Worth(Less): Value and Destruction in a Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Quarry Town
Author(s): Adam Fracchia
Year: 2014
Summary
The small industrial town of Texas, Maryland, employed hundreds of Irish immigrants in quarrying and burning limestone during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This paper examines patterns of value based on categories of class, ethnicity, and race that were influenced by and necessary to ensure the profitability of the quarry industry. Using historical records and material culture, it is possible to see shifts in these values over time and understand the marginalization of people that led to their removal and the destruction of their property. Ultimately, the preservation of the town is governed by notions of value tied to the current mode of production and a static perception of the town’s heritage that indirectly supports its destruction.
Cite this Record
Worth(Less): Value and Destruction in a Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Quarry Town. Adam Fracchia. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. 2014 ( tDAR id: 437363)
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Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): SYM-80,06