Barbara J. Heath, Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest
Within the past decade, historians have explored the economic lives ofpeople in bondage, tracing the internal economies operating within slavesocieties of the Caribbean and the American South (e.g. Morgan 1983, Berlinand Morgan 1995, McDonald 1993, Schlotterbeck 1995). Plantation and shopaccounts, diaries and legal documents together reveal that slaves activelyparticipated in local economic networks. These findings surely have importantramifications for the archaeological interpretation of plantation and urbanslave sites, but have as yet met with limited attention. With few exceptions,archaeologists have failed to adequately explore the roles of slaves asactive consumers and producers and the implications of this economic behavioron the archaeological record (Adams and Boling 1989; Sanford 1994; Stineet al. 1996).
Excavations at a slave quarter at Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest plantationin Bedford County, Virginia have raised questions about the ways in whichthe site's occupants acquired material possessions. The slaves who livedat the quarter from circa 1790-1812 did not materially benefit from proximityto their master since for most this period, Jefferson was an absentee landowner.The quarters were destroyed shortly after he finished constructing a "retreat"house for himself on the property and became a more regular resident.
Archaeologists recovered a small, but diverse, assemblage of artifactsfrom three house-yard areas discovered on the quarter site, including aminimum of 131 ceramic and 29 glass vessels; fragments of cast iron pots;carpenters', coopers' and general purpose tools; adornment items, floraland faunal materials, lead shot and gun flints, marbles, pipes, writingslate fragments, furniture hardware and padlocks.
The presence of some artifacts can be attributed to the plantation provisioningsystem, under which the overseer allotted preserved meat, grains, whiskey,coarse cloth and shoes to individuals, a pot and bed to women who marriedwithin the plantation community, and construction materials for housing.No records survive to suggest that other objects were purchased by Jeffersonor his farm managers for the slaves' use.
Clearly, most artifacts recovered from the Poplar Forest quarter cannotbe interpreted using the conventional wisdom of provisions or of planter"hand-me-downs." While individual artifacts may have been cast-offsfrom the overseer's household, there is no observable time lag among theceramic assemblages to indicate systematic provisioning in this manner.Documentary evidence from local stores suggested another avenue of inquiry.
The records of John Hook, a Virginia merchant, include accounts heldby enslaved men and women living on plantations near his stores. These accountsbegin at his New London shop in Bedford County (1771-1776), and cover accountsrecorded during the years he operated a store in neighboring Franklin County(1800-1810). During this period, both counties were dominated by small farms,where only a tiny minority of planters owned more than 20 slaves.
The Hook records from New London list a single enslaved man from PoplarForest as an account holder. Indeed, the other slaves listed in the daybooksand ledgers represent only a fraction of the enslaved population livingin the area. Though apparently not available to most men and women livingin bondage, shop accounts do provide the best records of slaves' economicactivities outside the plantation.
The accounts of 16 slaves from at least 12 different plantations recordpurchases made at Hook's New London store between 1771 and 1776. Cloth,clothing, sewing supplies and accessories such as ribbon, twist and buttonswere among the most popular purchases. One man bought a necklace, anothera pair of knee buckles. Slaves commonly purchased rum, brandy, molassesand sugar. They bought tools, personal goods such as looking glasses andrazors, and cooking implements, including a frying pan, pewter dish, stonewarebowl and "part of a pot." These customers paid for their purchaseswith cash, handicrafts such as brooms and baskets, raccoon skins, chickens,eggs, cotton and corn. Of 13 accounts, more than half were settled withoutresort to cash (HPLN; HML).
Accounts for 35 or 36 slaves doing business at Hook's Franklin Countyshop survive from the period 1800-1808. A preliminary analysis of the datasuggests that plantation size did not necessarily dictate slaves' accessto earnings or goods which could be used to purchase store merchandise.
The Franklin County accounts reveal that slaves bought a more diverseassemblage of goods between 1800-1808 than did their Bedford predecessorsin 1771-1776. This may be due to an increase in available stock over time,to an improved supply system, or to increasing opportunities for individualsto participate in the marketplace. As in the earlier period, cloth, sewingsupplies, adornment items and clothing represent the most expensive andmost purchased items. Of 35 active accounts, all but four record purchasesof something from these categories of goods.
Franklin County slaves commonly purchased food and alcohol, includingwhiskey, sugar, molasses, salt and pepper, shad, herring, bacon, plums andcoffee. Items associated with food preparation, storage and serving werealso in demand. One man bought four pewter plates in 1800 and a dozen knivesand forks the following year; another a dozen plates, and a third a setof tea cups and saucers. Accounts record purchases of a variety of ceramic,pewter, tin and glass vessels (HPLH).
Other selections by enslaved customers include: horn combs, wash bowls,chamberpots, razors, spectacles, and smoking pipes. Several individualsinvested in tools and raw materials. Slaves bought many types of knives,as well as awls, augers, pruners, iron, nails, bar lead and molds, leadshot and powder. Six of the 35 active account holders purchased padlocks;one bought a doorlock (HPLH).
Bondsmen and women settled their debts with cash, goods, or services.Their most common source of income appears to have been agricultural produce.Hook and others purchased grain, fodder, cotton, tobacco, dried apples,and even dogs from slave customers, yet nearly one-quarter of these accountholders failed entirely to settle their debts (HPLH).
Hook's records also provide a rare insight into the system of economicalliances that existed between slaves. Men and women shared profits fromharvests, paid debts through each other's accounts, and made purchases forfamily and friends. They not only bought, lent and sold goods to each other,but combined resources to purchase a single item. Theodorick Webb's Tomand Jacob Webb's Isaac shared payment for a hat. Others are recorded aspurchasing "part of a pitcher" or "part of a pot."
Equally intriguing is the network of economic ties established betweenslaves and free planters, mediated through Hook's shops. Accounts recordthese alliances as payments or credits, but leave us to wonder how theywere established. Slaves provided services as varied as waggonage, coalproduction and "physicking" horses to Franklin County's free citizens.These records provide important evidence of the ties that slaves establishedwithin a community whose boundaries extended well beyond the limits of individualplantations; of slaves' physical mobility, and of the skills that men andwomen developed to meet their material aspirations.
Archaeologists studying slavery have been hampered by the notion thatthe flow of goods was always unidirectional: masters gave slaves new provisionsor recycled old or undesirable goods through the quarter. If most of thematerial objects that survive archaeologically were given rather than chosen,it becomes nearly impossible to see enslaved people as active creators oftheir material worlds. The study of colonoware has become so important toarchaeologists because this pottery has generally been believed to representone of the few surviving examples of objects controlled by slaves, acquiredoutside of the influence of the master, to fit specific needs.
If, however, slaves are seen as active consumers, an attempt can be madesee the material world from the slaves' perspective. The problem, of course,is that men and women living in bondage acquired their possessions bothactively and passively, and distinguishing between the chosen and the givenat the artifact level may be impossible in many cases.
To begin to address this dilemma, archaeologists need to look beyondindividual artifacts to assemblages of related objects and, more broadly,to systems of interrelated objects and features which may preserve evidenceof varied economic activities at dwelling sites. Familiarity with the shopaccounts are helpful in making a start. For example, some types of artifactsmay be more sensitive indicators of active acquisition than others. Hook'saccounts demonstrate that slaves most often purchased objects relating toclothing, sewing and adornment. Slaves bought these items to supplementinadequate provisions and to express themselves in ways that plantation-issuedsupplies precluded (Heath in press).
