Excavations in the carriage house basement of the Sorrel-Weed House

Summary

The Sorrel-Weed House in Savannah is one of only a handful of antebellum homes in the city's tourism industry to undergo archaeological studies. In spring 2017, excavations were conducted in the basement of the carriage house, where a depression in the floor was thought to be caused by the remains of a former enslaved woman. Completed in ca. 1841, the Sorrel-Weed House was built for merchant Francis Sorrel and is now the focus of a public interpretation program that involves infidelity, slave-master sexual relations, suicide, and murder. However, the results of the archaeological studies contradict the the major components of this interpretation. Results point to postbellum dates for both the construction of the carriage house and for the site's terminus post quem. These results underscore how archaeology may contradict documentary evidence, oral tradition, and public interpretation programs within the tourism industry, and the difficult conversations that can arise from this.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond and Between the Plantation; The Archaeology of "Everything But" in the American Southeast   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 806