LiDAR, Historic Maps, Pedestrian Survey, and Shovel Tests: Defining Slave Independence on Sapelo Island, Georgia
Author(s): Lindsey Cochran; Nicholas Honerkamp; Cornelia Walker Bailey
Year: 2017
Summary
Slave cabins within two settlements at Bush Camp Field and Behavior on Sapelo Island, Georgia deviate from typical lowcountry Georgia architectural and landscape patterns. Rather than poured tabby duplexes arranged in a linear fashion, excavations in the 1990s by Ray Crook identified two wattle and tabby daub structures—both with slightly different architecture, and both built in an African creolized style. A 2016 University of Tennessee project attempted to locate additional slave cabins in both settlements to test if these structures are pattern or anomaly. LiDAR, historical maps, pedestrian surveys, and shovel tests allowed for the identification of an additional cabin, also made of wattle and tabby daub. Following Crook’s analysis and Geechee oral history, we argue that the nonlinear cabin placement and creolized African, Caribbean, and European architectural elements are both examples of one end of the spectrum of independence within 19th century lowcountry slavery.
Cite this Record
LiDAR, Historic Maps, Pedestrian Survey, and Shovel Tests: Defining Slave Independence on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Lindsey Cochran, Nicholas Honerkamp, Cornelia Walker Bailey. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435516)
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Keywords
General
creolization
•
Gullah-Geechee
•
Lowcountry Landscape
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
Antebellum
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 648