A Walk in the Park: An Analysis of Visitor Comprehension of Heritage at Historic Mitchelville

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.

Archaeological research at Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (HMFP) in Hilton Head Island, S.C., (the first free Black town in the South) has been conducted using collaborative community-based research with the local descendent community. Over the course of the summer 2019 field work at HMFP, the research team surveyed visitors at the park with a questionnaire designed to gather both demographic information on who was visiting the park, but also to dive into what visitors knew about Mitchelville history. The goal of this research is to compile these surveys and analyze any trends that are visible in the aggregate. How are park visitors viewing the heritage and history at Mitchelville and are these views common across all those visiting the site? This information could potentially aid both the descendent community and the HMFP’s understanding of how visitors are engaging with the history and heritage 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