On a broader level, archaeologists should consider the possibility thatthe men and women who lived at quarters were active producers of goods withsome level of independent economic interests. The extent of these interests,and the ability to produce, varies through time and space, but ample evidenceexists to negate the simplistic notion that slaves were always passive recipientsof objects. At the Poplar Forest quarter, several lines of evidence suggestthat the inhabitants produced goods independent of the larger plantationeconomy. Clues include tobacco pipes, made of local stone, and stone wasters,the byproducts of work by at least one resident pipe maker. Archaeologistsalso recovered a variety of tools, including pocket knives, a gimlet, files,two croze plane irons used in barrel making, and various tines that appearto be parts of rakes or harrows. Rather than reflecting theft or resistanceto work regimens, these tools may be viewed as evidence of ownership andof production of goods carried out within the quarter. Runaway advertisementsfrom the mid-18th through the mid-19th centuries demonstrate that some slavesowned their own tools and took them with them when they fled the plantation.The Hook accounts also record the purchase of tools by slaves, presumablyfor their own use.
Many slaves paid off their debts with agricultural products, most likelygrown on plantation provision grounds or in house-yard gardens. While thequantities of goods varied between store customers, most merchandise wassold by the bushel, and some by the barrel. The presence of barrel makingtools and pieces of agricultural implements found at the Poplar Forest quartermay, in fact, be residues of the process of independently producing andpackaging crops for sale or barter. Slaves participating in the marketplacemust have created storage spaces large enough to accommodate their surplus,dry enough to keep it from spoiling, and secure from theft. These may havebeen within the house, in lean-tos or porches, or in separate sheds withinthe house-yard complex. Yards potentially hold clues to the location ofwork spaces, gardens, storage areas and enclosures relating to economicactivities (Heath and Moncure 1997).
Four keys, a padlock, pieces for a minimum of eight additional padlocksand parts of two stock locks were discovered within the structures and yardsof the Poplar Forest quarter. Locks for doors, chests and other storageareas may have provided safeguards against theft during the long hours thatslaves were absent from the quarters.
Coins are another obvious marker of economic activity. While it is likelythat some coins functioned as charms and adornment items as well, it seemsclear that most coins should be taken at face value-- as evidence that slaveswere participating in the economic life of the community.
Finally, the locations of slave sites relative to the "big house"should not pre-determine our interpretation of the artifacts found there,nor should archaeologists pre-judge the economic opportunities affordedto plantation slaves based on their status as house servant, artisan orfield hand. Unless strong evidence exists (either through observed timelag or direct matches between objects found in the quarters and the bighouse), the definition of objects as "hand-me-downs" should besuspect.
In thinking about the material culture of Virginia slaves, Patricia Samfordhas asked, "How did the physical quality of life differ for field laborers,who had fewer chances to earn money by doing chores or bartering produceand less access to cast-off possessions from the owner?" At the Hermitage,Larry McKee has found no qualitative differences in possessions betweendomestic slaves and those working in the fields. "Field slaves"he concluded, "might have received fewer castoffs from the mansion,but living further from the overseer's eyes gave them more freedom to huntand trade." Both of these views acknowledge the possibility of independenteconomic activity within the quarters. Each, however, places economic opportunityin opposing spheres; Samford near the big house, and McKee with the fieldhands. Both arguments rest on assumptions which need to be questioned. Didfield slaves customarily have fewer economic opportunities or, conversely,more free time to garden and trade?
While this is a topic in need of much further research, the Hook accountsreviewed here have some relevance. They indicate that slaves from smallholdings, where one or two individuals filled a variety of roles, had accessto the shop, as well as those living on larger, more socially stratifiedplantations. Some men formed economic alliances, sharing the labor of bringinga crop to market and dividing the proceeds. These networks may have beenbased on kinship, friendship, or shared skills; factors outside of the plantationhierarchy. To understand slaves as self-motivated actors, archaeologistsmust look beyond the roles dictated to them by planters.
While Hook's accounts reflect the specialized activities of a relativelysmall number of people, they preserve within them elements of other, morecommon economic activities. The sale of foodstuffs and handicrafts reflectstheir production within the plantation setting; the bartering of servicesfor goods surely went on beyond the store as well as between its customers.These documents allow archaeologists to understand the range of activitiespeople employed to meet their needs, and in so doing, provide us with newtools to critically re-examine our own interpretations.
-References Cited-
John Hook Papers, Duke University
Petty Ledger (New London) 1771-1776 [HPLN]
Mercantile Ledger 1773-1775 [HML]
Petty Ledger (Hale's Ford) 1805-1809[HPLH]
Adams, William H., and Sarah J. Boling
1989Status and Ceramics for Planters and Slaves on Three GeorgiaCoastal Plantations. Historical Archaeology 23(1):69-96.
Berlin, Ira, and Philip D. Morgan, eds.
1995The Slaves' Economy, Independent Production by Slaves in theAmericas. Frank Cass, London.
Heath, Barbara
In Press Buttons, Beads and Buckles: Self Definition within theBounds of Slavery. In Archaeological Studies of Ethnicity. Edited by MariaFranklin and Garrett Fesler. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Press.
Heath, Barbara and Amber Moncure
1997"The Little Spots Allow'd Them": Archaeology of AfricanAmerican Yards. Ms. on file, Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, Forest, Virginia.
McDonald, Roderick A.
1993The Economy and Material Culture of Slaves, Goods and Chattelson the Sugar Plantations of Jamaica and Louisiana. Louisiana State UniversityPress, Baton Rouge.
McKee, Larry
1995 The Earth is Their Witness. The Sciences 35(2):36-41.
Martin, Ann Smart
1993Buying into the World of Goods; Eighteenth-Century Consumerismand the Retail Trade from London to the Virginia Frontier. University Microfilms,Ann Arbor.
Morgan, Philip D.
1983The Ownership of Property by Slaves in the Mid-Nineteenth-CenturyLow Country. The Journal of Southern History, 49(3): 399-420)
Samford, Patricia
1996The Archaeology of African-American Slavery and Material Culture.The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series 53(1):87-114.
Sanford, Douglas
1994Plantation Slavery in Piedmont Virginia. In Historical Archaeologyof the Chesapeake, edited by Paul Shackel and Barbara Little, pp. 115-30.Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
Schlotterbeck, John T.
1995The Internal Economy of Slavery in Rural Piedmont Virginia.In The Slaves' Economy, Independent Production by Slaves in the Americas,edited by Ira Berlin and Philip D. Morgan, pp. 170-81. Frank Cass, London.
Stine, Linda F., Melanie A. Cabak and Mark D. Groover
1996Blue Beads as African-American Cultural Symbols. HistoricalArchaeology 30(3):49-75.
Lots of good stuff in this issue mostly thanks to the efforts of contributingregional editors "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy, Paul Farnsworth, andBarbara Heath. Barbara's essay on consumerism is drawn from her 1997 SHApaper, and I thank her for publishing it here first.
