The Multivocality of Firearm Materials Among the Captive Africans of the Hume Plantation, Georgetown, South Carolina 1790s-1860s

Summary

This paper will discuss firearm materials and related artifacts found in the slave quarter of the historic Hume Plantation, a rice producer in the South Carolina low country from the late eighteenth century until the Civil War. Due to the historical context of violent outbreaks in the region including a murder at a neighboring plantation, it would seem that firearms and materials that could be used for weaponry would be highly prohibited among the enslaved population. Furthermore, according to laws at the time, enslaved Africans found in possession of such materials could face severe punishments and even death. This paper is an exploration of the implications of European masters who may have allowed them in certain cases, and the mulivocality of meaning these materials represented to those enslaved who possessed them.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16049