Divided: Material Landscapes of Labor in Nineteenth-Century Baltimore City and County, Maryland

Summary

Like the strikes of the late nineteenth century, especially the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, tensions arising from chronic inequality and marginalization once again led to protests and demonstrations in Baltimore in April 2015.  Areas of Baltimore remain alienated along racial and class lines that serve a capitalist process driven by the maximization of profit.  This paper examines how this same process resulted in the stratification of immigrant and African American communities in Baltimore City and County during the second half of the nineteenth century. Archaeological research has the ability to document how these divisions were materialized and reinforced through the landscape and everyday objects and thus, offers an avenue for understanding and addressing current narratives.

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 946