NOTTINGHAM, Md. — James Harvey is caretaker of Dowden Chapel, trustee of the former Methodist church in Nottingham that once sheltered enslaved people seeking freedom, including his own family members.

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Now local officials want to preserve it for future generations.

“We’ve kept this so low key for so long, and just to meet some of the delegates and some of the senators, it’s really special,” James says.

James led a powerful tour of the grounds, starting with the cemetery where generations of his family, as far back as the early 1800s, are laid to rest.

“There are different plots around the church for different families,” he says. “And to my

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