When Julie Schablitsky’s team discovered a 19th century homestead during an archaeological dig in the path of a planned state highway project in Montgomery County, Maryland, she was thrilled.
As the Maryland Department of Transportation’s chief of cultural resources, Schablitsky, an archaeologist, knew that digs often uncover interesting artifacts, but this one in 2007 was even more special.
Researchers eventually learned that an enslaved woman named Malinda Jackson had lived with her family in a cabin on the several-acre site, which Jackson later bought after she was emancipated.