I want to take this opportunity to raise a couple of issues pertainingto African-American Archaeology subscription policies, especially subscriptionrates. Currently, subscriptions are only $5.00/year. This has been the ratesince Tom Wheaton first took on the newsletter in 1993. However, this feeis not adequate to cover the cost of overseas subscriptions (which mustbe put in envelopes and for which postage is considerably higher than fordomestic addresses) nor does it cover the costs of servicing institutionalsubscriptions which often require the preparation of invoices, or otherannoying paperwork.
Further, the newsletter has observed an informal policy of providingsubscriptions to Third World scholars on a complementary basis. We currentlyhave 17 such subscribers out of a total subscriber base of 124. I wouldlike to continue this policy. Finally, I have been asked if a special ratecould be implemented to encourage students subscriptions. Accordingly, anew subscription fee schedule is needed to address these issues. Beginningin January, 1998, subscription rates will be as follows:
Student subscriptions from U. S. addresses: $4.00
Individual subscriptions from U. S. addresses: $6.00
Institutional subscriptions from U. S. addresses: $8.00
Individual and institutional subscriptions from Canadian and Non-ThirdWorld Overseas addresses: $8.00 (payable by check in any currency at currentexchange rates)
Reminder- your address label indicates the last year for which your subscriptionis paid. Please check it and consider renewing your subscription beforethe new rates go into effect!
I hope that you like the new "look" of African-American Archaeology.I will be trying to add new features as time goes on. This issue introducesa compilation of Internet Resources.
Your suggestions for improving the newsletter are always welcome, andsubmissions for inclusion in the newsletter are especially welcome. Thefrequency and content of the newsletter are largely up to you, the readers,so send me some stuff! Submissions on disk (Word, Rich Text Format, or Textfiles) or via e-mail are encouraged.
Very Sincerely,
John P. McCarthy
Editor/Publisher
Roger Coleman, Ouachita National Forest
Archeological investigation at Rocky Shoals, a Forest Service campgroundin Montgomery County, Arkansas, was undertaken in 1996. The site containsthe remains of a mid-19th century domicile, believed to have been a slavecabin. The terrace at Rocky Shoals had never been farmed and accordinglythe site possessed a rare degree of integrity. Forest Service Archeologistswere assisted by dedicated Arkansas Archeological Society volunteers whodonated over 560 hours to the project. Over 30 square meters of the sitewere excavated, resulting in the recovery of 884 historic artifacts.
The 40 acre tract containing Rocky Shoals was patented on March 1, 1855,by John Cook, a prosperous farmer and mill owner. Cook died 3 years laterand probate records indicate that he owned four slaves. The historic componentat Rocky Shoals is believed to have resulted from a brief occupation byone or more of Cook's slaves, who may have provided labor for a nearby mill.Rocky Shoals is perhaps the second rural slave residence to be excavatedin Arkansas.
Excavations revealed a five-meter square, single room, log structurewith pen chimney on one gable, and a before-hearth cellar. Log sills resteddirectly on the ground surface. Two distinct fireplace hearths were identified.The first, at historic ground level, indicates that the cabin initiallyhad a dirt floor. The second hearth, raised 30 cm with embankment from thecellar, which would have necessitated the addition of a wooden floor. Thislatter hearth supported an ash-filled basin, interpreted as part of a bakeoven. The yard surrounding the residence contained a diffuse sheet midden.Many of the artifacts were burned, suggesting their disposal from the fireplace.One other historic feature, a flat-bottomed pit was located five metersdownslope. It is interpreted as a storage pit.
The faunal assemblage is consistent with other slave sites and includesinexpensive cuts of meat: mostly forelimbs and heads, highly fractured formarrow extraction. Cow, pig and deer are represented. Venison cuts werealso from the extremities of the animal, suggesting that the inhabitantswere not hunting for their own use. Gun parts and bullets are conspicuouslyabsent, and glass from commercial potables is very rare. Ten glass sherdsrepresent a minimum of four containers.
A substantial collection of mid-19th century ceramics was recovered thatis atypical of plantation assemblages where inexpensive hollow-wares arethe norm. The Rocky Shoals inhabitants possessed a variety of vessels, rangingfrom inexpensive mocaware bowls to more costly transfer-printed plates.Identifiable formal vessels include a teapot, four saucers, a bowl, twocups, and eight plates. It is possible that these ceramics were originallypurchased for use in John Cook's own household prior to making their wayinto slave households, in contrast to the practices of large plantations,where less costly ceramics were specifically purchased for slave use.
Leslie "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy, Arkansas ArchaeologicalSurvey
From 1995 through 1997 archeological investigations at the Ulysses S.Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, Missouri have been conductedunder a joint research project of the National Park Service's Midwest ArcheologyCenter and the University of Missouri's Southeastern Archaeological Center.
Excavations have concentrated in refuse disposal areas, a slave kitchen,and a period roadway. The most significant aspect of the investigation hasbeen the discovery of intact midden deposits under the floor of the slavekitchen dating between 1838 and 1860. A large variety of cultural material,ethnobotanical remains, as well as zooarcheological specimens, were recoveredreflecting day-to-day activities associated with food preparation. A cacheof artifacts suggesting a votive or "white magic" offering wasalso recovered. It included large glass drawer pulls, prehistoric artifacts,brass door knobs, and spoon bowls as well as clay marbles and buttons.
For further information contact Dr. James E. Price, University of Missouri,Southeastern Missouri Archeological Center, P. O. Box 6, Naylor, MO 63953,(573) 399-2216.
Summarized from page D-1 of the Washington Post, Oct. 16, 1997
The Blackstone Cemetery has been the final resting place for the membersof one of Howard County's most prolific and once-wealth African-Americanfamilies for more than 100 years. Now, commercial development threatensto cut-off access to this cemetery, nestled along side I-95, and while thecemetery proper is not in immediate danger of destruction, its plight illustratesthe increasing danger development of the greater Washington-Baltimore regionposes to old graves as builders and developers scour the region for land.In Howard County alone, it is estimated that hundreds of old graves havebeen isolated or ruined by development.
In response to this problem the Maryland General Assembly establishedan Office of Cemetery Oversight to help enforce existing laws protectinggraves, but most enforcement falls to county officials who review developmentproposals. Over 2,500 residential building sites were proposed in HowardCounty last year.
For now the Blackstone Cemetery is safe, even if access has been reducedto a narrow foot-path, and bulldozers worked within the 50-foot buffer requiredby Howard County planners.
Summarized from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Digital Edition,Feb. 7, 1997
Over 7,500 artifacts recovered from the British slave ship HenriettaMarie were exhibited from February through May of this year at the HistoricalMuseum of Southern Florida in Miami. This exhibit had previously sparkedcontroversy during an engagement in Los Angeles, where local activists hadcomplained that it overemphasized African participation in the slave trade.
In 1701 the Henrietta Marie set sail from London bound for Calabar, WestAfrica, now part of Cameroon. There the ship's crew exchanged beads, weapons,and metal for African captives. It took 14 weeks to ferry the human cargoto Kingston, Jamaica. A total of 188 people were exchanged for sugar, spices,and rum before the Henrietta Marie set sail for home. The return cargo alsoincluded a significant quantity of beads and pewter that had not been successfullytraded in Africa. It is thought that the ship fell victim to a hurricaneas it passed through the Florida straits. Pushed onto a reef, it sank in40 feet of water near Key West. Nine British crew members perished.
