Freedom and/or Sovereignty in Black Mobile

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 2019 the remains of the Clotilda were located along the Mobile River near Africatown, Alabama. As the last slave ship to enter the United States, the rediscovery of the Clotilda, coupled with the publication of Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon, caused a resurgence in attention to the Africatown community. Founded soon after Emancipation by captive Africans who arrived on the Clotilda, Africatown operated with a unique degree of social and political autonomy in the American South. Situating the archaeology of Africatown in relation to excavations at another post-Emancipation free Black community, I explore how both similarities and differences between these materials elucidate the different ways ‘free’ Black life was carried out in the American South post-Emancipation. Furthermore, I situate this discussion within the context of ‘freedom’ and notions of sovereignty as I explore the potential uniqueness of Africatown, while also complicating notions of ‘a single way of Black life.’

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• 2023 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow