College Students Sought To Answer Questions on Maryland Slave Village: Shayla Monroe rises at 4 a.m. for her commute from Washington to Frederick, Md., eagerly anticipating the work ahead: digging through the trash.Monroe is one of six area university students hired this summer through a grant by the U.S. Department of Interior to excavate former slave dwellings on what is now the Best Farm in Monocacy National Battlefield.
“There are mornings when I can't wait to get my hands in this dirt,” Monroe said, brushing away clumps of soil that clung to late 18th century to early 19th century porcine jaw bones and bits of ceramic in a midden the team discovered.
The midden is a sort of trash heap kept outside the dwellings where the slaves threw away old or broken items, Monroe said.
