Archival Silence, Archaeological Fluency: Finding Indigenous Slavery In The Chesapeake

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeological Imaginaries, Regional Realities: 50 Years of Work in the Chesapeake", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The capture, enslavement, and sale of Indigenous people emerged early in the colonized Chesapeake Tidewater but remains understudied by archaeologists, in part because researchers have traditionally considered Indigenous enslavement as rare in the region. I use a fragmentary archive, archaeological evidence, and oral history from the Rappahannock River valley in eastern Virginia to examine the post-1650 Anglo-Native trade in Indigenous captives and the incorporation of the colony’s tributary nations into the global market economy. Situated at the head of seagoing navigation in the river, Nanzaticos, Portobagos, Rappahannocks, and possibly Doegs established provisioning stations to supply food and guides to English traders heading into the interior. The archaeological and oral history evidence are robust, especially when compared with the limited documentary archive. Similar evidence about the Anglo-Native trade, Indigenous enslavement, and the impact on tributary nations can almost certainly be found in the Chesapeake’s other western shore river valleys.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Archaeological Imaginaries, Regional Realities: 50 Years of Work in the Chesapeake

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow