Happy Trails: The Archaeology of Backcountry Cowpens in Colonial South Carolina

Summary

Cattle raising was prevalent and lucrative in 1700s South Carolina.  Site investigations conducted at the Thomas Howell and Catherine Brown cowpens revealed the material characteristics of mid-century cattle raisers in the South Carolina interior frontier or backcountry.  The study households were of Welsh ancestry and enslaved Africans also lived at the two cowpens.  Although financially prosperous, archaeology illustrates the Brown and Howell families experienced frontier living conditions probably typical of other colonial cattle raisers.  The site residents lived in modest earthfast dwellings, used colonoware, and also were active users of consumer goods, especially English ceramics.  Regarding foodways revealed through fauna data, as expected the Howell and Brown households mainly relied upon beef, but also supplemented their diets with a noticeable amount of wild game.  Rather than being indicative of impoverished living conditions, the wild game consumed at the cowpens is viewed as providing dietary variety from the usual domesticated fare.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017   •
• Honoring Cowtown: Cattle Husbandry in Historical Zooarchaeology

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 156