The wreck was first discovered by divers in 1972. However, the newspaperaccount provides no detail concerning the investigation of the site.
The exhibit included 90 pairs of shackles, pewterware, elephant tusks,firearms, and an extensive collection of glass trade beads. While the artifactswere presented in glass display cases, a reproduction pair of shackles wasincluded that visitors could handle. The exhibit also included a postscript:the story of a group of African-American scuba divers who placed a monumentat the ship wreck site in 1992 to honor the memory of all Africans who sufferedduring the slave trade.
Douglas W. Sanford, Mary Washington College
Stratford Hall Plantation, owned and operated by the Robert E. Lee MemorialAssociation, is best known for its premier Georgian architecture and asthe home of several generations of Virginia's Lee family, including signersof the Declaration of Independence and the Confederacy's leading general.From the standpoints of history and archaeology, it embodies over two hundredyears (1710s-1910s) of plantation economics, society, and culture. Surprisinglyenough, for all its fame Stratford possesses little surviving documentationfor on-site events, physical features, and social arrangements. Hence theneed for archaeology has long been recognized and supported by the MemorialAssociation, mostly in terms of locating and defining extant archaeologicalresources on its land holdings, and similarly, examining the structure andevolution of the landscape surrounding the plantation core, consisting ofthe mansion house, its supporting outbuildings, and a mixture of formalgardens and utilitarian yards.
Major archaeological campaigns occurred in the 1930s and 1970s, withthe former concentrating on information for the mansion complex's reconstruction,while the latter emphasized probability-based sampling of the modern plantation's1,700 acres. More recently, Mary Washington College's Department of andCenter for Historic Preservation implemented both resource specific searchesin the 1980s and more recently a landscape sampling program. Given the prevailingsurvey and sampling-based approach employed at Stratford, the theme of African-Americanarchaeology, while constantly present and considered, has never been thesole focus of research. That situation may change in the near future assurvey and data compilation efforts come to a close and bear fruit, includingthe need and opportunity to name a more specific research agenda. Nonetheless,certain now familiar facets of African-American and plantation archaeologyhave arisen in the research efforts to date at Stratford.
An inclusive approach to the topic of landscape within the plantationcore, wherein this realm is conceived as encompassing people, work, andsocial relations as well as gardens and plant communities, has promotedthe inclusion of African Americans in a number of ways. First, as the primeconstituents of the plantation's labor force African Americans actuallyconstructed much of the historic landscape. Second, these people exerteda constant presence within the landscape, whether as workers and/or residents,or as slaves who could effect their own vernacular landscapes at given timesand places. Third, as essential components of the plantation's politicaleconomy, slaves and slave-related spaces were planned for and the latterwere materially instituted, and subsequently, these spaces should reflectchanges in plantations' relations of production as well as the variablecircumstances of plantation economics and ideologies.
Artifact assemblages derived from the 1990s landscape testing operationsindex a number of work spaces that likely were dominated by African-Americanslaves. As usual in plantation studies, problems concerning the separationof enslaved from non-slave contributions to these area assemblages remain.Similarly, other, more concentrated domestic middens on the property incorporatethe variable mixture and influences from slaves, servants, hired workers,and Lee family members. For example, a diffuse midden or artifact scattercharacterizes the area now termed the "West Garden", but whichfunctioned originally as a service yard framed by such utilitarian outbuildingsas a stable, store, office, and coach house. Recent field information andartifact analyses demonstrate that this multi-purpose work space containedmaterials and features for brick making, animal butchery, and architecturalchores. The regular presence of domestic artifacts within the service yardassemblage suggests that slaves lived in some of the outbuildings that heldother primary functions. While corresponding to a residential pattern recordedin documents and by archaeologists at other plantation sites, this particularfinding is noteworthy for Stratford's future interpretive and research plansthat concern slaves' varying living conditions.
On the opposite side of the mansion house, a building complex that containeda smokehouse, meathouse, well, and a laundry/kitchen structure representsanother work area at which slaves comprised the primary labor force. Preliminarytesting here has revealed a high degree of stratigraphic and organic materialpreservation, with the latter condition made possible by extensive depositsof ash and charcoal. This area forms a prime opportunity to look closerat foodways for the plantation community in general, but also for whichslaves were responsible for most preparation, storage, and food preservationactivities. Refuse middens in yards adjacent to this complex should provideadditional information about foodways and meal preparation processes.
So far only one documented slave residence area within the plantationcore has been investigated in any detail. The single documentary referencefor this site is an 1801 insurance plat that records two "negro quarters"measuring 15 x 32 feet each. The quarters were described as single storybuildings of stone with wood roofs, while a surveyor's sketch indicatedcentral chimneys. The structures' more substantial material and in-lineorientation were in keeping with the formal brick buildings of the nearbymansion complex, and all together this evidence suggests that, as on other"great" plantations, these "home house" quarters servedas residences for slaves who worked in domestic or artisan trades. Currently,two quarters reconstructed in the late 1930s dominate the site area andunfortunately, these restoration period buildings' installation probablydestroyed the foundations of the original quarters. Based on the recoveredartifacts, the quarters is estimated to have been occupied between the late18th century (post-1770) and the early 19th century (ca. 1820).
While the area today can be characterized as a picturesque setting ofgrass and scattered trees, archaeological testing demonstrates that a muchdifferent landscape once prevailed here in the form of large, but relativelyshallow, ravine. During the latter half of the 18th century the ravine wasbackfilled with a variety of deposits, such as substantial domestic assemblagessandwiched between layers of architectural refuse from the mansion complexand leftover soils and materials from nearby brick making. Given the distancefrom other residential sites, the domestic artifacts (ceramics, glass, personalitems, and faunal remains) should correspond to the quarters' occupants.A few fragments of colonoware are present as well, further supporting anAfrican-American association. Of interest in this respect is the overalllack of colonoware within the plantation core, including the areas closerto the main house.
Finally, previous survey work at Stratford has located several otherdomestic sites elsewhere on the plantation situated at varying distancesfrom the mansion complex. None of these sites has undergone more than apreliminary assessment, and consequently, while some correspond to slavequarters, others could represent tenant farmer residences. Stratford isnow considering a comparative research agenda that would involve examininga number of these archaeological sites that, as the quarters for variouslaborers, index a considerable portion of the plantation's spatial and temporalrange. In this case, the known sites date between ca. 1740 and the mid-19thcentury and correspond to a tidewater, Chesapeake plantation context. Archaeologicaland historical research at Stratford by Fraser Neiman in the 1970s alreadysuggests one pattern of change for these sites, namely the removal of outlyingslave quarters in favor of quarters placed closer to the main house, butat a distance that maintained the separation from the plantation core. Thismovement occurred during and after the Revolutionary War era and, in part,denotes how Chesapeake planters adapted to new agricultural markets andpractices. Changes in quartering arrangements also instituted a new ideologyof slavery more concerned with control and rational management. Converselythen, the earlier quarters presumably encoded a different style of managementand living conditions for enslaved African Americans.
