Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
The Belvoir quarter was discovered just outside of Annapolis, Maryland during a survey along General's Highway. The excavation of the stone foundation and exposure of the brick floor revealed a unique home where enslaved Africans once lived and worked. Archaeologists have closely analyzed the ceramic and faunal assemblages to reveal details about the status and diet of enslaved people who worked alongside of the planter and his family. Surviving architectural elements such as hearths and a subfloor pit, provided clues about the condition of the quarter before it fell into disrepair. Perhaps one of the most exciting discoveries came from a tobacco pipe stem that still held human DNA. These findings, along with the participation in the project by the descendant community, demonstrate the potential research value and human impact of intensely studying a single site within a larger plantation landscape.
Other Keywords
Slavery •
Ceramics •
Architecture •
Plantation •
Foraging •
Dna •
Quarter •
Plantation Archaeology •
zooarchaelogy •
African Diaspora
Temporal Keywords
Nineteenth Century •
Mid-19th Century •
18th - 19th centuries •
1780s-1880s •
Late 18th to Early 19th Centuries
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 1-5 of 5)
- Documents (5)
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The Hunting and Foraging Strategies of an Enslaved Population at the Belvoir Plantation (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Historic literature frequently alludes to plantation owners being unable to or unwilling to adequately feed their slaves. It was therefore not uncommon for slaves to supplement their diet with wild game. There has been little said of how this was done. Specifically how were the work intensive tasks of hunting and foraging...
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The Research Potential of DNA from Tobacco Pipes (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Often, archaeologists are challenged by assigning cultural affiliations to their sites. Recently, four tobacco pipe stems were collected from a Maryland slave quarter and sent to a DNA lab. The analysis revealed the ancestry and sex of one of the tobacco pipe smokers, thereby providing archaeoloigsts a scientific link to a...
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Stories from the Kitchen: Ceramic Analysis of the Belvoir Slave Quarter (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The discovery and excavation of a brick and stone slave quarter provides a rare opportunity to study an artifact assemblage produced from the preparation and consumption of meals prepared by, and for, an enslaved community. This paper will present the types of vessels and decorations represented in the thousands of ceramics...
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A Subfloor Pit from Stone Slave Quarters at Belvoir, Maryland: A panoply of objects within a succession of functions (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Excavation of stone quarters for enslaved African Americans by the Maryland Department of Transportation revealed a subfloor pit adjacent to a hearth in its front room. Such features are found in the homes of enslaved African Americans throughout North America. Patricia Samford’s (2007) systematic comparative analysis of...
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The Unique Architecture of the Quarters for Enslaved African Americans at Belvoir (2020)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The square, ironstone and brick masonry quarter discovered at Belvoir is a unique form seldom constructed by Chesapeake planters, though it incorporated a plan considered by some, including Thomas Jefferson. Complete excavation provided information pertaining to the unusual architecture as well as to the use of interior and...