Foundations and Fieldwork: Completing the First Phase of the 1857 Slave Dwelling Restoration Project

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.

Recent efforts have focused on completing the first phase of the 1857 Slave Dwelling Restoration Project at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. This collaborative partnership with members of the African American community is designed to explore the history and legacy of this building – the only structure designed to house enslaved African Americans still standing at this National Historic Landmark located in the Virginia Piedmont. Spanning the periods of slavery, emancipation, and the Jim Crow Era, this building provides a powerful opportunity to tell and preserve the stories of African Americans associated with the pre- and post-bellum history of the plantation. The results of excavations and artifact analysis are providing important new windows into the lives of those who lived in this building as well as additional insights into the broader scope of the property’s history. Future phases will also be briefly touched on as work continues on this important new project.

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