For the near future, more detailed analyses of the artifact assemblagesgenerated to date and initiating the quarters comparison mark the directionsfor African-American archaeology research at Stratford. Since several ofthe assemblages and sites are not documented as to the ethnic affiliationof the people who occupied the buildings, the usual nagging question of"Whose stuff is this?" will remain an interpretive issue. Mostlikely the Stratford evidence will neither resolve that question in allcases, nor the methodological issue of confidently ascertaining from artifactswho, within the overall lower class, was free, enslaved, European-, or African-American.Nonetheless, combining the circumstantial attributions of the Stratfordsites with the comparative approach advocated here and employed elsewhereby other researchers, offers a means for producing meaningful cultural statementsand for constructing a data base with regional implications about workingclass society.
Roberta Hughes Wright and Wilber B. Hughes, III, 1996, Lay DownBody: Living History in African American Cemeteries. Visible Ink Press,Detroit. xxvii + 339 pp. Bibliography and index. $17.95 (paper).
This volume is concerned with African-American cemeteries: their significancein African-American culture, their importance in genealogical studies, theirplace in African-American history, and their associations with prominentAfrican Americans.
The authors are both attorneys by profession with a deep interest inAfrican-American history and culture. In addition, Hughes is general managerof the Detroit Memorial Park Association. Dr. Michael L. Blakey, Directorof the African Burial Ground Project, prepared the Forward, and WesstleyW. Law, a Savannah civil rights and historic preservation activist, contributedthe Preface.
The volume's first section is the one that will be of greatest interestto readers of A-A A. Entitled "Sites, Superstition, and Stories,"it is principally concerned with the history of African-American burial,discussing archaeologically-investigated cemeteries and Africanisms amongburial customs.
The bulk of the book presents what might be called a travel-log of African-American,and African-Canadian, cemeteries, most in current use. The location, setting,and prominent occupants of each is discussed. The final three sections addressgenealogy for beginners, burial societies and lodges, and contemporary funeraland burial customs, respectively. The genealogy section includes a chapteron preserving historic cemeteries that offers a wealth of practical adviceon documenting and protecting cemetery sites.
This is a volume full of interesting, and sometimes surprising, culturaland spiritual information.
Thurstan Shaw, Paul Sinclair, Bassy Andah, and Alex Okpoko, editors,1995 edition, The Archaeology of Africa: Food Metals, and Towns. One WorldArchaeology Volume 20, Routledge, London and New York. xxxvii + 857 pp.References, index, and site index. $VV.VV (paper).
Africa has a rich and complex past, and this volume does much to makethat past better known to the western scholarly community. An intricateinterweaving of peoples and cultures is presented, reflecting an extraordinarydiversity of economic and social strategies over an enormous range of environmentalsettings. This volume has been called enormously important for the manymisconceptions about Africa's past that it demolishes.
A total of 45 essays comprise the volume, including an introduction bythe editors that identifies the thematic and geographic issues that runthough the collection. Readers of A-A A will find Manfred Eggert's paperon the archaeology of Central Africa of particular interest for its discussionof pottery from the inner Congo-Zaire basin. He provides clear line drawingsof archaeological examples.
Richard B. Sheridan, 1994, Sugar and Slavery: An Economic Historyof the British West Indies, 1623-1775. Canoe Press, University of the WestIndies, Kingston. xx + 529 pp. Appendices, select bibliography, and index.$27.00 (paper).
Sheridan presents a comprehensive overview of the socioeconomic developmentof the British colonies of the Caribbean from their settlement through theAmerican Revolution. He focuses on the organization and operation of sugarplantations and the role of the sugar economy in the Atlantic World. Whilerecognizing its inhumanity, Sheridan notes the economic importance of sugarin Britian's economic and maritime development. Further, he argues thatthe wealth created by sugar fueled the industrial revolution.
Thomas D. Blakely, Walter E. A. Van Beek, and Dennis L. Thomson,editors, 1994, Religion in Africa. The David M. Kennedy Center, BrighamYoung University in association with Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH, and JamesCurrey, London. xvi + 512 pp. Bibliography and index. $24.95 (paper).
This is the first major collection on African religion in over a decade.Its more than 20 contributors include distinguished researchers in anthropology,archaeology, political science, comparative religion, health and healing,languages, literature, and the visual and performing arts. Following theeditors' excellent introduction, contributing essays are presented in threeparts: I. Religion and Its Translatability, II. Comparisons over Time andSpace, and III. Instrumentality of Religion. Many of the papers are of directinterest to the readers of this newsletter including: Wande Abimbola's discussionof "Ifa" a West African cosmological system and Pierre de Maret's"Archaeological and Other Prehistoric Evidence of Traditional AfricanReligious Expression." Other articles explore such topics as the impactof Christianity and Islam, women's power, the nature of "evil",and the role of music in traditional religion.
Barbara Heath, Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest
Thomas Jefferson inherited nearly 5,000 acres of land in Bedford countyat the death of his father-in-law in 1773. He visited the property, PoplarForest, infrequently during the 18th century, yet derived a significantportion of his income from its tobacco and wheat fields. By the first decadeof the 19th century, Poplar Forest was home to more than 80 enslaved AfricanAmericans, and one or more overseers and their families.
In 1806, masons began construction of a unique octagonal house at thesite. The house, completed in 1809, served Jefferson as an "occasionalretreat." During the second decade of the 19th century, Jefferson'soverseer and slaves laid-out and planted an elaborate, geometric landscapeset within a circular road. Jefferson visited the property several timeseach year until 1823.
Archaeologists have been investigating Poplar Forest since 1989. Primaryresearch questions focus on the layout and architecture of the plantationand the social relationships of the plantation community.
The North Hill Site: Poplar Forest staff archaeologists, field schoolstudents and volunteers have participated in excavations at the site ofan 18th century slave quarter known as "the North Hill." Locatedapproximately 800 feet northeast of Jefferson's 1806 mansion house, theNorth Hill site is part of a larger concentration of buildings that formedthe original (pre-Jeffersonian) core of the property known as "theold plantation."
A census of Poplar Forest slaves recorded in January of 1774 listed asingle family composed of Guinea Will and Betty, and their three small childrenHal, Dilcey and Sukey, as well as a single man, Billy Boy Smith. By theend of that year, an additional family and two single adults were relocatedto the property. A later census dating to 1783 lists 35 men, women and childrenliving as slaves at Poplar Forest. During this period, Jefferson was anabsentee landowner, visiting once in 1774, and for most of the summer of1781.
Archaeologists discovered the North Hill site in 1995 when neighboringlandowners reported finding artifacts in their vegetable garden. The gardensits on the eastern half of a knoll which also includes portions of thePoplar Forest property along its western extent. Testing within the gardenuncovered numerous domestic artifacts dating from c. 1750-1820. Continuedtilling in the garden had severely disturbed the site; however the shallowremains of several features, including what is believed to be a root cellar,were located, mapped and excavated. Testing on the western half of the knollrevealed a fairly even distribution of artifacts in plowzone. Large scaleexcavation of the western portion of the site began in the summer of 1996.
Distribution maps of artifacts suggest three areas of concentrated deposition.At two of these areas, features were also preserved. Archaeologists recovereda high concentration of domestic material dating to the late 18th and early19th centuries adjacent to the area tested in 1995. Blue glass beads, afaceted turquoise bead, a small cast brass knife handle with a pistol grip,a cut Spanish coin dating to 1738 were among the more interesting finds.No features are associated with this concentration, but its proximity tothe features preserved within the neighboring garden suggest that they mayhave originated from a structure or structures that once stood there.
The second concentration of artifacts was associated with a five-footsquare root cellar and a smaller pit lying 12 feet to the north. The cellarcontained a layer of burned architectural material and carbonized botanicalremains sealing a thin deposit of soil with domestic refuse. A date of c.1770-1780 has been assigned to the fill, reflecting the presence of creamwarewith a Queen's shape rim, but the absence of pearlware or later ceramics.A bone handled folding knife was recovered from the floor of the cellar.Two cut Spanish coins, dating to the first half of the 18th century, anda pair of scissors were also found within the cellar's fill.
The smaller pit was irregular in shape and appears to have been dug intothe underlying bedrock. Its fill appears to be contemporaneous with thatof the cellar. No clear evidence of wall lines or chimney placement hassurvived to indicate the size or orientation of the structure(s) associatedwith these features. Quantities of hand wrought nails and burned daub foundwithin the fill of both features and the overlying plowzone suggest a woodenbuilding with a wood and clay hearth.
The third concentration of artifacts is located approximately 40 feetsouthwest of the root cellar. This area of the site slopes gently to thesouth and west, and has never been plowed. Three trenches have been uncoveredwhich appear to form the wall lines of a small structure. An area of burnedsubsoil suggests that a hearth was located along the north wall, while agap in the trench lines indicates a doorway located in the northeast cornerof the building. The western wall line has not yet been uncovered; howevergiven the evidence to date the structure appears to have measured approximatelyfive and one-half feet wide by 10 to 12 feet in length. It is surroundedby a deposit of organic soil containing numerous domestic artifacts. Creamwareand lead glazed redwares predominate in the ceramic assemblage, althoughfragments of colonoware, delft, Rhenish stoneware and undecorated pearlwarehave also been recovered. Significantly, no pearlware has yet been foundin the occupation layer within the structure, suggesting that it was destroyedsometime in the late 1770s or early 1780s.
Excavations will continue at the site through the end of the year. Artifactanalysis is ongoing.
During 1997, excavations have been undertaken by students participatingin the Poplar Forest-University of Virginia Archaeological Field School,participants in the one week program "Digging, Learning, Teaching:Archaeology for Teachers at Poplar Forest," and returning field schoolalumni. Research staff includes Barbara Heath (Director of Archaeology),Michael Strutt (Field Supervisor), Heather Olson (Laboratory Supervisor),and Justine Christianson, Jodi Perin and Rob Thomson (externs).
Fraser Neiman and Leslie McFaden, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation
In January 1997, the Monticello Department of Archaeology initiated asystematic survey of the 2,000 acres currently owned by the Thomas JeffersonMemorial Foundation. This tract comprises the core of Thomas Jefferson's5,000-acre plantation. Documents suggest that the tract contains the fourprincipal quarter farms (the Monticello Home Farm Quarter, Tufton, Legoand Shadwell) that were the economic backbone of Jefferson's plantationfrom 1769-1826. The 1997 archaeological survey resulted in the identificationof fifteen previously unknown sites. The significant finds associated withJefferson's operation of Monticello Plantation include linear rock alignmentsthat represent agricultural field boundaries; road traces; a check dam andwater collection device; a cluster of rock piles that we hypothesize representsclearance of individual garden plots by slaves; an overseer's house; andfive domestic sites where enslaved farm workers once lived. The domesticsites are all associated with the Monticello Home Farm Quarter and are adjacentto what Jefferson called "the Antient Field," an area that documentshint may have been under cultivation before Jefferson began active developmentof Monticello in 1769. Two periods of settlement are represented by thefive slave sites. One (Site 7) dates to c. 1760-1790, three date to c. 1790-1800,and a fifth was certainly occupied in the 1790s and may have been occupiedearlier as well. Site locational data suggest a major settlement patternshift c. 1790, as sites were moved off prime arable land and settlementbecame less clustered. Both these changes are probably related to Jefferson'sabandonment of tobacco in favor of wheat cultivation. Tracing the causallinkages to conflicting strategies pursued by Jefferson and his enslavedworkers is a major focus of future research.
The earliest of the slave sites was the focus of the 1997 Monticello/U.Va. Summer Field School. Excavation of a spatially stratified random sampleof test units in the north half of the site and close study of the horizontalartifact pattern revealed by them suggests that a small portion of the sitewas occupied before c. 1770, as an outlying quarter for Shadwell Plantation,Jefferson's birthplace. The spatial extent of occupation greatly increasedwhen the site became the Home Farm Quarter in the 1770s and 1780s. Testsquares revealed several postholes, and the recovery of architectural remainsis high on the agenda for next summer's fieldwork at this site. This isthe first farm quarter site to have been investigated archaeologically atMonticello.
The Plantation Survey is a multi-year project that allows us for thefirst time to describe and understand the historical dynamics of plantationspatial organization and land use. A second season of survey fieldwork willrun from January-April 1998, during which the Department hopes to discovera third phase of home-farm slave settlement dating to the first quarterof the 19th century. To further enhance the historical value of these archaeologicaldiscoveries, the Department is working closely with Monticello historiansto construct the Monticello Demographic Database, a uniquely comprehensiverecord of the life histories of the nearly 600 enslaved individuals whoworked at Monticello during Jefferson's lifetime.
The Department of Archaeology is also completing a report on the workconducted in 1995 and 1996 on the home of Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings (c.1735-1807) which is identified on a survey plat Jefferson completed in 1809.Hemings, her children and grandchildren were enslaved domestics and artisansat Monticello. The Hemings site offers a rare opportunity to explore thearchaeological traces left by a single, enslaved individual whom we canidentify. Despite the ephemeral nature of material remains, chemical distributions,geoarchaeological data, and site locational characteristics helped us toexplore the unique social niche Elizabeth Hemings occupied at Monticelloat the turn of the 19th century.
David T. Palmer, Louisiana State University
Blythewood is a former sugar plantation located about 10 km south ofPlaquemine, LA. It was constructed sometime in the early 19th century andoperated until at least the early part of this century. African-Americanworkers lived at Blythewood from at least the mid 19th century to the middleof this century. There are four standing slave/tenant cabins at Blythewoodtoday. One of these sits directly on the ground instead of being raisedup on piers like the others, and it is believed by a local architecturalhistorian (Sid Gray) to be older than the others. This cabin and its surroundingyard were the focus of archaeological excavations during the summer andfall of 1997.
A total of 11 one-meter square units were excavated inside the cabinand in the yard. In addition, five judgementally placed shovel tests wereexcavated in the yard and a grid of 20 shovel tests systematically placedat five-meter intervals were excavated, 16 behind (west) of the cabin, andtwo each to the sides. Artifacts recovered in the upper levels were a mixof recent 20th century materials, mostly of a non-domestic nature, togetherwith some earlier 20th century artifacts indicating a change in use of thecabin from a dwelling to a storage or work shed. The levels below had early20th century to late 19th century artifacts, while mid to late 19th centuryartifacts were found in the lowest levels.
The artifacts recovered are similar to those recovered in 1996 by Dr.Chris Hays and Dr. Paul Farnsworth from surface collection and test excavationsat other cabins at Blythewood. Many of the artifacts recovered in and aroundthe cabin are of very recent origin, most likely related to current mechanicand tinkering activities at the site and use of the cabin for storage. Theearlier artifacts are those from a plantation worker's household: ceramics,patent medicine bottles, toys, buttons, clay pipe fragments, utensils, faunalremains, and other artifacts typical of a domestic occupation.
