"Take Heede When Ye Wash": Laundry and Slavery on a Virginia Plantation

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Enslavement" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Before the invention and spread of the modern washing machine, the task of laundry was an arduous process that took days to complete and usually fell to the women of the household. However, despite the ubiquity of their task, enslaved washerwomen generally have been disregarded in the historical study of plantation labor. During the recent reanalysis of the archaeological collection from the Wing of Offices at Poplar Forest, archaeologists have used architectural and archaeological evidence to reassess the long-standing supposition that the third room in the structure was used as a laundry facility. By exploring the historical context and material traces of washing clothes, an archaeological model for dedicated laundry spaces can be developed. Through such studies, we can better incorporate this oft-overlooked chore into our interpretations of female labor on Southern plantations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• Archaeologies of Enslavement

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 210