The rich tidal marshes and mixed oak and pine forests of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge stretch back into time. Into this lush, mysterious world of cricket song and nesting waterfowl in Dorchester County on the edge of the Eastern Shore, Araminta Ross was born in March 1822.

Araminta would later be called “Moses” by the enslaved people she led to freedom along the Underground Railroad.

Most of us know her as Harriet Tubman. The steadfast abolitionist grew up on a 10-acre property near the mouth of the Blackwater River. Over decades, Tubman’s childhood home was lost in the swampy marsh, but then rediscovered in 2021.

A new documentary, “Ben’s Ten: Chattel Slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” visits the site, and explores, the lives of enslaved people who lived, worked and died here. It’s called “Ben’s Ten: Chattel Slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.”

The documentary was produced by Maryland Public Television in partnership with the state’s Department of Public Transportation State Highway Administration.

We speak to Dr. Julie Schablitsky, Chief of Cultural Resources at the Maryland Department of Transportation, who helped rediscovery the historical site.

We are also joined by Ernestine “Tina” Martin Wyatt, a descendant of Harriet Tubman.

(Photo by Lorie Shaull, via Flickr. License: CC BY 2.0 DEED)

Do you have a question or comment about a show or a story idea to pitch? Contact On the Record at: Senior Supervising Producer, Maureen Harvie she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1903 Senior Producer, Melissa Gerr she/her/hers [email protected] 410-235-1157 Producer Sam Bermas-Dawes he/him/his [email protected] 410-235-1472