Rooted Wisdom

Everywhere you go in Annapolis is a piece of history, and all of that history is connected to the Black experience. Mecca and local historian Janice Hayse-Williams explore local Black history from the 1700s through today while tracing Charity Folks’ life and legacy through the streets of Annapolis. This is the last in a series of four episodes that explore the history and legacy of the Banneker-Do...

Charity Folks—born in Annapolis MD 1757, and enslaved until her manumission in 1797—went on to become one of the wealthiest free Black property owners in Annapolis. Upon her death she passed property on to her children that is now the site of the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum. Tony visits with Belinda Moses, Folks’ seventh great-granddaughter to learn about her life and ongoing legacy. Note: The...

Past, present, and future are intertwined at the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum. The permanent exhibit, which is currently being reimagined, and their year-long art exhibits explore the Black experience in Maryland and beyond through both history and art. Mecca joins Leslie Rose, the museum’s exhibit manager for a look at one of Rose’s favorite sections from the permanent exhibit before exploring...

As the State of Maryland’s official museum of African American heritage, the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman museum comprises a wealth of both physical resources and documentation of African American life in Maryland. Tony visits with Chanel C. Johnson, executive director of the museum and Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, to learn about the many lives that have had a hand in t...

Pouring through the stacks and vertical files at the local historical society while doing research for his senior project at American University, Anthony Cohen “found” the Underground Railroad in Montgomery County. Runaway slave notices revealed escape routes, courthouse documents named accomplices, and slave narratives helped piece the stories together. His research led to the identification of o...

Off a wooded road in Germantown, Maryland sits Button Farm Living History Center. A project of The Menare Foundation, the 40 acre farm tucked inside of Seneca Creek State Park depicts 1850s plantation life and explores the legacy of slavery in Maryland. Mecca and Menare president, Anthony Cohen, explore the farm to learn more about what makes Button's programming so unique. This is the first in a...

Over the course of six weeks during the summer of 2025, the Rooted Wisdom team worked with a group of Montgomery County Public School students in the Summer RISE initiative. After listening to interviews about the Harper Cabin, the students visited the cabin with Tony to discuss the role of memory in our understanding of history. This is the fourth in a series of four episodes that explore the his...

When Harper descendant, Faith Harper, steps through the threshold of the cabin that bears her family name—a structure that holds an important place in history—she sees “a home full of love.” Tony and Faith discuss what it means to be a Harper and the love that is the Harper Way. This is the third in a series of four episodes that explore the history of the Harper Cabin at Brookside Nature Center i...

In good practice historians rely on multiple sources of information to piece together the history of a building or place. Rebeccah Ballo, historian and preservationist, describes this standard as a three-legged bar stool; the physical, the paper trail, and the oral histories. Tony and Rebeccah investigate the historical context of preservation and how that last leg of the bar stool makes the docum...

A one and a half story log cabin sits tucked in the woods at Brookside Nature Center in Wheaton, MD. Prior to 1976, this cabin was a two-story house built in the 1870s in the post-emancipation free Black community of Jonesville, MD. For decades, its true history went untold. Tony visits with museum supervisor, Shirl Spicer to discuss the cabin’s two lives and efforts made to present a more accurat...

Tony sits down with Douglas Mitchell, Harriet Tubman descendant, to learn more after their visit at Ben’s 1o. Hear more from Douglas Mitchell in Epsiode 5—Ben's 10: Interrupted Connection. Learn more about the archeological work at the Ben’s 10 site in Episode 4—Ben’s 10: Fragments Unearthed. Transcript available on episode webpage. Bonus Webpage Show Website

On a biting cold mid-January day it’s a homecoming with no home. Harriet Tubman descendent, Douglas Mitchell, retraces Harriet’s footsteps along the wetland path of Dorchester County, Md. that his great-great-grand-aunt at one time traveled daily. This exact same path leads to the archaeological site of the Ben Ross Homeplace known as Ben’s 10. Douglas leads Tony on a rare opportunity to connect w...

800 holes dug and a coin from 1808 serves as a beacon to keep digging for Ben’s 10, the homeplace of Harriet Tubman’s father, Ben Ross. Tony sits down with archeologist Julie Schablitsky, to examine unearthed artifacts that could shed light on the early life of Harriet and her family. Hear from Harriet Tubman descendant, Douglas Mitchell about his experience at Ben’s 10 in Epsiode 5—Ben's 10: Inte...

Tony and David Greaves, a biologist, nature photographer, and founder of Nature Under Your Nose, look and listen to the birds of the forest. David discusses his interest in nature from an early age and shares barriers he faces being Black in the outdoors. Together they examine first hand accounts of freedom seekers describing nature and drawing on David’s experience as a biologist and photographer...

Tony is joined by Atiya Wells, founder and executive director of Backyard Basecamp in Baltimore, whose mission is to reconnect Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to land and nature. Atiya herself is a naturalist, certified wildlife tracker and certified in wilderness first aid. Through the landscape Tony and Atiya explore how knowledge and the connection to nature was passed down through the g...

Tony and Baltimore-based filmmaker Mecca Lewis head into the woods to discuss freedom seekers that used their knowledge of the landscape to aid in their liberation. Before descending into the forest, they talk about what it means to interpret this history, what Americans generally understand about the Underground Railroad, and the emergence of a more accurate accounting of this history. Part 1 of...