The Past, Present, and Future of Archaeological Research at The Hermitage: Legacies of Larry McKee and Sam Smith

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

Between 1804 and emancipation, hundreds of people were enslaved at The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation near Nashville, Tennessee. Extensive archaeological investigations between 1974 and 2004, led by Sam Smith, Larry McKee, and Elizabeth Kellar, revealed over twelve domestic sites of enslavement, explored plantation dependencies, and probed yard areas and landscape features. This sustained archaeological campaign commanded national attention in the popular press and the discipline of archaeology as it uncovered hundreds of thousands of artifacts related to a century of antebellum enslavement and Jim Crow-era service. Today, the Hermitage remains the most extensively excavated antebellum plantation. Two recent NEH grants have made archaeological data from these sites available to the public via The Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery. These papers look back at the unprecedented investigations and breathe new life into these collections, offering compelling insights into the economic, social, and cultural dynamics of The Hermitage plantation community.

Other Keywords
Plantation Archaeology • Slavery • Hermitage • Plantation • The Hermitage • Chronology • Race • Larry McKee • Lithic Analysis • Ceramics

Temporal Keywords
Nineteenth Century • 19th Century • 18th & 19th Century • 18th-19th century • 1988-2009 • Archaic, Late Woodland, 19th century • 19th • 1838-1900 • post-emancipation, Jim Crow, c. 1865-1940 • 1825-1850

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 1-18 of 18)

  • Documents (18)
Documents
  1. Archaeology and Interpretation at The Hermitage (2018)
  2. Beyond the Mansion: How the Archaeology Program at a Plantation Museum Changed so Many Lives (2018)
  3. Charlottes, Commies, and China Dishes: The Abundance of Children’s Toys from The Hermitage (2018)
  4. Contextualizing the Exceptional: Understanding "Small Find" Abundance at The Hermitage (2018)
  5. Exploring Material Change on Contemporary Pre- and Post-Emancipation Sites in the US and Caribbean. (2018)
  6. Field of Dreams: Archaeology and Education Hermitage Style (2018)
  7. Following the Pattern: Using Transferprints to Refine 19th Century Site Chronologies (2018)
  8. From Tennessee to Early New England: Larry McKee's Scholarly Reach in the Field of Africana Studies (2018)
  9. Hermitage Archaeology, The Early Years (2018)
  10. In Sickness And In Health: Well-being Of Enslaved Laborers At The Hermitage Plantation (2018)
  11. Lasting Legacies of the Hermitage Archaeology Program (2018)
  12. The Multi-faceted Approach to African American Archaeology under Larry McKee’s Mentorship at The Hermitage (2018)
  13. Post-Emancipation African American Life in the Upper South and South Louisiana: insights from a comparison of material culture from the Hermitage, Tennessee, and Alma and Riverlake Plantations, Louisiana (2018)
  14. Prehistoric Production or Enslaved Curation?: An Evaluation of the Temporal and Spatial Distributions of the Lithic Assemblage at The Hermitage. (2018)
  15. Refining The Hermitage Chronologies (2018)
  16. Reflections in the Hermitage Spring, or How a Summer in Tennessee Drove me Underwater (2018)
  17. Revisiting Root Cellars at The Hermitage, Davidson County, Tennessee. (2018)
  18. What Did It All Mean? Archaeology at The Hermitage in the 1990s (2018)