"They Considered Themselves Free": Defining Community and Freedom at Buffalo Forge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

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.

On Saturday, May 27th, 1865, Buffalo Forge ironmaster Daniel C.E. Brady noted in his journal: “All hands quit work as they considered themselves free.” This seemingly isolated, abrupt moment in time belies several overlapping periods of transition, tension, and community self-determination before and after that single date. This paper traces the African-American ironmaking community through the Civil War and the forge property’s brief transition to a tenant farming system. Recent archaeological and archival research has recovered evidence of long-term yard maintenance, domestic economies, and access to distant resources like oyster shell, suggesting decades-long efforts to claim space, time, and freedom in the industrial Valley. Although this research focuses on work covering the antebellum and immediate postbellum periods at Buffalo Forge, this resilient community’s 20th- and 21st-century influences on and beyond Buffalo Forge are highlighted.

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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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 1063