Water At Montpelier: Creating And Controlling A 19th Century Plantation Landscape
Author(s): Erica G Moses
Year: 2017
Summary
In the early 19th century, James Madison's plantation in Orange County, VA was undergoing a number of dramatic changes as the house and grounds were extensively modified. At some point during this period, an unusually complex water supply system was constructed in what is now called the South Yard, an area near the main house where enslaved families lived and worked. This paper examines the evidence for this system, along with other water sources within the formal grounds, to consider not only the practical choices made by the Madisons and their enslaved laborers but the way these water sources reflect the increasingly controlled and manipulated landscape at Montpelier during this period of change.
Cite this Record
Water At Montpelier: Creating And Controlling A 19th Century Plantation Landscape. Erica G Moses. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435519)
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Keywords
General
Landscape
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Plantation
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Water Supply
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
Late 18th and early 19th centuries
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): 651