Materializing the Past: Ghosting Slave Landscapes at James Madison’s Montpelier

Summary

Starting in 2010 the Montpelier Foundation, the organization that operates James Madison’s plantation in Orange County, Virginia, began a systematic process to reestablish elements of the ca. 1812 slave occupied landscape found adjacent to the Madisons’ house.  These ghosted structures, which include slave dwellings, smoke houses and a kitchen, are based on archaeological and documentary evidence and were recreated using traditional framing techniques.  More recently the Foundation finished a ghosted recreation of a log slave dwelling found adjacent to the earlier recreations and is planning on recreating an additional log slave dwelling that was discovered archaeologically in one of Madison’s agricultural fields.  Authors Jobie Hill, Willie Graham, and Gardiner Hallock will detail the archaeological evidence, documentary records, and surviving historic structures that were used to develop designs for the ghosted structures and place the reconstructed buildings into a regional historical context that explains their form and function.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bringing back the Community: Archaeology of an Early 19th Century Enslaved Community at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange County Virginia   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

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Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 593