Did I find a slave house?

[NickD92]

I live in Maryland, and a rather older city in Maryland that is. I'm not sure if you guys are aware or not, but from what I have heard, Maryland is pretty rich in slave/civil war history.

Recently, I got one of my local buddies (who has lived here his entire life) tell me that there are 'abandoned slave homes' just sitting out in the woods. So, upon further scouting, I was able to find one. Is this truly a slave house or slave foundation? If so, why is it still around? & Why is there so much old useless junk just laying around in there? Here's some pics... I think I found a slave whip! (Although, the handle is VERY heavy, almost too heavy, so i'm not sure), and I believe these chains are ankle shackles for a slave? The chain links themselves are very heavy, the chain in total itself appears to weight about 100 + lbs. ?

In addition, I also found a cache of 60's / 70's items nearby! I'll post what I was able to carry home later. One of the items included a decent-condition BSR turntable (worth going back to get? not sure if works), and I got a smaller TV. The TV has turn nobs and has a bottom stand attached to it, that swivels.

Also, on the way back home, I found this. I thought it might have been a gold mining tool?! If it's not, what is it exactly?

Let me know what you guys think about the pictures. The cherry on top - when I showed my friend the pictures, he claims he has never seen this house, and that there are two other ones he knows of!

 

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[garbageman]

The whip looking thing is a counter weight for a double hung window. Keep looking, who knows what relics you will find! -Garbageman

 

[lookindown]

Shackle would have to have some type of latch and I don't see any. Slaves may have been there but looks like the stuff you've found isn't slave period...still cool finds, keep looking.

 

[NickD92]

Shackle would have to have some type of latch and I don't see any. Slaves may have been there but looks like the stuff you've found isn't slave period...still cool finds, keep looking.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of house is this then? It's certainly different than most modern houses...

Also, any idea what the ladder-looking thing is?

 

[releventchair]

There was a time when people left a home the expense or weight of moving caused them to just take a few items and few cloths. Sounds odd I know. A relitive used to buy houses. Sell the contents then do what renovation required and sell them. One home the previous single male owner had an unblemished(dirty though) set of fine china plates stacked near a chair in living room. That is a counter weight for window. Chain may be log related. Ladder looking thing looks bale related?

 

[Vino]

The house looks about 1940ish...and the wip is a shash weight. ..

 

[beez0404]

Might not be a slave house but definitely worth investigating around there. Who knows what you could find.

 

[liftloop]

thanks for the pic's

 

[jewelerguy]

the house and foundation look to have built around 1940. looks nearly identical to the house my Grandmother lived in, and hers was built in '43

 

[aliciakay1981]

the roof looks pretty new, and the skinny trees growing around it signal to me that it hasnt been abandoned too many years i agree that its 40's style , judging from the pic I would assume it had been lived in up until the 70's or 80's, thats just my thoughts, being that it is 40ish theres probably silver coins in the yard wait'n fer you to pluck'em out, if i were you, i'd try to locate where the clothesline might have been

 

[FreeBirdTim]

The poured cement foundation is the giveaway. No way is it older than 1940 or so. My house was built in the early 1930's and it has a stone foundation with mortar to hold it together.

 

[Ahab8]

The roof is a dead give away that it's not too old . At least the roof isn't. The ladder looking think is a hay bale conveyor I believe. My granddad had one on his farm that carried the bay into the top of the barn. That one looks like it put the nails into a big trailer.
Doesn't mean there's nothing good in that soil and prob nobody has detected it if it's out in the middle of nowhere

 

[NickD92]

the roof looks pretty new, and the skinny trees growing around it signal to me that it hasnt been abandoned too many years i agree that its 40's style , judging from the pic I would assume it had been lived in up until the 70's or 80's, thats just my thoughts, being that it is 40ish theres probably silver coins in the yard wait'n fer you to pluck'em out, if i were you, i'd try to locate where the clothesline might have been

This is a really good observation, as the cache of Televisions/Turntables were from the 60-80's. Perhaps someone moved out in the 70's and kept their electronics safe in the cache

 

[bulrush]

I agree with everyone else. The house looks like it was built in the 1940s, maybe 1930s. The wood shown on the inside is too perfectly cut to be much earlier. The metal ladder thing outside looks like a farm implement, around 1930s-1940s. Insulation wasn't regularly put into houses until the 1970s energy crisis. So the house was built before the 1970s.

For 1940s farm implements search for "Wartime Farm" on Youtube. Great series which will also help ID odd items from the period. Here it is:

 

[{Silverado}]

I did some research I believe Donald Sterling owns this home

 

[PeteWmass]

snap some more pics in there - of the trash - I see an old pick-axe in one picture...

 

[NickD92]

Just an update. So you guys are probably right, it's probably from the 40's/50's.

HOWEVER, my friend, who has lived here his whole life SWEARS that there are MORE abandoned houses, and that these one he has seen show traces of blood hand prints on the walls / blood spatters, old dolls and furniture, and he claims this is where the slave houses are.

BUT, since I was only able to find early 1900's, is it even likely there are slave era things around this part?

 

[yakker]

Hey Nick- just askin'-- how old are you? Plus- I don't remember you saying where (generally speaking) this place is (duh- Maryland- my bad). Also, it would seem to me that even if they actually were slave houses (which they're not)- then there would have been a plantation house nearby. Depending on the location, it was probably just a poor person's home that eventually turned into a flop house for whoever (child of original owner, drug addict/ne'er-do-well, or murderer (which would have made the news, probably)). Keep looking- and detecting. But don't believe everything your friend tells you... HH! Yak