Enslaved Travel At Georgia’s South End Plantation And The Coastal Landscapes Of The American South

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Port of Call: Archaeologies of Labor and Movement through Ports", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The city of Savannah, along the coast of Georgia in the southeastern United States, was and still is an important coastal port. It was the destination for commerce and trade for those who operated plantations to sell cotton and other crops, as well as everyday supplies. To be this economic hub required that there was a constant influx of not just goods but also people, including enslaved individuals who were forced to labor on the island plantations near Savannah. Movement of enslaved individuals in this landscape was tightly regulated by the task system, meaning their daily life was structured by the type, location, and scale of tasks assigned each day. This paper explores the movement and potential travel routes and resulting agency of enslaved individuals who were tasked to leave the South End on Ossabaw Island, and travel to Savannah, over 20 miles away.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Port of Call: Archaeologies of Labor and Movement through Ports

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow