At a time when slavery was still legal in Maryland, two African-American families lived and owned land in Oella in western Baltimore County.
"I just found that amazing," said Louis S. Diggs, a self-made genealogist and historian who has spent nearly a decade studying and writing about African-American communities in the county.
The presence of free blacks in Oella is one of the findings in Diggs' latest book, Surviving in America, which traces the roots of African-Americans in the Patapsco Valley.
With the book, his fifth, the retired Catonsville resident has combed through and documented half of the black communities designated historic by the county.
His formula is to cull oral histories from residents, collect hun- dreds of photographs and research the community history.
"He is the answer to our prayers," county historian John McGrain said. "Nobody was writing about African-American history in Baltimore County. And he is someone who can get people to talk to him."
This time, Diggs, 69, a former personnel administrator in Washington, zeroes in on the communities of Oakland Park Road, Relay, Oella, Halethorpe, Granite, Church Lane and Winands Road. The father of four said he is often surprised by what he finds.
He describes being bowled over to learn of the two black families living in Oella in the late 17th century, years before Benjamin Banneker, the community's "black son of science," rose to fame. Descendants of the families still live there, and Diggs interviewed one -- Zola Cryenian "Susan" Saunders -- for the book.
Granite's `army of slaves'
Diggs also learned of a thriving "army of slaves" that lived in the Granite area between 1700 and the Civil War and likely helped quarry rock for such structures as the Washington Monument and the Library of Congress in the District of Columbia. The black community in Granite has only two African-American families remaining, Diggs said.
"Who would imagine an army of slaves up there?" he asked.
Halethorpe stood out, Diggs found, because it had no black church. Most churchgoers walked to nearby Elkridge or traveled to Baltimore. "That's the first community I've run across with no church," Diggs said.
In researching the Church Lane community, Diggs discovered links to the Underground Railroad through an interview with Ruth Rogers Dorsey.
