MAPPING MEMORIES OF FREETOWN: the Meanings of a Native American House in a Black Neighborhood

Summary

The rediscovery of a 20th century Montaukett home in what is remembered as an "historically-black neighborhood" sheds new light on the silenced histories of people of color on Long Island. While efforts are underway to preserve and restore the Fowler house and property, the authors are working with residents, descendants, and community members to understand the relationships that formed around this property, and throughout the Freetown neighborhood. In this paper, landscape and space are discussed in relation to the creation and maintenance of social networks in the Freetown neighborhood. The preliminary results of this ongoing research suggest that constructed categories of difference (i.e., black/white/Indian) continue to complicate or control how history is produced, canonized, and remembered, but not necessarily how it was lived. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Refuge and support: Historical Archaeologies of Multiracial Native American and African American Sites and Communities

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 454