♪ ♪ PASTOR DANTE EUBANKS: We're tied to the very fabric of Catholic history.

We're tied to the very founding of Maryland, to the Ark and the Dove.

Whether or not it was in a history book, it is our history.

It's in our very nature, it's in our DNA.

Some of it's not so, you know, flowery and wonderful to share, but it's still a part of who we are, and if it wasn't for that history, we might not be the people that we are today.

- Where a lot of the dig's families uh, originally were.

PROFESSOR JULIA A.

KING: So the Jesuits were one of the major investors in the colony.

The Jesuits were very wealthy.

And when that particular manor house went up, they were wealthy.

And that manor house was a beacon.

It was in brick.

And it was to let everybody know that the Jesuits were here.

They were doing well, and that they continued in, in Southern Maryland.

DR. JULIE SCHABLITSKY: And so we do have this large 18th century building that stands testament to the Jesuits and their mission, even today.

But the big question is, where were the people that were enslaved that were working here alongside of the Jesuits and what can their lives tell us about what really happened here over 200 years ago?

PTR.

EUBANKS: My Plowden ancestors were enslaved here with the Jesuits.

They came here beginning with Father Andrew White in 1634.

I'm actually where they started.

DR. SCHABLITSKY: One thing about working on a site that was designed by people of African descent is that it's imperative that we bring in descendant communities, because we need to know what they want to learn.

It's important for their own journey.

We know that the Jesuits were here, we know that they did enslave people of African descent.

But no one really knows exactly where.

And the most important thing that Dante Eubanks told me is that he wanted to know where they lived, where on the landscape in these big fields, where were their homes?

So the interesting thing about the field behind me is that from some archaeologists in the 1980's, they thought that that could be a row of quarters where enslaved Africans, African Americans may have lived during the 18th and 19th century.

So instead of just doing shovel test pits, these small, hand dug excavations, what we decided to do instead is to use metal detectors.

(beeping) So I'm hoping to at least try and get some places on the map using just metal detectors, and then try and look at those using more robust tests.

So larger excavations, but right now it doesn't- there's something in the field, and we're hoping to learn what it is.

We're looking at two specific excavation locations.

And the first one is where we believe people were living when they were enslaved around mid-1700's or so.

What the remote sensing showed us is that there was a burned area that had something else associated with it.

When we began to dig on top of it, what happened was, is that within just not even a half foot down, we ran into this thick layer of shell and then this burned lens.

After we started excavating, that, we found bits of ceramics, glass, smoking tobacco pipe stems, all these things that that tell us that we're definitely near a place where someone lived.

The second location we're looking at is down south of uh, Newtowne, and it's in a cornfield.

And within this cornfield, we did another remote sensing survey.

And we came up with what look like could be a palisade or some sort of ditched feature.

And within this ditched feature, it looks like there could have been a home of some type or a structure.

It's very, very unique for archaeologists to find a place where people were enslaved.

But in this sort of configuration of there being a ditch with the building inside that's, that's rare.

And that's important for us to learn more about.

What's even more exciting is that the site may even go back into the 1600's.

And if that's the fact then this is one of the oldest locations in Maryland that was lived in that's known about by enslaved African Americans and Africans.

So this is a huge find here in Newtowne.

KING: We are a long distance from the manor house, they couldn't see what was going on down here.

There are just so many questions that we could ask about this.

How are people being moved around?

How are the Jesuits managing the property, and then hopefully, these artifacts will tell us how the people that are being managed, might have resisted their condition or adapted to their condition.

DR. SCHABLITSKY: Here's that coin.

PTR.

EUBANKS: As you start to get those artifacts, and you kind of feel like man, my ancestor may have touched that pot.

My ancestor may have rested here, cooked here, not just, they worked here, but they lived and they lived here.

Their lives were here, just as much as important as the Jesuits who taught here.

And who did their ministry work here.

My ancestors had a story.

And now I get to tell a part of that story.

So this project is important.

And it's important to the community, because they're now realizing there's a deeper connection to this place.

And although some parts of it is not a positive history, it's still history that needs to be told.

It gives us a greater sense of belonging.

KING: The people that lived at these sites didn't leave records, records were left about them.

So we can't hear their voices, all we have is what they left behind.

And even then we have to substitute our voices for them.

But at least we can see sort of this forensics, right, the archaeological DNA to try to figure out what their lives were like.

- It's a mouth harp!

KING: And so it's a great sense of trust that comes with that sense of responsibility.

We live with the legacies of you know what happened during that early period, not just in Maryland, but up and down the East Coast.

The strangeness of Maryland actually forces us to ask questions that we might not otherwise that really bring us closer to understanding England, religion, colonialism in this early period, issues that actually we face today.