Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2023
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology," at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
States of oppression and “unfreedom” have existed globally for millennia; however, as Frederick Douglass observed, “No man can put a chain around the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.” The ways that systems of inequality manifest materially provide insights on the lived experiences of those involved as well as into the ideologies embedded within those systems. This session brings together papers on places that exemplify unfreedom and intense inequality, including contexts of enslavement, coerced and forced labor, class inequality, and other forms of (capitalist) oppression, to examine the breadth of material signatures of inequality. How is inequality enacted and enforced through objects and spaces? How is identity negotiated and renegotiated under circumstances of unfreedom? How do oppressed communities resist their oppression? Artifact-, landscape-, and theoretically-based approaches to this subject are welcome.
Other Keywords
landscapes •
Power •
Iron •
Archaeology •
Historic Cemeteries •
Colonization •
Slavery •
Plantation Archaeology •
Identity •
Queer Theory
Geographic Keywords
North America •
South America •
Eastern United States •
Mid-Atlantic •
West Africa •
Southeast US •
Central Europe, Austria •
Tulsa, Oklahoma, Midwest region •
Virginia, Mid-Atlantic
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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A Black Space Elevated on a Hill: An Archaeology of Hate and Racial Violence in Black Wall Street’s Most Affluent Neighborhood (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In this paper, we present an archaeology of anti-Black violence and economic inequality in early 20th Century Tulsa, Oklahoma. Here, white jealousy, hatred, and class resentment exploded in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, leading to almost unimaginable consequences for...
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Grave Anatomy: Dissecting Bodies of Meaning in Historical North American Burials (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, changes in philosophical and medical knowledge resulted in new relationships between the living and the dead in the Western world. This resulted in new strategies of deciding who was part of a community and how best to...
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Landscapes of Slavery and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century French Guiana (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. French colonial chroniclers characterized plantation slavery in Guyane as consistently lacking in funds and labor. Despite a small population and marginal profits, French enslavers sought to manifest their imaginings of a productive colony through landscapes that...
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The Materiality of Convict Leasing: Landscapes, Objects, and Lessons from 19th Century Carceral Unfreedom (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Despite promises of freedom and citizenship for Black people in the United States following the Civil War, legal and cultural systems arose almost immediately to ensure Black citizens, particularly those in former Confederate states, would never achieve parity with...
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Profit and Loss: Forced Labor at the Northampton Iron Furnace (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. From the 1760s to the 1820s, convicts, indentured servants, and enslaved peoples worked and died producing and forging iron near Baltimore, Maryland. The iron was crucial to the growth of the British Empire, the American Revolution, and the building of the town of...
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"She Dressed in Strictly Native Style": The Materiality of Power and Identity in the 19th Transatlantic Slave Trade (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Early 19th century legislation by European and American powers banning the forced exportation of enslaved Africans from the continent did not bring about an end to the transatlantic slave trade. Rather, it prompted traders to explore more secluded establishments and...
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Understanding the Expressions of "UnFreedom" at the Montpelier Plantation’s Home Farm (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Montpelier Archaeology Department conducted archaeological surveys across the Home Farm at Montpelier, the plantation home of James Madison, from 2019-2022. In this paper, we will take a step back to explore how choices we–as archaeologists–made to interpret and...
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Viewsheds, Borders, Accessibilities – The Spatial Structuring of National-Socialist Forced Camps Illustrated by the Example of the Concentration Camp Mauthausen (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. One of the primary functions of Nazi forced camps was to intern specific groups of people within an area surrounded by walls and fences and to isolate them from the outside world. These camps were subdivided to form a complex system of areas with different...
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"We have Enriched it with our Blood and Tears": Debating Citizenship and Colonization at Montpelier (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In his 1829 Appeal, David Walker argued for African Americans citizenship, asking, "will they drive us from our property and homes, which we have earned with our blood?" The Appeal was part of a larger resistance in Black political thought against the racist political...