The Intersection of Space and Power: Plantation Overseers in the American South

Summary

This paper explores the identification and interpretation of overseers in the archaeological record of colonial and antebellum plantations. While plantation landscapes have traditionally been split into opposing conceptions of owner and slave, white and black; this study attempts to incorporate overseers and their spaces as the intersection of those landscapes, critical to the negotiation of race and power. Archaeological studies of overseers have been relatively limited and few attempts have been made since the 1970’s to reconsider how overseers can be identified and understood archaeologically. Past attempts to distinguish between overseers, poor whites, and slaves using artifact patterns revealed the need for a more contextual and comprehensive approach. Taking examples of overseer’s sites from archaeological excavations, reports, and historic maps this paper integrates social space theory to investigate how the layout of overseer’s quarters in relation to both slave’s and owner’s dwellings correlates with and informs the relationships between those groups and the roles of overseers in plantation society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• The Intersecting Plantation Landscape II

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-65,04