Paternalism and Changing Perceptions of Enslaved Individuals

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The paternalism movement as it relates to the institution of slavery describes the trend of treating enslaved individuals "well" with the aim of convincing them that staying with their captors is their most appealing option, thereby reducing rates at which those individuals ran away rom the estates at which they were held captive. This movement included efforts to Christianize enslaved individuals, through institutions like the Bray School in Williamsburg, Virginia. Language in guidelines provided to slave owners and instructors for school enforced submissive behavior for the enslaved individuals. The movement had the apparent effect of humanizing enslaved individuals in the eyes of slave owners which is reflected in the way individuals are described in runaway slave advertisements, as compared to the descriptions of the goods they took with them during their escape. This discussion will compare linguistic analysis of relevant documents to contemporary archaeological data to look for corresponding trends.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 842