Recent Research into an Antebellum Brick Slave Cabin at Poplar Forest Plantation

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Current Research on Virginia Plantations: Reexamining Historic Landscapes" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Located only 200 feet east of Thomas Jefferson’s retreat house lay two unassuming brick structures constructed in the 1850s. Based on oral history, one initially housed black enslaved laborers, while the other housed a white overseer and his family. While Jefferson’s architectural showpiece often overshadows these two more humble buildings, they both have a powerful story of their own to tell about those who lived in them and were part of the landscape of Poplar Forest plantation during the final years of slavery and the decades following emancipation. Though analyses are still ongoing, archaeological and architectural research have yielded significant information that can be used in combination with recent documentary investigations to better understand, interpret, and preserve these important buildings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Current Research on Virginia Plantations: Reexamining Historic Landscapes   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology