antebellum (Other Keyword)
1-12 (12 Records)
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 early nineteenth century, when African Americans were legally relegated to the extreme margins of society and the economy, Baltimore’s ship caulkers were a rare example of free blacks who dominated a skilled trade. The Ship Caulkers’ Houses, located at 612 and 614...
Early Historic Salt-making Sites in South Arkansas (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Shifting Borders: Early-19th Century Archeology in the Trans-Mississippi South" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. South central and southwest Arkansas both have an abundance of salt licks, salt springs, salt creeks, and salt marshes. Indigenous people established a number of sites for making salt, and early American settlers developed some of these sites into commercial saltworks. Smaller than the industrial...
From Big House to Farm House: 100 Years at Arcadia Mill's Simpson Lot (2015)
The Simpson House at Arcadia Mill Archaeological Site in northwest Florida represents the high-status residence within a multi-ethnic antebellum community organized by hierarchy, race, and possibly gender. On a bluff overlooking the water-powered mill complex, the big house consisted of a three-story Louisiana-style mansion with a brick basement, veranda and main floor, and a second story. The Simpson House was constructed ca. 1835 and survived the Civil War including a short occupation by...
In Search of Freedom: Investigating 19th Century African American Settlement Development in Southern Indiana (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Silenced Lifeways:The Archaeology of Free African-American Communities in the Indiana and Illinois Borderlands" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During the early 19th century, free African Americans began moving from North Carolina to Orange County, Indiana, developing a small farming community in Southeast Township. This community, known today as the Lick Creek African American Settlement, thrived for several...
Industrial Community Organization in Antebellum West Florida (2016)
Antebellum industrialization in West Florida fostered diverse settlements associated with water-powered mill complexes. Abundant natural resources and desirable landscape characteristics provided an ideal setting for silvicultural pursuits as opposed to agrarian endeavors that relied heavily on suitable soils. Mill seats represent unique landscapes that differ from agrarian settings, affecting community organization for multi-ethnic, hierarchical populations. Arcadia Mill (1830-1855) developed...
Inequality in the Academy: An Intersectional Analysis of Young College Men in 19th Century Lexington, Virginia (2017)
What can intersectionality offer to a study of an all-male antebellum dormitory? While this approach has typically been used to identify and combat race- and gender-based discrimination, this paper argues that intersectional theory can also illuminate subtle class- and age-based inequalities among historic individuals of the same gender and race. Archaeological investigation of Graham Hall, a combined dormitory/classroom space/chapel located on the campus of Washington and Lee University in...
Just Another Brick in the Wall: Brick Looting in the Antebellum Lowcountry of South Carolina (2016)
From the colonial period through the twentieth century, brick looting was a common occurrence in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Most accounts are related to the Revolutionary and Civil wars when brick was stolen from ruins or abandoned structures to repair damaged buildings or construct new ones. This study focuses on the built landscape of Peachtree Plantation in St. James Santee Parish, South Carolina. This 450-acre parcel contains the remnants of the second largest plantation house in the...
Personal Adornment in the Context of Antebellum Slavery at Poplar Forest (1830-1858) (2013)
Objects classified as personal adornment are often vested with meanings that reveal significant insight into their owners because they are personal. The context in which objects are used is critical to understanding potential meanings. This essay considers the recontextualization of personal adornment items, particularly glass beads, a pierced coin, and an alloy fastener, used by enslaved laborers at antebellum Poplar Forest plantation. The enslaved mobilized these forms of material culture in...
Social Geography of Lowcountry Landscapes (2016)
The comparison of patterns of refuse disposal between populations has been a consistent theme in historical archaeology. The present study acknowledges the impact of the physical environment and social status in shaping how people created and used their built landscape. Triangulation of three kinds of data—spatial, archaeological, and historical—facilitates recognition of the differences or similarities between groups on Sapelo, Ossabaw, and St. Simon’s Islands in the Georgia Lowcountry. A...
Spatiality of the Everyday: 19th Century Slave Life in Western Tennessee (2017)
Throughout ten-years of excavation in western Tennessee, a more nuanced picture of 19th century everyday life in the antebellum South has emerged. With over twenty contiguous plantations on the 18,400-acre contemporary Ames land base, we compare specific characteristics of material culture from large (3,000+ acres) and small plantations (300-1000 acres). Our research focuses on Fanny Dickins, a woman with the financial means to purchase and run a small cotton plantation in Western Tennessee....
Turtles in the Tidewater: an Ecological and Social Perspective on Turtle Consumption in the Antebellum South (2016)
This presentation considers the foodways of plantation inhabitants in the antebellum costal South with reference to one particular food resource, the turtle. Turtle remains represent a small but ubiquitous portion of faunal assemblages recovered from late 18th and early 19th century sites in the southern states, and historic documents indicate that antebellum Americans drew upon European, African, and Native American cooking traditions to create a turtle-based cuisine which played an important...
Using Material Culture to Understand Freed African-American Lifeways in Early 19th Century Borderland Communities of Indiana and Illinois (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Silenced Lifeways:The Archaeology of Free African-American Communities in the Indiana and Illinois Borderlands" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper presents a comparative analysis of historic assemblages from two Antebellum African-American communities to better understand resilience among these freed groups. Recently excavated materials from the Lick Creek Community within the Hoosier National Forest and the...