Beyond the Overseer’s House: Centering the Stories of the Enslaved Community at White Hill Plantation

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Northeast Region National Park Service Archeological Landscapes and the Stories They Tell" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Of the larger 18th century plantations overlooking the Appomattox River, White Hill was positioned on the edge of the city of Petersburg, Virginia. The preservation and interpretation of White Hill Plantation is on the fringes of the enabling legislation that established Petersburg National Battlefield to “commemorate the campaign and siege and defenses of Petersburg...to preserve for historical purposes the breastworks, earthworks, and walls, or other defenses or shelters used by the armies therein the battlefields at Petersburg”. The physical landscape of the plantation influenced the battle between Confederate and Federal armies as they exploited the ravines, bluffs, and ponds for cover, concealment, obstacles and observation. However, integral to the story of the Civil War was the cultural landscape of the plantation and those who inhabited “the Quarters”, the name given to the settlement of farm hands” just beyond the Overseer’s house".

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Northeast Region National Park Service Archeological Landscapes and the Stories They Tell

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 930