Goshen Farm Featured in the 50×50 Science Across America Series
We’re honored to share that Goshen Farm and our Henson-Hall Garden are featured in the 50×50 Science Across America series, as part of a new episode of Curiosity Meets the Past, the video podcast hosted by archaeologist and public educator Dr. Smiti Nathan.
The series is an Independent Media Initiative project, and it selected one creator from each state to interview a scientist doing groundbreaking work. The project chose Dr. Nathan to represent Maryland. She sat down with Alex McDougle, a biocultural anthropologist and PhD candidate at Columbia University, right here at Goshen Farm. Alex is also a valued member of our African American Heritage Committee. The series came together through a collaboration with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Winn Family Foundation.
A Conversation Rooted in Maryland’s History
Alex’s research focuses on free and enslaved Black communities in Maryland during the 1700s and 1800s. She studies bioarchaeology, which examines human remains in archaeological contexts. In addition, she draws on archival records, oral histories, and other methods to tell fuller stories of people who rarely appear in the written record.
Maryland sits at the center of her work. Before the Civil War, the state had one of the highest populations of free Black people in the country. As a result, generations of free and enslaved Black communities lived alongside one another. In the episode, Alex points to Goshen Farm as a powerful example of that history. Today, we are an official site on the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom. Our history includes Polly Johnson, a woman who was enslaved here. She escaped to Baltimore, and she built a life among the free Black community of Fells Point.
Exploring the Henson-Hall Garden
In one of our favorite segments, Alex guides viewers through our Henson-Hall Garden. The tour offers a window into the daily lives, resilience, and ingenuity of the enslaved people who lived and labored on this land.
A Living Tribute
The Henson-Hall Garden was created to honor the enslaved individuals once held at Goshen Farm. It follows the model of “slave gardens,” or provision grounds, which enslaved people planted near their quarters to supplement the meager rations they received. They tended these small plots during what little personal time they had. Over time, the gardens became spaces of sustenance, resourcefulness, and cultural survival. You can read more about the creation of the Henson-Hall Garden on our blog.
Ingenuity and Tradition
As Alex walks through the garden, she points out the wattle fence. Enslaved people recreated this fencing technique, which is indigenous to the African continent, to protect their crops. It offers a small but powerful example of the knowledge and traditions they carried with them and kept alive. As she notes, “It was really just a little homage to the ingenuity they had and how hard they worked.”
A Garden That Teaches
The garden is thoughtfully curated, and every plant is clearly labeled to help visitors understand what was grown and why. Enslaved people brought some crops, like okra, over from Africa. Others, like corn, grew here natively. Marigolds and other companion plants helped manage pests. We also grow cotton and tobacco, two crops tied deeply to the history of enslavement in Maryland, purely for education, even though Goshen Farm historically grew wheat. Together, these plantings tell a layered story of agriculture, survival, and heritage.
For us, the Henson-Hall Garden means far more than a historical display. It represents one of the ways we discover, preserve, and share the African American history connected to this land. As Alex reflects in the episode, it reminds us that “slavery is horrific and violent, and also Black life is still beautiful and precious.”
Help Us Preserve This History
Alex’s work reminds us how much of our history never made it into traditional records. Because enslaved people were treated as property rather than people, documents like birth and death records often left them out. As a result, researchers must piece together their stories through various methods, including archaeology, archives, and oral history.
The same holds true here at Goshen Farm. We know of twelve enslaved people who lived on this land, but we still do not know all of their names or stories. Our African American Heritage Committee works to discover, document, and share this history, and we need your help. If you have family stories, oral histories, or any information that could help us learn more about the people connected to Goshen Farm, please reach out. We would love to hear from you.
Watch the Science Across America Episode
We’re grateful to Dr. Smiti Nathan for featuring Goshen Farm. We also thank Alex McDougle for sharing her remarkable work, and we thank the 50×50 Science Across America project for shining a national light on Maryland’s history and our corner of the Broadneck Peninsula.
You can watch the full episode above, or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or other platforms.
Learn more about Dr. Smiti Nathan, Alex McDougle, and the 50×50 Science Across America project.
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