African American (Other Keyword)
1-25 (67 Records)
Increasing urbanization and gentrification have led to the rapid development of some of America's largest cities. As urban space becomes more scarce, African American heritage sites face increasing threats from developers and city planners alike. In light the 50th anniversary of the National Heritage Preservation Act and more than 25 years after the passage of NAGPRA, this paper highlights the disparities and challenges associated with preserving African American heritage sites in the USA....
African-American Burial Practices and Community Identity, Cohesion, Social Resistance, and Autonomy in Ante-bellum Philadelphia (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "“We the People”: Historical Cemetery Archaeology in Philadelphia" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. There was a significantly greater occurrence of African-influenced or Creolized burial practices at the later of two cemeteries used by Philadelphia’s First African Baptist Church in the early nineteenth-century. Given that the process of laying the dead to rest represents a special social moment where...
Another Look At The New York African Burial Ground Late Group Coffin-less Burials? (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) was the primary burial ground for free and captive Africans from the 17th to 18th centuries. During the excavation of burials north of the fence line assigned to the Late Group, 114 individuals were recovered of which seventy-nine had coffins and twenty-five were without, respectively....
Answering the Question, "Where Did We Come From?" Through the Collaborative Efforts of the Fort Ward/Seminary African American Descendant Society and Archaeologists in Alexandria, Virginia (2013)
"We’re still here" has been the theme of the efforts of the Fort Ward/Seminary African American Descendant Society to incorporate the history of their community into the public interpretation of Fort Ward Park and Museum. However, "where did we come from?" remains an important question that has yet to be answered through archaeological and historical research. In this paper, Descendant Society leader Adrienne Washington will discuss the efforts of descendants to answer this question and why it...
Archaeological Investigations at the Sotterly Plantation Slave Cabin, St. Mary's County, Maryland (1996)
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Archaeological Research at the Cesar and Sym Peters Site, Hebron, Connecticut (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2020 the Connecticut Office of State Archaeology (OSA) launched a long-term archaeological research project to explore the lives of the free African-American Peters family in early 19th-century Hebron, Connecticut. The collaborative project involves archaeological and documentary research at the Peters family home site. Cesar...
The Archaeology of Citizenship: African American School Sites in Post-emancipation Tennessee (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A prototype visualization tool for a statewide historical geography of African American communities emerging in Tennessee’s post-Civil War period is raising awareness and elevating visibility of the African American historic cultural landscape—both above and below ground—for cultural resource management as well as for students, educators, planners, and the...
The Archaeology of Enslaved Labor: Identifying Work and Domestic Spaces in the South Yard (2016)
While the domestic lives of enslaved families and communities are a critical element of understanding enslaved life, the majority of each day was spent carrying out work for their masters. Recent excavations at Montpelier have begun to examine structures related to the work of James Madison's domestic slaves. These excavations include work on the extant kitchen and two smokehouses, buildings clearly designed for the support of the Montpelier Mansion. However, the proximity of these structures to...
The Archaeology of Historic Laurel Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland (2018)
Laurel Cemetery was created in 1852 in Baltimore, Maryland, as a nondenominational burial place for African Americans in the city. By the 1930s, after perhaps several thousand people were interred at the site, the cemetery company had become insolvent, and the grounds were no longer being maintained. After the property was sold in the 1950s, the cemetery was demolished in preparation for what would become a shopping center. Approximately 300-400 burials were moved, but it was not known how many,...
Archaeology with an Attentive Eye: African Americans, Archaeology, and Cultural Regeneration (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Folkeliv” and Black Folks’ Lives: Archaeology, History, and Contemporary Black Atlantic Communities", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeology in the United States is slowly undergoing a paradigmatic shift. While it is difficult to discern which direction the profession will take, ethical, demographic, and economic forces are moving archaeology into a space it has not previously occupied. Decades of...
Barriers to Access, or the Ways Racism Continues (2015)
Black history at historic plantations concerns more than slavery and freedom; it also tells the story of why blacks in the past are omitted at places with so much of their history to tell. Historic plantations offer rich laboratories in which to examine the ways that racism changes and stays the same through the circumstances that enable black history to be revealed or hidden. By studying the interpretation--or lack thereof--of black history at places like Mount Clare, we can learn from the...
Beyond Battlefields: Incorporating Social Contexts into Military Sites (2017)
Although it has been more than a century since the US Civil War was fought, battles regarding interpretation and the public memory of the conflict continue to rage. Hundreds of sites along the eastern seaboard are consecrated to this period, with many preservationists and other historical organizations dedicated to sterile interpretations of these battlefields. These interpretations fail to capture social contexts of the site, as well as the development of the landscape since the Civil War. The...
The Bird-Houston Site, 1775-1920: 145 Years of Rural Delaware (2016)
The Bird-Houston Site is a homestead that was occupied from around 1775 to 1920. During that long span the site was used in various ways by diverse occupants. Two houses stood there; the earlier log house was replaced by a frame house around 1825, and the two houses were far enough apart to keep their associated artifacts separate. The site’s occupants included unknown tenants, white property owners, and, after 1840, African American farm laborers and their families. Excavation of the site...
