They Looked to the Water: An Ancestor Forward Approach to Commemorating the Chancellor’s Point Burying Ground

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Chesapeake Landscapes in Transition", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

During the 2020–2021 COVID-19 shutdown, a treefall on the edge of a bluff at the Chancellor’s Point site at Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC), Maryland partially exposed a buried ancestor of African descent. A second ancestor was found nearby interred at the base of a tall tree near the bluff’s edge. Both ancestors were buried with their faces pointing towards the mouth of the St. Mary’s River. In the months that followed, a group of community stakeholders formed the Chancellor’s Point Working Group (CPWG) to advise HSMC on the respectful rescue and commemoration of ancestors buried at Chancellor’s Point. In this paper, we outline the history of this project and share the ethical framework crafted by the CPWG that guides our path forward, a framework that prioritizes humanity, defines descendancy broadly, and emphasizes reparatory story expansion.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025   •
• Historical Archaeology of Chesapeake Landscapes in Transition

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow