Before and After (and After): Alteration, Abandonment, and Re-use of Industrial Plantation Housing

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper examines the multiple “afterlives” of quarters at Buffalo Forge, an antebellum iron plantation in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. While quarters were initially sited and constructed throughout the plantation to accommodate workers of different genders and work roles, Buffalo Forge’s cessation of iron operations in 1865 initiated new cycles of building use – first as quarters for freed individuals performing waged agricultural labor on the former plantation, as agricultural buildings, as storage, and as several other roles over the ensuing decades. Focusing on two extant women’s and family quarters (constructed ca. 1830), this paper examines patterns and strategies of alteration, abandonment, and re-use by quarter residents and others. Archaeological analysis of shifting activity areas reveals changing priorities and access to materials, while architectural and geospatial analysis illuminates differences between human, animal, and geological changes to existing structures and landscapes. While this paper focuses on Buffalo Forge, application of methods to analysis of other domestic and industrial contexts is also highlighted.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37602.0