Day 16
Saturday April 19, 2003

During a break from digging, I took a short walk around the corner and saw a group of people standing outside Stevens' house. One man in the group was holding some papers and delivering a partial history to the others. I told the group about the dig going on out back and in the covered area and suggested that they might want to speak with Dr. Delle. I knew Jim would be very happy to take the group on a "tour" inside Stevens' law office, home and the basement.

Several months earlier, Jim had noticed an area of basement wall that appeared to have been removed and later rebuilt. Upon further examination, he realized that this part of the basement led directly into the larger of the cisterns on the side of the tavern. He now believes that runaway slaves may have been ushered through the basement, into the larger cistern and then into the smaller cistern thru a "window" in the back wall of the larger one. They would have stayed there until the "bounty hunters" left and then re-entered the building. This discovery could prove that Stevens' home was used as a "safe house" as part of the Underground Railroad.


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