On Hallowed Ground at Goucher College

Guest contributor: Debbie Harner

The Hallowed Ground Project at Goucher College in Maryland examines the legacies of racial and social injustice on campus lands. It seeks to place in the foreground the narratives of those who were previously excluded from the historical record. Originally, it began as way to address the issue of slavery, but now includes indigenous erasure, genocide, segregation, and more. 

At Goucher, we originally took on this project because students wanted to understand the everyday lives of those who lived, loved, and labored on this landscape since the colonization era. In 2018, after a class presentation, students in the audience had so many questions and discussion points about free and enslaved workers of Epsom Plantation, the property that Goucher now inhabits. This was an immensely powerful moment for me! Under the leadership of my colleague James Dator, assistant professor of history here at Goucher, I began working with faculty, students, staff, and alumni on the charter committee that same year. As a founding member of The Hallowed Ground Project, I take this project very seriously.

As we researched, we became more interested in the stories of Indigenous people, enslaved and free wage laborers, and other marginalized communities who lived in this place. With that in mind, we created an interdisciplinary project to answer historical questions but also to implement education programming on campus, public programming, landscape preservation, and memorialization plans. 

In 2023–2024, we continued to engage with students and our community. On April 5, 2024, for example, we partnered with Historic East Towson, a descendant community, and Hampton NHS (National Historic Site) to host the Descendant Engagement Symposium. (We ended up having 100 people in attendance!) These organizations have connected landscapes and shared histories tracing back to the 1700s: the Ridgely Family owned Hampton and many Ridgely women were directly connected to Epsom Plantation through matrilineal lines or marriage. Formerly enslaved men and women who worked at both Hampton and Epsom founded East Towson in 1853. 

The goal of the Symposium was to offer space and create dialogue for other historic sites, institutions of higher education, and communities in the region that are also examining their histories — and to create more inclusive narratives that add depth to the historical record and to the legacies of the Descendant communities today. Discussions focused on research; the research process; student, faculty, and staff work; the challenges we faced during the process; and our future steps.

The keynote speaker was Eola Dance, CEO and president of James Madison’s Montpelier. She spoke about descendant engagement work at historic sites and acknowledged that there are still voices missing from this work. She stressed the importance of collaboration, transparency, and funding to help make work with descendants sustainable. Staff from other historic sites, including Arlington House, the George Washington National Parkway, and Hampton NHS, each discussed successes and failures in their re-interpretations of local history. 

A panel discussion on descendants’ perspectives included Nancy Goldring, Myra “Neicy” Moulton-DeShields, and Pastor Trevon Gross, who are descended from enslaved families that lived and worked at Hampton NHS. Nancy Goldring, President of the Northeast Towson Improvement Association, spoke about the local and personal histories that connect us in ways people don’t often think about; she asked everyone in attendance to continue to work together on this important labor.  

People from seven Maryland colleges and universities also shared the work they are doing, especially their efforts towards memorialization and racial reconciliation, with a focus on centering descendant perspectives. Students participated in a poster session featuring their work to understand the legacies of slavery and its impact on today’s world. Towson University anthropologist Samuel Collins ended the day with a talk about the legacies of suburban development and urban renewal in Baltimore County, with a focus on how real estate development has affected descendant communities.

Everyone involved in the Hallowed Ground Project believes that it’s important for the historical record to reflect a variety of perspectives, not just the voices of those who hold power. We’ve also seen that when students engage in this initiative, the experiences they have — working with difficult topics, handling primary sources, walking the landscape, entering the quarters of enslaved people, discussing history with a descendant — are extremely powerful. As one of my students told me: “Just wanted to really quick[ly] thank you for all the help with the Hallowed Ground Project in 2021–2022. That was really a highlight of my college experience….”

I also feel that the work that we’re doing in our community is extremely powerful. It is my duty to continue to take this project seriously and honor the lives of the marginalized people who inhabited this land.

Debbie Harner is the Education Archivist at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. Harner develops and implements education programming by utilizing the unique materials in the Special Collections and Archives. In 2020–2021, Goucher College received a grant through CIC’s Humanities Research for the Public Good program to support some of the work of the Hallowed Ground Project. The views expressed here are the author’s own, not necessarily those of Goucher College or the Council of Independent Colleges.