"Household Stuffe sufficient to furnish plentifully 2 large houses": The Material World of Jesuit Plantations in Colonial Maryland

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Maryland’s Ancient [Seat] and Chief of Government: Papers in Honor of Henry M. Miller" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Missionaries from the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) were among the earliest investors in the Maryland colony, eventually acquiring a dozen plantations in Maryland and neighboring colonies. These estates were designed to support both Indian missions and a college, but by the eighteenth century they had become cogs in the Jesuits’ vast but covert network of missions. In this paper, I use archaeological and historical evidence to interpret the material world of colonial Jesuit sites in southern Maryland. I explore the challenges of archaeological interpretation when faced with a sparse documentary record, a variety of site survey methods, and sites that—at least on the surface—seem “typical” for the Chesapeake. By delving into foundational literature and datasets, I question and refine material expectations for Jesuit plantations in the Middle Atlantic region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Maryland’s Ancient [Seat] and Chief of Government: Papers in Honor of Henry M. Miller   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 908