consumerism (Other Keyword)
26-29 (29 Records)
The Bennehan-Cameron family fortune started with a single store in the 18th-century North Carolina Piedmont. Over several generations, their wealth expanded to include the ownership of up to 900 individuals, scattered across many farms in several states. This paper examines the intersection between these two spheres: an emergent consumer society and the institution of slavery. People owned by the Bennehans, Camerons, and their neighbors are among the purchasers enumerated in daybooks and...
Thomas Jefferson’s Acquisition of Transfer Printed Ceramics for Poplar Forest (2016)
Archaeological research at Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson’s retreat home in Bedford County Virginia, has revealed numerous transfer printed pearlware patterns on ceramic vessels interpreted as being owned by Jefferson. Despite their mass produced nature, the imagery on these ceramics connects very closely to the aesthetics he tried to achieve in the design of the house and landscape. Did Jefferson or a member of his household, seek out specific patterns through specialized merchants or was the...
A Troublesome Tenant in the Gore by the Road: The Cardon/Holton Farmstead Site 7NC-F-128 (2016)
In 1743 Boaz Boyce, guardian of the son of William Cardon, deceased, accused tenant Robert Whiteside of cutting valuable timber, and evidently of obstructing the planting of an orchard. The Cardon/Holton site is identified with Whiteside’s tenant homestead. Artifact analysis suggests an occupation date range of circa 1720 to the 1760s. Dendrochronological dates from well timbers indicate construction in c.1737 and rebuild or repair c.1753. The core of the farmstead was fully excavated,...
Underpinning a Plantation: A Material Culture Approach to Consumerism at Mount Vernon Plantation (2016)
This paper adopts an object-centered, material culture approach that triangulates between three primary sources – George Washington’s orders for goods through the consignment system, inventories from a local, Scottish-owned store, and the archaeological record at Mount Vernon plantation – lending fresh insight into the nature of the mid-eighteenth century consumer revolution and addressing questions about elite and non-elite consumer behavior. By quantifying the robust dataset of Washington’s...