institution)

Two indentured servants and an 8-year-old boy who was possibly enslaved were buried alongside distinguished local families in Maryland's first Colonial settlement, a new study finds.

The boy, who died sometime between 1667 and 1704, had largely African-derived ancestry, with around 25% to 30% European ancestry. He was wrapped in a shroud and buried in a gable-lidded coffin, according to the researchers. Based on the chemical signature of isotopes in his skeleton, he was born in America.