Personal Adornment in the Context of Antebellum Slavery at Poplar Forest (1830-1858)
Author(s): Lori Lee
Year: 2013
Summary
Objects classified as personal adornment are often vested with meanings that reveal significant insight into their owners because they are personal. The context in which objects are used is critical to understanding potential meanings. This essay considers the recontextualization of personal adornment items, particularly glass beads, a pierced coin, and an alloy fastener, used by enslaved laborers at antebellum Poplar Forest plantation. The enslaved mobilized these forms of material culture in shared and idiosyncratic ways to gain varying degrees of control over elements of their daily lives, such as health, well-being, family life, and self-definition.
Cite this Record
Personal Adornment in the Context of Antebellum Slavery at Poplar Forest (1830-1858). Lori Lee. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428433)
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Keywords
General
antebellum
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personal adornment
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Plantation
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Slavery
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
Nineteenth Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 647