"Representativeness" and Sampling Dilemmas: A Comparison of Slave Cabins at the Bulow Plantation (1821-1836), Flagler County, Florida

Summary

For three summers University of Florida researchers have worked at the Bulow Plantation, a large sugar plantation in East Florida founded in 1821 and destroyed by fire in 1836 during the Second Seminole War, in an attempt to understand the parameters of enslavement at that site.  In 2014 and 2015, the UF Archaeological Field School completely exposed the footprint of Cabin 1; relatively few artifacts were recovered, including an almost complete lack of buttons, beads, and other personal possessions, but the cabin did exhibit a distinct African architectural feature in the form of a stone lined sub-floor pit.  This cabin was presumed to be representative of slave life at Bulowville and a narrative of austerity emerged.  However, in 2016 we began the process of excavating a nearby contemporaneous slave cabin, and in the process recovered objects that substantively changed this nascent narrative of African enslavement in early 19th century Florida.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2017   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 338