Establishing Community: Post-Civil War Placemaking in Rural Tennessee

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Working on the 19th-Century" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In the 1860s, African Americans sought to create separate physical spaces and cultural institutions of their own, specifically churches, cemeteries, and schools. Tennessee State Historian Dr. Carroll Van West has hypothesized that the nexus of these institutions, as well as fraternal lodges and businesses, was the basis for early African American community formation. West’s hypothesis is the starting point for "Places, Perspectives," a prototype cultural landscape tool (funded by the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area) that highlights the historical geography of post-emancipation African American communities in Tennessee. Documents, photographs, and first-hand accounts (in large part shared by community historian partners) are serving as evidence in the creation of a mapped landscape linked to digital primary sources. Available through an online platform, "Places, Perspectives" may be a useful resource for archaeologists, historians, and the public to identify elements of this historically underrepresented geography.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• Working on the 19th-Century

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 508