A San Diego Slave Quarters: Archaeological and Architectural Analyses of the Late 19th-and Early-20th Century Nate Harrison Cabin

Summary

The architectural footprint of the Nate Harrison cabin site is unlike the remains of any other structure found in San Diego County: past or present, rural or urban, ornate or ordinary.  An examination of archaeological, historical, and photographic evidence reveals how anomalous Harrison’s home structure truly was for 19th-century southern California.  While the immediate region has no architectural parallels in terms of the cabin’s size, shape, building material, orientation, and use areas inside and outside of the dwelling, a survey of slave cabins found in the Antebellum South indicates a clear link between Harrison’s past as a slave and the decision-making process used to construct his primary dwelling in San Diego County.  The design of the structure and its location on the region’s highest mountain are discussed in a terms of Harrison’s emancipation to offer new insights into race politics in nineteenth century southern California.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• "Born a Slave, Died a Pioneer": Nate Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 659