Landscapes of Chesapeake Slavery

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kyle W. Edwards.

Unlike other Presidential plantations, archaeological research at Highland has been relatively limited. This, combined with a complex occupational history and sparse documentary records, has provided little evidence of the plantation landscape constructed by Monroe in 1799 or clues to how that landscape was reshaped by subsequent owners. However, spurred by the recent discovery of the original plantation house, ongoing archaeological survey is providing new insights into landscape organization...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Crystal L. Ptacek. Beatrix Arendt. Craig Kelley. Lauren Gryctko.

In 1808, enslaved African American laborers at Monticello dumped about 1,000 cubic feet of dirt to raise the floor to convert the Kitchen into a Wash House in preparation for Thomas Jefferson's retirement years. For the previous forty years, this Kitchen had been the space in which fine cuisine was prepared for Jefferson, his family, and guests. Archaeologists recently excavated nearly a third of this deposit, reidentifying the stew stoves, the original brick floor, and fireplace. Analysis of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren K. McMillan. Julia King.

The St. Barbara's Freehold Tract in St. Mary’s City served as the center of a large plantation owned by the Hicks and Mackall families from the mid 18th century to the end of the Civil War. At the plantation’s height in the early 19th century, 40 people were held in bondage, living in log quarters scattered across several hundred acres. In 2016, archaeologists from St. Mary's College of Maryland identified and tested a complex of quarters dating to ca. 1750-1815. Archaeological and historical...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eric Proebsting. Howard Cyr.

Over the past seven years, archaeologists have examined three landscape elements that are central to the design of Jefferson’s Poplar Forest retreat. These include the rows of paper mulberries that flanked the house; the clumps of ornamental trees and oval-shaped flower beds located on the northern side of the structure; and the paved circular road that brought carriages to the steps of Jefferson’s octagonal retreat. This paper will discuss how soil studies have provided significant insight into...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia M. Samford.

The world of enslaved African Americans included not only the solid ground beneath their feet and other physical landmarks, but also the sky above them, replete with planets and stars.  In a world without maps, compasses or, in many instances, the ability to read directions, the enslaved were dependent upon visual cues for making their way through the landscape.  Oral traditions and historical documents reveal that planets and constellations were important guides for finding one’s way,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Webster.

In his 1849 autobiography, Josiah Henson, a former slave, preacher, and conductor on the Underground Railroad, recounted a single, brutal event that occurred at La Grange, the plantation on which he was born. Henson’s account related little about everyday life for the enslaved families at La Grange. In 2016, archaeologists from St. Mary’s College of Maryland undertook a Phase I survey at La Grange. A quarter complex and several individual quarters were discovered during the survey. These...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Terry Brock.

Landscape analysis of slave plantations typically approaches the plantation scale, analyzing the distribution of the built environment across the plantation itself. This paper will focus on the analysis of the domestic slave quarter of James Madison's Montpelier, and how the yards, structures, and features were organized and used by the Madisons and enslaved community. Over the course of multiple field seasons , archaeologists have conducted extensive field excavations uncovering three...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Beatrix Arendt. Stephanie Hacker. John G. Jones.

The transition from tobacco to wheat cultivation in the late-18th century at Monticello radically altered agricultural ecology, as swidden plots gave way to permanent fields.  We use macrobotanical remains and pollen as complementary evidence to assess how this shift affected plants use strategies employed by enslaved field hands and the botanical environments they maintained adjacent to their houses.  The identified shift in pollen taxa does not match the pattern we previously identified for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Barbara Heath.

Laboring people, especially the enslaved, are often considered to be archaeologically invisible during the first century of settlement in the colonial Chesapeake. In this paper I focus on key aspects of landscapes—fields, forests, and rivers—to consider how a landscape approach can illuminate the daily practice of enslaved Africans and indentured servants in the 17th century. While the focus on productive labor was tobacco cultivation that underpinned the economy, alternate economies dependent...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Reeves.

Plantations consist of multiple sites spread across the landscape with site contexts that are can be easily seen as discrete and separate entities. This paper argues for seeing these sites from more of a single site context using horizon markers on varying scales of inter-relation. These horizon markers can range from particular artifact types (sets of unique ceramics, agricultural implements), depositional contexts (rubble and fill deposits), and occupation period (generational/new owners)....