Cotton to the Doorstep: Gardening and Food Storage in the Early 20th-Century Southeast

Summary

Early 20th-century southeastern farmers with the means to do so diversified and adopted the materials and methods of farm modernization. Poorer families grew cash crops almost exclusively, detrimental to their garden spaces and their wellbeing. Archaeologists have measured modernization, in part, through the presence of glass storageware. However, the act of storing gardened and gathered foods did not necessarily require modern materials or methods. Materials changed through time, but in many ways traditional lifeways continued. This paper recasts recovered glass and ceramic storageware from small farm sites in Georgia as evidence of traditional gardening and storage practices by small farmers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Crops and Culture: The Archaeology of Agricultural Thought   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 540