Race and Alienation in Baltimore's Hampden

Summary

The recent uprising in West Baltimore took place less than two miles from the neighborhood of Hampden, but, with a few notable exceptions, it made little impact there.  Writers and historians have long understood the Baltimore neighborhood of Hampden to be culturally, geographically, and racially  isolated from the city in which it is embedded.  Archaeological investigations performed there have helped to illustrate how class and power relationships changed over time, ultimately reinforcing that isolation for white workers in the 19th-century mill town. As it was incorporated into the city, Hampden became increasingly well known as a white working-class enclave, inhospitable to outsiders in the increasingly African-American city. We explore the history of Hampden’s interaction with the surrounding city, positing that its development, its continued isolation after 1900, and the alienation of its workforce present a foil against which to examine the development of neighborhood-based segregation in Baltimore.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• In the Land of Pleasant Living: Archaeology and its Role in 21st-Century Baltimore   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 737