The Material Implications of Nested Black Sovereignties: The Case of North Brentwood

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The United States was founded on a principle of Dual Sovereignty, State and Federal. State Governments then ceded some sovereign rights to counties and municipalities. These jurisdictions are made up of privately-owned properties and buildings that come with their own sets of rights. This results in a system of nested sovereignties. In most cases, Americans of European descent have controlled each of these levels, except for Black-owned property. What happens when those layers of control emerge from Black-Centered Authority that grows from the smallest level of the individual property to the level of State Governance? North Brentwood is a small, historically Black town, whose material reality has been influenced and shaped by this system of control. This paper explores the ways that each level of Black sovereignty has shaped the lived experiences of town residents and their materiality, as observed in the archaeological record and the built environment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow