Archaeological Research at the Cesar and Sym Peters Site, Hebron, Connecticut

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.

In 2020 the Connecticut Office of State Archaeology (OSA) launched a long-term archaeological research project to explore the lives of the free African-American Peters family in early 19th-century Hebron, Connecticut. The collaborative project involves archaeological and documentary research at the Peters family home site. Cesar and Sym Peters purchased the house in 1806, 17 years after they escaped sale to South Carolina and 15 years after gaining their freedom. The story of the Peters family is well-known locally, but the established narrative focuses on the family’s dramatic rescue by their white neighbors, overshadowing their perseverance and resourcefulness as captives, and later as free people. Our research aims to tell a more complete story of the Peters family through the investigation of their home site, material culture, and the documentary record. This paper lays out the project background and presents the preliminary results of the archaeology conducted in 2021.

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