A Regional Retrospective Analysis of the Antebellum Atlantic Seaboard

DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas W. Sanford. Lauren K. McMillan.

Sherwood Forest Plantation is located just outside Fredericksburg on the Northern Neck of Virginia. The late Antebellum plantation was home to not only the Fitzhugh family who owned the property, but also a large enslaved workforce; additionally, the manor house and the surrounding plantation core served as a hospital to Union troops in 1862-1863. Current research conducted by the University of Mary Washington, in conjunction with and support from Walton International Group, focuses on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Honerkamp.

Historical archaeologists are familiar with the tensions that exist between documentary, oral history, and archaeological data. On many coastal Georgia plantations, a clear expression of such tension is seen in the documented presence of large slave populations that lived and worked on plantations and the typically miniscule  number of cabins in which the slaves presumably resided, as indicated by historic maps or from in situ structural remains. Typically this dramatic discrepancy is simply...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adrianne B Sams.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Garrett Fesler.

In this paper I examine how archaeologists make sense of the archaeological record at sites occupied by enslaved Africans in the Chesapeake region during the antebellum period.  In particular, I offer an alternative explanation for some assemblages of artifacts that are routinely interpreted as African Diasporic spirit caches.  In addition to sharing similar cultural belief systems, enslaved Africans experienced comparable levels of privation.  Poverty may have motivated some enslaved Africans...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kendy Altizer.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Larry James. Ralph Bailey. Charles F. Phillips Jr..

The Upper Ashley River region of South Carolina is characterized by cypress swamps that form a relatively straight, narrow river that flows unimpeded to Charleston.  This landscape provided the ideal location for early estates of the planter elite in the eighteenth century. These Carolinians developed the rice and indigo plantation culture of the Lowcountry. The region became the crossroads of many historical events including the development of rice cultivation, Native American trade and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Martha Zierden. Elizabeth J. Reitz.

Archaeological evidence for regional and inter-site landscape use during the antebellum period in Charleston, South Carolina, suggests that segregation and segmentation characterized much, but not all, of the city's economy.  Much of the city's architecture and material culture reflects economic disparity in an increasingly crowded urban environment.  Data from plantation, residential, commercial, public, and market sites reveal fluid and complex provisioning strategies that linked the city with...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jason Boroughs.

By the antebellum era enslaved communities across large tidewater Chesapeake plantations boasted deep temporal and broadly dispersed roots, enjoining residents across quarters through bonds of kinship and camaraderie that often transcended plantation boundaries.  Broad cross-plantation neighborhoods encompassed mosaics of significant places suffused with notions of community and grounded in generational investments in labor and experience, places and ties that often retain value to present-day...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lindsey Cochran.

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...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Meagan Dennison. Eric G. Schweickart.

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...