An Archaeology Of Freedom: Exploring 19th-Century Black Communities And Households In New England.
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "An Archaeology Of Freedom: Exploring 19th-Century Black Communities And Households In New England.," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
For decades, historical archaeologists have worked to give voice to the experiences of historic black communities, but relatively few studies within the sub-discipline of African Diaspora Archaeology have been situated in New England. This symposium will present recent archaeological research focused on free black communities and households in Boston and Nantucket, MA. With slavery abolished in Massachusetts by 1783, the experiences of individuals within free black communities were shaped by this new, post-slavery racialized state. The papers presented here critically explore the effects of this racialization in the formation, expansion, and politicization of these communities throughout the 19th-century. Topics to be discussed include the role and effect of African Meeting Houses, the spatial structure of free black communities, the intersectionality of black identities at the community and household level, experiences of domesticity, and the position of historic black New Englanders within the African Diaspora.
Other Keywords
African Diaspora •
Race •
New England •
Drinking •
personal adornment •
Institutions •
Intersectionality •
Community Space •
Northeast US •
Ceramic Motifs
Temporal Keywords
19th Century •
19th-Century
Geographic Keywords
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) •
Delaware (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-4 of 4)
- Documents (4)
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Domesticity Through Decoration: An Analysis of Early 19th-Century Ceramic Decorative Motifs from the Boston-Higginbotham House, Nantucket, MA. (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "An Archaeology Of Freedom: Exploring 19th-Century Black Communities And Households In New England." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Boston’s of Nantucket, a family of African and Native American descent, greatly impacted the development of the free black community of New Guinea during the late 18th-19th centuries. During the 1820s-1830s, Mary Boston-Douglass, a woman who married into the Boston family,...
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Examining Racialized Space: Understanding Free Communities Of Color Through Property Records (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "An Archaeology Of Freedom: Exploring 19th-Century Black Communities And Households In New England." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. By the 19th century, slavery was abolished in New England and African Americans living in the region were legally free. Despite this, they occupied a tenuous position in American society, with political, economic, and social inequality a constant reality, and the continued...
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An Intersectional Analysis of Personal Adornment at the African Meeting House in Boston (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "An Archaeology Of Freedom: Exploring 19th-Century Black Communities And Households In New England." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Built in 1806, the African Meeting House in Boston was a prominent social institution for the free Black community residing on Beacon Hill. Beyond functioning as a church, the African Meeting House was used as a school, housing for community members, as well as a meeting space...
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Spirits And Spirituality: Drinking, Smoking, And Racial Uplift In 19th Century Nantucket, MA (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "An Archaeology Of Freedom: Exploring 19th-Century Black Communities And Households In New England." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Boston University and UMass Boston excavations at the Nantucket African Meeting House and neighboring Boston-Higginbotham House provide a unique opportunity to investigate the relationship between institutions and individual materiality. Throughout the 19th century, African...