Brooches, Combs, and Vaseline: The Personal Adornment Artifacts from Three Black Schoolhouses in Virginia (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. When excavating three late 19th -mid-20th century Black schoolhouse sites in Gloucester, Virginia, expected pencils, writing slate, and ink wells were recovered. But in addition to the educational artifacts, a significant amount of personal adornment artifacts was found, including jewelry, buttons, makeup, and hair combs....
The Church on the Hill: Inter-related Narratives and Conflicting Priorities for the Emory Church Property in Washington, D.C. (2017)
Fort Stevens was one of the only fortifications comprising the Civil War Defenses of Washington that saw combat, during Jubal Early’s raid on July 11-12, 1864. Prior to the Civil War, the land was sold by free African American woman Elizabeth Butler to the trustees of Emory Chapel in 1855 for construction of a church; when Fort Massachusetts was initially constructed in 1861, the church stood within it, but later was razed by the Union army when the fort was expanded and renamed Fort Stevens in...
The Church on the Hill: Inter-related Narratives, Conflicting Priorities, and the Power of Community Engagement (2016)
Fort Stevens is a well-known fort within the Civil War Defenses of Washington. Prior to the Civil War, the land was owned by Betsey Butler, a free black woman, who sold the land to the trustees of Emory Chapel in 1855 for the construction of a church. The church was razed for the construction of Fort Massachusetts in 1861, which was later expanded and renamed Fort Stevens in 1863. The congregation rebuilt the church following the Civil War. The context of the Emory Church is entwined with the...
Community and Commerce: Investigations at African American-Owned Stores in the Community of Needwood, Georgia (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "First Steps on a Long Corridor: The Gullah Geechee and the Formation of a Southern African American Landscape" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the community of Needwood in Glynn County, Georgia, was established by Freedmen in the years following Emancipation. In the historic period, the self-sufficient community included three stores, at least two of...
Consumerism As A Strategy For Negotiating Racism: A Comparative Study Of African Americans In Jim Crow Era Annapolis, MD (2015)
Archaeologists have studied many different ways in which African Americans coped with the racist structures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in America. One way in which this was done was through consumer choice as part of the capitalist market used to create African American consumer aesthetics. With this understanding, archaeologists can study how commodities were used to express internally imposed classes within the African American community. In this paper, the archaeological...
Documentary Archaeology and African American Heritage in Central Florida (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond the Classroom: Campus Archaeology and Community Collaboration" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Florida figures prominently in the history of African American archaeology. Emerging perspectives continue to deepen our understanding of plantation and maroon sites. However, a multiplicity of historical African American sites exist in the state. This article explores initial findings of a collaborative...
Documenting U.S. State and Territorial Approaches to Black Heritage, Diversity, and Inclusion in Preservation Practices 2022 (2022)
The Black Heritage Resources Task Force believes that State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) can play an integral role in the preservation of African-American archaeology by providing guidance for the documentation of Black historic sites and consulting with Black stakeholders. This report provides reviews SHPO office planning documents and National Register for Historic Places nominations to understand the current practices regarding Black heritage resources. It also presents the results...
Domestic Labor in Black and Green: Deciphering the Shared experiences of African American and Irish Domestics Working in the same Northern Virginia Households and Communities (2015)
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries wealthy American households relied on domestic labor for the running of the home. In the Northeast, this labor was provided by European immigrants, who often moved from job to job seeking better opportunities. While in the South, African Americans continued to perform the same work many had performed under slavery, often staying in the same geographical region as their family and former owners. In Northern Virginia, these two forms of domestic labor...
Dunkerhook: An African American Enclave In Paramus, New Jersey (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "African American Voices In The Mid-Atlantic: Archaeology Of Elusive Freedom, Enslavement, And Rebellion" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Founded by formerly enslaved Africans, the Dunkerhook community grew to be a thriving enclave of free people of color from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. This paper will recount the historical significance of Dunkerhook as well as findings from a recent...
Dunkerhook: Transition, Acculturation, and Resilience (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "African American Voices In The Mid-Atlantic: Archaeology Of Elusive Freedom, Enslavement, And Rebellion" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the mid-19th century, formerly enslaved Africans founded an emergent locality at Dunkerhook, establishing a community of their own. The community flourished an African- American occupancy in the area continued to expand into the early 20th century. Recent archaeological...
Exploring African American Life through Small Finds from Poplar Forest’s Wing of Offices (2019)
This is an abstract from the "POSTER Session 1: A Focus on Cultures, Populations, and Ethnic Groups" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeologists at Poplar Forest are revisiting the artifacts recovered during the excavation of the Wing of Offices, which serviced Jefferson’s retreat home and plantation in Bedford County, Virginia. This building included a kitchen and smokehouse along with two additional rooms that could have been used for other...
Exploring Foodways at the Baltimore Aged Men and Women's Home of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1870-1920. (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Salvage excavations during the 1980 construction of the Federal Reserve Bank in Baltimore, Maryland identified structural features and a privy pit associated with a late 19th-century home for the elderly run by African American congregations of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The home was almost entirely supported through church...