Digging into the Lives of Slaves

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In a run-down house in Brooklyn, N.Y., archaeologists recently made an important discovery: a bunch of dried-up corncobs that had lain undisturbed beneath some floorboards for two centuries.

The corncobs are the latest clues to how African-American slaves may have lived in the northern United States.

Much more is known about how slaves fared on big farms called plantations in the American South. Less attention has been given to the lives of Northern slaves.

Most history books have focused instead on Northern abolitionists who fought to end slavery in the South. But this house in Brooklyn - as well as some recently discovered burial grounds - show that …