Our weekly selection of links across the web.
Scot McKnight Image: Unsplash
Good morning! We’ve had a cold snap in Chicagoland that seems to be letting up. Our blue winged teals are still on the local lake and we spotted another Sand Hill Crane on a walk this week.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WJZY) The oldest living American and Charlotte resident, Hester Ford, has died at the age of 116, her family posted on Facebook Saturday night.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Mother Hester McCardell Ford today,” the statement read. “She was a pillar and stalwart to our family and provided much-needed love, support and understanding to us all. She was the seed that sprouted leaves and branches which is now our family.”
Earlier this week, the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
announced that archaeologists had discovered the location of a house where Harriet Tubman spent part of her childhood. Buried artifacts, including broken pottery, glass, and a button, helped pinpoint the site of the former dwelling on land once owned by Ben Ross, the father of the renowned abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor.
Tubman, whose maiden name was Aramint Ross (she later took her mother’s first name) was born into slavery in March of 1822. She was forced to work as a nursemaid, fieldhand, and woodcutter. Although she remained enslaved, she married a freed slave named John Tubman. In 1949, when she learned she might be sold, she escaped alone to Philadelphia and freedom.
This Is Where Harriet Tubman s Father Lived
Archaeologists have discovered the Maryland home of Ben Ross. Apr 23, 2021
Archaeologists believe they have found the Maryland home of Ben Ross, the father of famous abolitionist and Underground Railroad leader, Harriet Tubman. Maryland s Lieutenant Governor Boyd K. Rutherford announced the good news this week outside the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, according to a news release.
The home was discovered on a 2,600-acre property located in Peter s Neck, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) had acquired in 2020. In November, an archaeology team began searching the land for Ben s Ten, the 10 acres of property once owned by Ross. As explained in the release, he was enslaved on the land by a man named Anthony Thompson. In the early 1840 s, after Thompson died, Ross was believed to have been set free and also given the land, per Thompson s will.
Published: April 6th, 2021
By Jodie Fleischer, Katie Leslie, Teneille Gibson, Steve Jones (NBC Washington) and John Upton, Kelly Van Baalen, Allison Kopicki (Climate Central)
To read the complete report, including flood risk analyses for all identified sites,
A new study shows many of Maryland’s most significant sites from Harriet Tubman’s life are in jeopardy of chronic flooding as sea level rise threatens the Eastern Shore. The News4 I-Team’s Jodie Fleischer reports on the impact as archaeologists rush to unearth more of Tubman’s story before it’s washed away.
This story was produced through a partnership between Climate Central and NBC4 in Washington DC.
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Latisha Johnson is a transportation planner and graduate student at Morgan State University. Her interest in planning stems from a desire to create an inclusive, sustainable, and just built environment. Latisha is a North Carolina native currently living in Silver Spring. Share