An Intersectional Analysis of Personal Adornment at the African Meeting House in Boston

Author(s): Erica A. Lang

Year: 2020

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "An Archaeology Of Freedom: Exploring 19th-Century Black Communities And Households In New England." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Built in 1806, the African Meeting House in Boston was a prominent social institution for the free Black community residing on Beacon Hill. Beyond functioning as a church, the African Meeting House was used as a school, housing for community members, as well as a meeting space for political discourse and celebrations for the local community. The public and religious nature of the African Meeting House likely had an impact on the ways that social identities were presented and constructed in this space. Building on research done by the Museum of African American History and the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, I will analyze the objects of personal adornment unearthed during the many years of excavations. This paper will present preliminary findings on the sartorial practices within this free African American community to examine the ways intersections of race, gender, and class affected personal adornment.

Cite this Record

An Intersectional Analysis of Personal Adornment at the African Meeting House in Boston. Erica A. Lang. 2020 ( tDAR id: 456799)

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): 742