Glass was one of the largest artifact categories. Container glass appearsto be the best represented, with alcoholic beverage containers among themost numerous, along with patent medicines and canning jars. The glass artifactsseem to indicate a widespread consumption or use of alcohol, although someof the assemblage may reflect recent activities by non-occupants. Patentmedicines and other bottled beverages such as mineral water and sodas werealso consumed. Canning jars indicate that home preserving was taking place,indicating that Blythewood's inhabitants were not totally dependent on purchasedfoodstuffs.
Ceramics recovered were predominantly undecorated whitewares and ironstonewares, with some industrial slip-decorated and transfer-printed whitewaresand ironstones, porcelain, yellowware, and a few fragments of earlier ceramicssuch as creamware and pearlware. Preliminary analysis suggests that therewere no matched sets, and that most of the ceramic assemblage could havebeen purchased on a limited budget in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Many of the metal fragments are identifiable as can fragments indicatingthe consumption of canned foods. Faunal remains were also abundant at thesite, with readily identifiable elements of pig, cow, chicken or other fowl,gar, and eggshell present. The large mammal remains had cut marks and sawmarks, and elements such as teeth, jaws, as well as long bones were found,suggesting on-site butchering. A woman who lived at the site in the 1940shad vivid memories of on-site slaughter and butchering. She described howhogs and chicken raised on site would be put up in an elevated pen and fedgrain to "clean them out" prior to slaughter, which often tookplace in the yard near her cabin. this evidence of on-site butchering isanother example of the ways in which Blythewood's inhabitants practicedeconomic self-sufficiency.
Gardening also added to the self-sufficiency of Blythewood's inhabitants.Although not visible in the archaeological record of the site, oral historyrecords its practice from the early 20th century, if not earlier. The previouslymentioned informant described her grandmother's garden as having severaltypes of beans, okra, squash, field peas, and other produce. While patentmedicines were found archaeologically, so were traditional treatments. Theinformant recalled her grandmother using salted meat and cobwebs to treatcuts and puncture wounds. Her grandmother also created hair-care productsby combining purchased petroleum jelly with home-brewed ingredients of specificleaves.
Architectural features revealed in the excavation, and the patterningof artifacts in and immediately around the cabin indicate that the cabinwas originally stood on piers, like the others presently at the site, whichit resembles structurally. It was lowered sometime in the late 19th or early20th centuries, as oral history indicates that it was already lowered priorto the 1940s. Some of the construction details of the cabin, as well asthe patterning of the artifacts, indicate, however, that the cabin is originalto its present location, and was not moved from elsewhere.
Overall, the combination of archaeological and oral historical evidencesuggests that the material life of Blythewood's post-bellum inhabitantswas very modest and marked by attempts at self-sufficiency. Toys such asporcelain dolls and marbles, as well as items such as tobacco pipes andalcoholic beverage containers are evidence of small luxuries that were obtainable.The large numbers of artifacts recovered are, in-part, a product of thedramatic increase in the number and availability of manufactured goods whichbecame available in the mid to late nineteenth century capitalist economy,and are not indicative of wealth.
Acknowledgments: I would like to acknowledge the Robert C. West Fundfor financial support for my Master's thesis project. Also I would liketo thank Mr. Denis Murel, the owner of Blythewood, and Mr. Randy Walsh,the caretaker, for their cooperation, without which this work would notbe possible. My advisor Paul Farnsworth, and my employer, Chris Hays, havehelped me on this project in many ways. I would also like to thank the manyvolunteers who worked at the site.
Paul Farnsworth, Louisiana State University
The Seventeenth International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology washeld in Nassau, Bahamas from July 21-26, 1997. Among the papers presentedwere a number of interest to readers of this newsletter:
"Seaman's Valley and Maroon Material Culture in Jamaica" E.Kofi Agorsah, Black Studies Department, Portland State University
"Isolation and the Development of Bahamian Culture" Paul Farnsworth,Dept. of Geography & Anthropology, Louisiana State University
"African-Caribbean Technology: Forging Cultural Survivals of theAtlantic World" Candice Goucher, Black Studies Department, PortlandState University
"Social Repercussions of Slavery as Evident in African-Curacaoan'Kunuku' Houses" and "Archaeo-logical Testing at Fort Oranje,Bonaire" Jay B. Haviser, Archaeological-Anthropological Institute ofthe Netherlands Antilles
"Evidence of African Continuities in the Material Culture of CliftonPlantation, Bahamas" Laurie A. Wilkie, Department of Anthropology,University of California, Berkeley
A volume containing all the conference papers will be published for distributionat the next Congress in 1999. In the meantime, contact the authors directlyfor further information about their papers.
A number of recent journal articles have just been published relatingto African-American archaeology in the Caribbean. Because of the internationalnature of Caribbean research, keeping track of relevant publications canbe difficult. Authors of publications related to African-American archaeologyin the Caribbean are encouraged to send references for their recently publishedworks to the regional editor for inclusion. Those not published in HistoricalArchaeology include:
Handler, Jerome S. 1997 An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His GraveGoods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies.International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 1(2):91-130.
Watters, David R. 1997 Historical Documentation and Archaeological Investigationof Codrington Castle, Babuda, West Indies. Annals of Carnegie Museum 66(3):229-288.
Wilkie, Laurie A., and Paul Farnsworth 1997 Results of the 1996 Excavationsat Clifton Plantation. Journal of the Bahamas Historical Society 19:2-18.
Student theses and dissertations are especially difficult to keep trackof. Students and/or their advisors are encouraged to send information onrecently completed works to the regional editor. The following Caribbeantheses of interest have been filed this year:
Olson, Heather Lea 1997 Great Hope Plantation: Archaeological Indicationsof Nineteenth Century Afro-Bahamian Life After Emancipation. M.A. thesis,Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, BatonRouge, LA.
Hughes, Geoffrey R. 1997 "A full perfect and faithful return":An Anthropological Reanalysis of Bahamian Slave Registers. B.A. senior thesis,Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, CA.
Information on the 1784 Loyalist African-American settlement at Birchtown,Nova Scotia, including discussion of Laird Niven's archaeological work atthe site, can be found through the Nova Scotia Museum's web page: http://www.ednet.ns.ca/educ/museum/arch/index.htm.
The Musée Dapper exhibition, "Magies" devoted to Africanpower objects is discussed in Culturekiosque, an internet journal devotedto "La culture en mouvement": http://www.culturekiosque.com.Joseph E. Romero is Editor-in-chief. Contact him at jromero@culturekiosque.com.
The Internet Journal of Anthropological Studies, based at the Universityof Montana seeks submissions from professional anthropologists and studentsalike. The journal's homepage can be found at http://taylor.anthro.unt.edu/ijas/ijashome.htm.
Social historian Steven Mintz at the University of Houston has developeda web site containing many useful resources. Of interest to A-A A readersis his topically organized collection of slave narratives from a varietyof sources. Designed as a teaching tool for undergraduate students, thesite includes 46 narratives showing the evolution of slavery over time:http://vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/primary.htm
The African-American Mosaic is a Library of Congress Resources Guideto the institution's African-American collection, including all media. Theon-line "exhibit" presents a sampler covering four important areas:colonization, abolition, migrations, and the WPA (including the ex-slavenarratives): http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.htm.
