A View from Phase II: Evaluations of Post-bellum African American Sites on Mulberry Island, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, City of Newport News, Virginia

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Over 230 archaeological sites have been recorded at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Tidewater Virginia, and most famously include early colonial occupations and Civil War fortifications on Mulberry Island. However, a growing body of cultural resource management work has shed light on the development of a rural post-bellum African American community of farmsteads and tenants on the island. Between 2009 and 2016, WSP has conducted Phase II National Register Evaluations at 14 sites across Joint Base Langley-Eustis, largely on Mulberry Island, and on several sites with known historical associations to African American households. This paper explores the investigations, findings, and themes developed on several sites recommended as eligible for the National Register for their potential to yield information on changing agriculture, domestic life, and community development of African Americans transitioning from slavery to tenant and wage-based labor in the decades following the Civil War.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 1023