Investigating the Role of an Early Fortified Site in the Origins of a Slave Society: The (44PG65) Enclosed Compound at Flowerdew Hundred

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Enclosed Compound (44PG65) at Flowerdew Hundred plantation, located on the south side of the James River in Virginia, was an early 17th century fortified site constructed to protect its inhabitants from the local Algonquian-speaking Indians of Tsenacomoco and the perceived ever-present threat of Spanish invasion. Archaeological excavations in the 1970s uncovered evidence of several structures and activity areas occupied by English elites, indentured servants, and enslaved Africans built directly atop a Late Woodland Native settlement. This paper analyzes contextual and artifact data, cataloged comprehensively by the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery, to investigate what factors influenced the fort’s placement and how its inhabitants of different social classes arranged and used the space as they labored to establish a permanent colony. We argue that understanding the longer trajectory of occupation and spatial arrangements provide important insights into the multicultural dynamics behind the emergence and establishment of race-based slavery in Virginia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow