What We can Learn from Silence: Analyzing Archival Omissions within the Context of Enslaved African Americans at Fort Snelling, Minnesota

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

As many scholars have noted, archives reflect the social context within which they were assembled as well as the personal experiences of those who created the collections. The archival materials associated with Fort Snelling in Minnesota are no exception. In the context of this site, I will discuss the archived papers of Lawrence Taliaferro, Indian Agent and enslaver. I will draw particular attention to the silences surrounding his participation in the purchase of human beings. In particular, I will discuss how these silences can be used to obviate past and present racial discrimination and how the missing pieces of a crucial narrative may be addressed using archaeological techniques. Finally, I will connect the incomplete archive to the resulting silences in the historical interpretation at the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology