Development and Praxis of Community-Based Archaeology at Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Collaborative and Community Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the last four years Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (HMFP), the site of the first Free Black Town in America (est. 1861), has begun a plan to develop the area into a heritage destination. HMFP aims to reconstruct some of the original buildings, develop educational programs, and have a walking and guided tour, among other things. Archaeology at the park as been integral at helping to both locate Mitchelville-era resources and also to develop ethical and sustainable ties with the ancestral Gullah and local Black community. This paper will discuss how using a framework of Indigenous and landscape archaeologies has crafted community-engaged archaeological research as well as addressing the realities of conducting community-based research in targeted communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Collaborative and Community Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33482