Documentary Archaeology and African American Heritage in Central Florida

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond the Classroom: Campus Archaeology and Community Collaboration" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Florida figures prominently in the history of African American archaeology. Emerging perspectives continue to deepen our understanding of plantation and maroon sites. However, a multiplicity of historical African American sites exist in the state. This article explores initial findings of a collaborative project developed by faculty and students at the University of Central Florida. We draw inspiration from the Texas Freedom Colonies Project to identify and interpret a variety of historical African American communities in Central Florida. These include logging camps, rural towns, cemeteries, and other sites demonstrating the diversity of Florida’s African American heritage. These places remain threatened by intentional erasure, histories of coerced migration, and development-related destruction. In addition to exploring new methods and data for documenting and sharing these histories, we also discuss the importance of re-naming these locations considering the country’s current relationship with race and reconciliation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond the Classroom: Campus Archaeology and Community Collaboration   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology