African American Historic Housing Study

In partnership with the Lost Towns Project, Anne Arundel County has embarked on a new research initiative: The "African-American Historic Housing Study" will record the houses and homes of 19th-century African Americans across Anne Arundel County, through archival and archaeological research and by physically documenting the few structures that survive today. The historical landscape of the County is Black space, but the preservation, study, and interpretation of Black places has often been neglected. This project aims to create a more inclusive history by researching, documenting, and sharing the diversity of Black households in nineteenth-century Anne Arundel County, including sites inhabited by both enslaved and free African Americans, before and after emancipation. Funded by a grant from the Maryland Historical Trust, the study will compile details and information on African American domestic life and spaces that existed in 19th century Anne Arundel County and identify opportunities for preservation. The findings could one day be entered into a public website much like the Virginia Slave Housing Project for County properties.