A Tale of Two Removals: Fort Hampton, Alabama (1810-1817)

Summary

This paper will investigate the material and structural remains of Fort Hampton, an American military installation established in 1810 near a branch of the Elk River, in present-day Limestone County, Alabama. Fort Hampton was constructed to remove Anglo settlers from Native American-owned lands prior to the Chickasaw cession of 1816, and was in operation between 1810 and 1817. This was a short-lived, but significant era in the history of Anglo and Native American habitation of northern Alabama: one in which the American government seemingly protected the Native American cause. The site of Fort Hampton is investigated from a landscape perspective, and is interpreted as a place of cultural negotiation due to its desirable and strategic characteristics. The aims of this project are to locate the site of Fort Hampton, to use archaeological and documentary evidence to construct a habitation history of the site from Anglo ‘intruders’ to present day, and to interpret the two Removals - ‘ that of early Anglo settlers, and that of the Chickasaw people post-1816 - from a landscape perspective.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Removal   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-80,03