Reckoning: Landscapes and Legacies of Slavery
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2018
The landscape of Virginia, as elsewhere in the U.S., is largely a legacy of slavery. Enslaved women and men constructed roads, cleared fields, and raised buildings still used today, but the centrality of black people’s labor, skill, knowledge, and ability in crafting these spaces was often publically obscured during the twentieth century. Many people have been able to move along country roads, sidewalks in small towns, and paths on university campuses without acknowledging – some indeed oblivious to – the role that coerced labor played in their creation. Recent archaeological and historical investigations help prompt remembering and greater understanding of African-Virginians’ creation of the enduring landscape, not only re-illuminating their activity but also facilitating reflection on and discussion of the racialized past. Research focused on human remains, cemeteries, plantation yards and quarters, town lots, and university campuses obliges diverse community members, including historical archaeologists, to reckon with legacies of slavery in Virginia.
Other Keywords
Slavery •
Landscape •
Labor •
Plantations •
Social Order •
Virginia •
Memory •
Memorialization •
Access •
inequality
Temporal Keywords
Early To Mid-19th Century •
Antebellum •
19th C. •
19th and early 20th centuries •
Slavery and Post-Emancipation Time Periods •
1770-1830 •
Early National and Antebellum
Geographic Keywords
North America •
Coahuila (State / Territory) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Texas (State / Territory) •
Sonora (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
Chihuahua (State / Territory) •
Nuevo Leon (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)
- Documents (7)
- The "Colored Dead": African American Burying Grounds in a Confederate Stronghold (2018)
- An Examination of Enslaved African Domestic and Labor Environments on St. Eustatius (2018)
- Interpreting Landscapes of Slavery at James Monroe’s Highland (2018)
- The Landscape through Nat Turner’s Eyes (2018)
- The Rise of Slavery in the Valley of Virginia and its Enduring Presence on the Landscape of Lexington and Rockbridge County (2018)
- "That Kind of Place": Re-Illuminating Enslaved Women at Buffalo Forge Plantation, Rockbridge County, Virginia (2018)
- Up and Down the Mountain: Exploring differential access within Monticello’s enslaved community (2018)