Forestalling Liberation: Enslaved Refugees in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina, 1861-1865.

Author(s): Kevin Fogle

Year: 2018

Summary

The well-publicized liberation of Port Royal in late 1861 was a major concern for slaveholders who operated plantations along the coast or near potential military targets. In an attempt to keep their enslaved communities in bondage, many large planters abandoned their plantations and relocated their bondsmen to sparsely populated inland regions far from the probable path of Union forces. The refugeeing of enslaved laborers put entire communities in perilous circumstances tearing apart support networks and families. Using archaeological and documentary evidence from a 19th century cotton plantation in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina, this paper explores the social implications of this massive resettlement as a catastrophic event that transformed the broad cultural landscape both during the Civil War, and immediately after, as many former slaves sought to return to their homelands.

Cite this Record

Forestalling Liberation: Enslaved Refugees in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina, 1861-1865.. Kevin Fogle. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441492)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 636