Afro-American Sources in Virginia. A Guide to Manuscripts and Guide toAfrican-American Documentary Resources in North Carolina are both availablein a searchable form at the University Press of Virginia web site: http://www.upress.virginia.edu/epub/pyatt/index.htm.
The African American Heritage Preservation Foundation's web page featuresinformation on the foundation, its mission, and its projects. Featured projectsinclude preservation of the Stanton Family Cemetery in Virginia and thearchaeological investigation of the Stanton Family Home Site: http://www.preservenet.cornell.edu/aahpf/home-page.htm.
Christie's Genealogy Website is the gateway to a no less than amazingarray of primary sources pertaining to African-American history and culture,including searchable primary census records and records of the Freedmen'sBureau. These include records such as the bureau's register of marriagesfrom Arkansas and miscellaneous labor contracts from Tennessee. http://ccharity.com. (This site went into a heavyreconstruction sometime between 11/14 and 11/27 - worth checking back on.)
A Deeper Shade of History web site includes "This Week in BlackHistory" essay and database searchable by keyword (topic) or by date.http://www.ai.nit.edu/~isbell/HFh/black/bhist.htm.
The Black Facts Online web site is very similar to Deeper Shade, consistingof searchable topic, keyword, and date databases. http://www.blackfacts.com.
The annual Society for Historical Archaeology Conference on Historicaland Underwater Archaeology will be held in Atlanta January 7-10, 1998.
The African-American Archaeology Workshop, organized again this yearby Ywone Edwards-Ingram of Colonial Williamsburg, is scheduled for Fridayafternoon. It will explore multiple lines of evidence to increase our understandingof the various ways enslaved and free African Americans obtained, prepared,consumed, exchanged, and discarded foods. The workshop will highlight resourcesand findings and facilitate questions on "foodways." Specialistsin faunal, botanical, material culture, marketing, historical and relatedstudies will give brief introductions to the subject before the generaldiscussion. Some focus will be on illness, well-being, cultural interaction,tradition, culture change, resilience and resistance. As always, participantsare encouraged to bring artifacts or other materials relevant to the topic.
According to the preliminary conference program, other paper sessionsof interest include: "Engendering African-Americans Archaeology,"Thursday AM; "Transcending Boundaries, Transforming the Discipline:African Diaspora Archaeology into the New Millennium," Friday AM; "Prospectiveson the Evolution of African-American Culture, " Friday PM; and "TheArchaeology of the Middle Passage: Henretta Marie, " Saturday PM.
Also: Jerry Handler and Dan Mouer invite all archaeologists working inthe Caribbean to join them for an informal "philosophical session"on Friday night, right after the business meeting and before the banquet.Look for fliers indicating where and when.
Maybe you missed it: "Cellars and African-American Slave Sites:New Data from an Upland South Plantation," by Amy L. Young, was publishedin 1997 in the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, vol. 22, no. 1, pp.95-115. The article focuses on cellars excavated at three slave house sitesat the Locust Grove Plantation in Kentucky. Amy addresses how the cellarswere constructed, used, abandoned, and filled to consider private property,the organization and use of personal space, and subsistence strategies.
Also worth tracking down: "Medicinal Teas and Patent Medicines:African-American Women's Consumer Choices and Ethnomedical Traditions ata Louisiana Plantation" by Laurie A. Wilkie, 1996, Southeastern Archaeology15(2):119-131, looks at how commercially produced medicines may reflecttraditional ethnomedical practices at Oakley Plantation, West Feliciana,LA.
Publication of the papers presented at the African Impact on the MaterialCulture of the Americas, interdisciplinary conference (May 31-June 1, 1996)is reportedly moving forward. Stay tuned for further details.
The National Association of African-American Studies will meet February10-14, 1998 in Houston, Texas. Presentation are expected to address allaspect of the African-American experience including literature, demographics,history, politics, economics, arts, religion, etc. All accepted papers willbe published in the conference proceedings. For more information contact:Lemuel Berry, Jr. Morehead State University, (606) 783-2650.
David A. Poirier and Nicholas F. Bellantoni edited In Remembrance: Archaeologyand Death published in 1997 by Bergin & Garvey (Greenwood Press), Westport,CT. 297 pp. $59.95 cloth (800) 225-5800. Four of the essays are concernedwith African-American cemetery sites: the First African Baptist Church cemeteries,Philadelphia; Folly Island, South Carolina; Catoctin Furnace, Maryland,and Cedar Grove, Arkansas.
Published this June: Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology,History, Languages, Culture, and Environments edited by Joseph O. Vogel,AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA. 600 pp. $124.95 cloth (805) 499-9774 e-mail:order@sagepub.com. This is an extensivelyillustrated benchmark volume containing over 100 articles, each includinga bibliography.
Postdoctoral/Visiting Scholar Fellowship in Ethnic Studies at UCLA'sInstitute of American Cultures includes research on African Americans. Awardsrange from $23-28,000/yr, plus benefits, and up to $3,000 in research support.Prorated residencies of less than a year are also possible. Consult theirweb page for more information: http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/iacweb/pstweber.htm.
The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York PublicLibrary announces its 1998-99 Scholars-in-Residence Program. Half or fullyear Fellowships include a stipend of $15,000 or $30,000, respectively forprofessionals undertaking research among the Center's collections. Projectsmust contribute to humanistic knowledge of African, African-American, orAfrican-Caribbean history or culture. Degree candidates are not eligible.For more information contact the Center at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, NewYork, NY 10037; (212) 491-2203; http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/scm/specfea.html.Deadline is January 12, 1998.
The Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program is open to graduate student,pre-, post-, and senior postdoctoral candidates in American social, cultural,science and technology, and decorate arts history. Tenable in residenceat the Smithsonian and its research facilities. Contact the Office of Fellowshipsand Grants, 955 L'Enfant Plaza, Suite 7000, Desk H, Washington, DC 20560;(202) 287-3271. Deadline is January 15, 1998.
The National Park Service and the Organization of American Historiansare organizing a symposium to discuss Booker T. Washington and W. E. B.DuBois, their historical context, and influences to be held March 19-21,1998 in Roanoke, Virginia. Julian Bond will be the keynote speaker on aprogram that will feature panel discussion addressing cultural resourceand interpretive issues. Contact The Washington-DuBois Symposium, 112 NorthBryan Street, Bloomington, IN 47408; (812) 855-7345
Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis invites applications for seniorand post-doctoral fellowships from researchers working on topics relatedto "The Black Atlantic: race, Nation, and Gender." Contact ProfessorsDeborah Gray White and Mia Elisabeth Bay, Project Directors, 88 CollegeAvenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Deadline is December 15, 1997.
The International Center for Jefferson Studies, Charlottesville, Virginiaannounces Residential Fellowships and travel grants for all scholars workingon Jefferson, or Jefferson-related, projects. Fellowships are awarded forone-month's residency at the Center and may include lodging. Travel forshorter visits to Monticello for research or educational purposes are availableon a limited basis. Contact Douglas L. Wilson, Saunders Director, InternationalCenter for Jefferson Studies, Monticello, Box 316, Charlottesville, VA 22902.Deadline in March 1, 1998.