Webb Cabin Living Free - Preston, MD
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 38° 45.348 W 075° 53.586
18S E 422399 N 4290056
Common in the mid-19th century, this cabin is a rare survivor today. James H. and Mary Ann Webb built this one-room house in the 1850s, using materials found in the surrounding landscape.
Waymark Code: WM11XT1
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 01/06/2020
Views: 1
Webb Cabin-Living Free
— Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway —
Common in the mid-19th century, this cabin is a rare survivor today. James H. and Mary Ann Webb built this one-room house in the 1850s, using materials found in the surrounding landscape. Hand-hewn log walls rest on a foundation of ballast stones from ships that plied the Chesapeake Bay. The interior has fireplace, a root cellar, and a loft. It is typical of homes occupied by both free and enslaved blacks, including Harriet Tubman’s parents, Ben and Rit Ross, who lived nearby at Poplar Neck.
As a free man, James Webb was forced to purchase the freedom of his wife and their children. The free family farmed their land while living in a community dependent on slavery. Roughly seventy percent of blacks in Caroline County were free; to the south, in Dorchester County, about half were. The Webb’s home was located with the Underground Railroad’s network to freedom.
Address:
Grove Road
Preston, MD USA
21655
Site Details: None
Open to the public?: Public
Name of organization who placed the marker: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway
Web site: Not listed
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