How Can There Be No History?

Many African American communities in Maryland have been free since before emancipation. Members of these communities have been disfranchised through silence, denial, condemnation of properties, and through the use of eminent domain. The Hill Community of Easton, Maryland, was founded shortly after the American Revolution and remains a vital environment into the present. The town of Easton and Talbot County produced Frederick Douglass, aided Harriet Tubman who came from nearby Dorchester County, and also produced many White families who supported the Confederate South and the continuation of slavery. This article uses five summers of archaeological work on the Hill performed in concert with the descendant communities to knit together political needs, historical documentation compiled by local scholars, oral presentations, and members of the University of Maryland’s Archaeology in Annapolis to outline a history and alternative analysis for the remnants of slavery and racism often found on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. We use Slovaj Žižek to find an answer to the question in our title: How can there be no history?