An Archaeology of Agency: The James and Sophia Clemens Farm

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper explores the domestic architecture and material culture of the James and Sophia Clemens farm in Darke County, Ohio, United States. The Clemens were free persons of color in the early to mid-19th century, but their background was one of enslavement in Virginia. Their Antebellum Ohio farmstead is explored here as an example of individual agency within repressive systems of power, such as systemic racism and the capitalist world-system. The Clemens were agential both socially and materially, as is identified in the documentary record of their lives, their farmhouse, and the archaeological assemblage from their farmstead. Architectural and archaeological data explore how these individuals were practicing agency by assimilation, developing a domestic material life that was reflective of affluence at that time. While this research has been locally and regionally focused thus far, it is part of the larger world-system and embodies a slice of global archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow