Community and Commerce: Investigations at African American-Owned Stores in the Community of Needwood, Georgia

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "First Steps on a Long Corridor: The Gullah Geechee and the Formation of a Southern African American Landscape" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the community of Needwood in Glynn County, Georgia, was established by Freedmen in the years following Emancipation. In the historic period, the self-sufficient community included three stores, at least two of which were owned (and/or operated) by African Americans. The Georgia Department of Transportation plans to widen the stretch of US 17 that passes through the Needwood community, and New South Associates, Inc., conducted excavations at all three stores, including data recovery excavations at the location of one of the African American-owned stores. Excavations and oral history interviews with descendants of the Needwood reveal the impact that Black-owned businesses had in their community, as both social spaces and as a connection to the outside world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• First Steps on a Long Corridor: The Gullah Geechee and the Formation of a Southern African American Landscape   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology