Searching for Guinea Street: Cato Freeman, Lucy Foster, and the African American community of Andover, Massachusetts

Summary

In the 18th century and early 19th century, Andover, Massachusetts was home to a large African American community. However, we only know about a few of the inhabitants from the documentary record and archaeology. Only two African American homesites have been excavated- Cato Freeman and Lucy Foster (Black Lucy’s Garden). Selective acknowledgement and acceptance of a few African Americans by past and present communities have, at times, created a palimpsest towards the larger African American community and their identity creation and the racialized social, political/legal, and economic structures that eventually led to their exodus from Andover in the 1850s. In this paper I will return Cato Freeman and Lucy Foster to the racialized landscape, putting them into the larger African American community that surrounded them by using archaeological data and documentary records including census, town, and church. I will also discuss my attempt to find an area of the town once colloquially known as Guinea Street.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• ‘Black Yankees’ and the African Diaspora: Contemporary Perspectives on the Archaeology of African Americans in New England

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-37,07