Exploring the Archaeological Evidence of Consumption Practices in Charleston, SC and St. Augustine, FL during the American Revolution

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This poster presents comparative research of 18th century ceramic assemblages from Charleston, SC and St. Augustine, FL. Founded as British and Spanish ports, these colonial cities were interconnected and contested in the Southeastern United States, with the British gaining control of St. Augustine in 1763. This work seeks to identify dining practices in relation to political rule and urban slavery through archaeological evidence across these two different cities with contrasting history. Drawing on collections-based research from house lots in both cities owned by prominent patriots and loyalists, interpretive questions of feature assemblages are addressed with mean ceramic dates, TPQs, and the reconstruction of complex stratigraphy from available context records. With that, this research considers the archaeological evidence as a material implementation of British rule in St. Augustine alongside disintegrating colonial control in Charleston during the political turmoil surrounding the American Revolution.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025   •
• 2025 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow