Which Way to the Jook Joint?: Historical Archaeology of a Polk County, Florida Turpentine Camp
Author(s): Deborah Ziel
Year: 2016
Summary
The turpentine industry employed African American labor in the southeastern United States under a system of debt peonage that was similar to antebellum slavery. One such company camp, Nalaka, located in Polk County, Florida was in operation between 1919 and 1928. The circumstance of its abandonment is unknown. Although no structures survive, artifact scatters from 1920s Nalaka remain in situ. Despite the oppression of peonage, African American laborers developed venues known as "jook joints" for the expression of agency through leisure. This study reconstructs the layout of Nalaka based upon artifact provenience (documented with GPS and ArcGIS technology,) secondary ethnographic sources, and historical records to determine whether or not the camp supported a jook joint, and if so, where was its likely location.
Cite this Record
Which Way to the Jook Joint?: Historical Archaeology of a Polk County, Florida Turpentine Camp. Deborah Ziel. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, Florida. 2016 ( tDAR id: 405276)
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Keywords
General
African American
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ArcGIS
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Historical Archaeology
Geographic Keywords
North America - Southeast
Spatial Coverage
min long: -91.274; min lat: 24.847 ; max long: -72.642; max lat: 36.386 ;