Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

A common theme in the study of 19th-century Black/African-American histories, archaeological sites, historic spaces, and heritage places is the repeated connections between individuals and communities that often crosses community, state/provincial, and national borders. The purpose of this session is to bring together researchers from a variety of regions to the explore these connections to understand the differences and similarities between these contexts. In bridging these contexts, these discussions will help explore the work that has been completed and the collaborative research possibilities that could be further explored.

Other Keywords
Underground Railroad • Black Settlement • Military • Urban Archaeology • African-American • Slavery • Black community • Working Class • Violence • Doll

Temporal Keywords
19th Century • Nineteenth Century • Late 19th to Early 20th Century • 19th to 20th Century • 19th-Century • Pre-Civil War • 1820-1890

Geographic Keywords
Massachusetts (State / Territory) • New York (State / Territory) • New Hampshire (State / Territory) • Idaho (State / Territory) • Maine (State / Territory) • Wisconsin (State / Territory) • Michigan (State / Territory) • Washington (State / Territory) • Minnesota (State / Territory) • Vermont (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • The Archaeology and Settlement History of an Early Black neighbourhood in The Ward, Toronto (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Holly Martelle.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper will provide an overview of the archaeology and settlement history of a neighbourhood in The Ward, a celebrated early arrival and multi-cultural working class district in Toronto. Archaeological excavations carried out in advance of the construction for the New Toronto Courthouse...

  • A Black Doll in 19th-Century Toronto (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicole E. Brandon.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2015 TMHC excavated a block in The Ward, an area of downtown Toronto, Ontario, once home to immigrants seeking a better life. Hundreds of thousands of artifacts were recovered. Among the many unique finds was the porcelain bust of a Black doll. Dolls depicting persons of colour are rare....

  • Connecting the Little River Settlement through Space and Time: A Planned 19th-century Black Settlement in Windsor, Ontario, Canada (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Beaudoin.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Little River Settlement was a 19th-century planned community established to provide farmland to Black families in Windsor, Ontario. The community failed for a variety of reasons by the mid-to-late 19th-century and the residents dispersed to other local Black settlements or relocated to...

  • Enslavement to Enlistment: the US Military in 19th Century African American Migration and Resettlement (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Hayes. Sophie Minor.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. As has been recently pointed out, the role of the military in African diaspora studies has been little considered, especially as a vector of migration and resettlement. The site of Fort Snelling in Minnesota offers numerous examples of how such migration was facilitated in the 19th century,...

  • Finding Thomas Green: Freedom Seekers in the Archaeological Record (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah A Clarke.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The City of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada has a long history of African-Canadian settlement that began in the early 19th century. As an Underground Railroad stop, St. Catharines was home to Harriet Tubman for a time in the mid-19th century; visited by abolitionists John Brown and Frederick...

  • The Fugitive Slave Act and the Refugee Crisis of the 1850s: A View from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James A. Delle.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 exacerbated the refugee crisis of the mid-19th century. While an untold number of enslaved people had fled into the northern US prior to 1850, the provisions of the law made residence in the northern states increasingly dangerous for all African Americans. As...

  • Rediscovering the Dawn Settlement and Josiah Henson's Legacy (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dena Doroszenko.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Josiah Henson was known as the patriarch of the British American Institute (BAI) in 1842 which began as a school for the growing freedom-seeker population living at the Dawn Settlement. The Dawn Settlement was a farming community which grew to 500 people by 1850. While the history of the BAI...

  • Where and How Does the Underground Railroad Fit in African American Archaeology? (2020)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cheryl LaRoche.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Deepening understanding of connections among the Underground Railroad, black communities and the larger abolitionist movement has important implications for archaeology. The Underground Railroad can be conceived as a transient, local and international place-based practice with static...