Common in the mid-19th century but rare today, this one-room cabin was built in the 1850s by James H. and Mary Ann Webb from materials found in the surrounding landscape. Its hand-hewn log walls rest on a foundation of ballast stones from ships that plied the Chesapeake Bay, and its interior includes a fireplace, a root cellar, and a loft. It was 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. James Webb, a free man, was forced to purchase the freedom of his wife and their children, and the family farmed their land while living in a community dependent on slavery. Roughly seventy percent of blacks in Caroline County were free, while in Dorchester County to the south about half were, and the Webb home stood within the Underground Railroad’s network to freedom.