The Archaeology of Citizenship: African American School Sites in Post-emancipation Tennessee

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A prototype visualization tool for a statewide historical geography of African American communities emerging in Tennessee’s post-Civil War period is raising awareness and elevating visibility of the African American historic cultural landscape—both above and below ground—for cultural resource management as well as for students, educators, planners, and the general public. An important outcome of this digital scholarship project, which takes the form of a publicly available GIS-based story map supported by an on-line collection of primary sources, is the identification of post-emancipation African American school sites predating the Rosenwald School era. These early school sites can be interpreted both as expressions of formerly enslaved African Americans claiming citizenship through education and as signifiers of post-emancipation community formation. While the original school buildings are no longer extant, recognition of their archaeological presence adds temporal breadth to the body of African American archaeological sites recorded in Tennessee and may promote conservation in development or planning scenarios. Components of this research include fieldwork to meet with community historians, interrogating their research and additional primary sources through the lens of archaeology, sharing new insights with community partners, and developing a sustainable work product that others can use or build on.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33519