The Archaeology of a Gullah Geechee Fishing Village: An Afrofuturist Landscape Perspective

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Co-Producing Space: Relational Approaches to Agrarian Landscapes, Labor, Commodities, and Communities", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1877, Isaac Hume acquired a hundred-foot lot on South Island at the mouth of Winyah Bay in Georgetown County, South Carolina. He was followed by Maria Smith, Robert Ellison, and other African Americans as they imagined possible futures. These Gullah Geechee fishermen, carpenters, and schooner captains used their mastery to enter market activities that helped them become economically independent. At the same time, wealthy White sportsmen traveled to the former plantations of the Lowcountry to hunt and fish. They depended upon local Black guides who knew the land and fishing holes to ensure a successful outing, while rice planters viewed Black hunting and fishing as a threat to the South’s labor system. Archaeological research that involves oral history and archival research on this former fishing village helps uncover momentary instances of freedom at the intersections of landscape, food, and labor.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Co-Producing Space: Relational Approaches to Agrarian Landscapes, Labor, Commodities, and Communities

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow