Submitted by Jerome S. Handler
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
(Note: This article summarizes a longer paper that has been submittedfor possible publication to His-Archaeology ).
The vast majority of the thousands of slaves who perished in Barbadosfrom about 1650 to 1834-38 were buried in unmarked plantation cemeteries.
Although excavated in the early 1970s, Newton cemetery is still the earliestand largest undisturbed plantation slave cemetery vet reported in the NewWorld. The remains of 104 individuals. interred from about 1660 to 1820,were excavated. One of these burials was unique not only to Newton but alsoto early African cemetery sites in the Americas.
Most mortuary activity took place within a relatively small portion ofthe cemetery area. This area contained several low mounds. some naturalfeatures, others man-made and containing burials. Mound I was the largest.approximately 7 1/2 m (22.5 ft) wide and slightly less than I m (3 ft) aboveground surface Coral limestone rubble covered the top and edges of the mound,but its core was plain earth; the amount of earth implied more labor thanthe requirements of simply filling a settled-in grave.
Mound I contained only one burial. Reflecting the anonymity of so manyearly slaves, the individual remains faceless and nameless. Designated Burial9. the individual had been placed in a prepared subsurface pit. a shallowexcavation of about 50 cm. into the underlying limestone bedrock. Fieldnotes recorded the Burial as fitting " into a thin pit. which provedto be too short for the length of the body as the head was jammed againstthe western edge of the pit and was slightly raised."
Burial 9 was a young adult female, around 20 years of age and perhapsof New World birth. Her possible birth area is based on an analysis of herskeletal lead content. This was more than twice the mean for her age group,as well as that of all Newton skeletons tested for lead absorption in theirbones; moreover, although she lacked modified/mutilated teeth -- a virtuallycertain marker of African birth, she had much higher lead levels than skeletonswith this characteristic. Grave goods were absent and she lacked a coffin.Her skeleton was fully articulated with its head facing west. Not only didMound I only contain this solitary burial, but Burial 9 was also the cemetery'sonly prone burial.
Burial 9 was probably interred during the late 1600s or early 1700s.Why Mound I was not used again becomes a relevant question in interpretingBurial 9 because Mound 2. a smaller mound very close to Mound I containedabout 45 percent of the excavated burials. Mound 2 was repeatedly used overa relatively long period, apparently from the late 1600s through the early1800s, and grew as new burials were added over the years. The people buryingtheir dead in Mound 2 surely were aware of the neighboring and much largerMound 1. Yet they avoided using it; a tradition seems to have developedat Newton concerning this large mound and the individual it contained.
Burial 9's unique features as the cemetery's only prone burial and theonly one interred in the largest mound suggest that she possessed unusualcharacteristics or died under special circumstances. The extremely highlead level in her bones suggests that at her death she would have been sufferingfrom the effects of serious lead poisoning, and might have displayed symptomssuch as abrupt and unpredictable convulsions or epileptic-type seizureswhich could have been interpreted as bizarre behavior. One can only speculateon how these behaviors, if they actually occurred, would have affected herfellow slaves and the type of mortuary treatment she was accorded. Whateverwas the case, her skeleton displayed no physical evidence of an unusualcause of death, and Burial 9 was probably viewed as having special socialcharacteristics. What might these have been'?
The Newton archival sources contain no specific information for an interpretationof Burial 9; for suggestive ideas one must turn to more general data onBarbadian slave culture and the ethnographic/ethnohistorical literatureon West African mortuary practices.
Nothing in the Barbados documents helps to interpret the significanceof Mound 1. and the limited information discovered on the mounding of gravesin West Africa is similarly restrictive. It bears emphasis that I am specificallyreferring to the construction of earthen mounds, not merely covering thegrave with stones, tree branches, or
similar materials -- an apparently common practice in West Africa. Scoresof ethnographic/ethnohistorical works on West African mortuary practiceswere consulted, and this literature generally indicates that graves werelevelled. The very few references to earthen or "clay" mound constructionsindicate diverse functions, but the mounds seem to have been linked to highstatus people whose communities viewed them positively. In no case weresuch mounds associated with persons who possessed negatively viewed or unusualcharacteristics; such an interpretation, however, is suggested by West Africandata on prone burials.
As indicated above, virtually every Newton burial was in an extendedsupine position, a common position in West Africa as were flexed and extendedlateral burials; all three positions are regularly reported in the literature.Information on prone positions, however. has been far more difficult toobtain.
The many publications sampled on West African ethnography /ethnohistoryyielded only a very few specific references to prone burials; in each casethe person was considered to have socially negative traits or had been convictedof witchcraft, a criminal offense in all West African societies. One illustrationis the following: an English resident of Sierra Leone during the late 1780sdescribed the execution of a convicted witch among the Temne (or Timne)and Bulum. He was forced to dig his own grave and stand at "the edgeof the foot of it, with his face towards it"; he was then struck frombehind with "a violent blow upon the nape of the neck, which causeshim to fall upon his face into the grave; a little loose earth is then thrownupon him' and a sharp stake of hard wood is drove through the expiring delinquent,which pins him to the earth; the grave is then filled up, and his or hername is never after mentioned."
When West African evidence on prone burials is combined with broadermortuary evidence from West Africa that burial practices usually differedfor people who had died in special or unusual ways, who possessed unusualphysical characteristics or negatively viewed social traits, the case isstrengthened for interpreting Burial 9 as a probable witch or some othernegatively viewed person with supernatural powers. African witches wereoften executed for their crimes and received no interment rites; practicesregarding the disposition of their corpses varied from culture to culture,ranging from burning to being cast into the bush to burial in a grave. Evenif witch burials are not described, it is implied or explicitly indicatedthat their bodies were disposed of in different ways from those of "normal"people.
Barbadian slaves were relatively free to bury their dead according totheir own customs. An interpretation of Burial 9 as a negatively viewedmember of the slave community is further reinforced by evidence from Mound2. People continued to bury their dead in Mound 2 (as well as in non-moundareas of the cemetery) within plain view of Mound 1. Newton's slaves possiblyavoided putting new burials in Mound I because a tradition was perpetuatedthat some person with evil supernatural powers was buried there.
Beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery were pervasive features of the worldin which slaves lived -- as they were in the West African homelands. Barbadianslaves (as West Africans generally) did not consider as accidental majorillness and death; witchcraft, in particular, was frequently invoked toexplain these events and witches were despised and feared.
A final point on Burial 9. It was certainly not unique at Newton in itsabsence of grave goods; that absence alone would not make it a very specialcase. Grave goods were common in West Africa, but there is absolutely noethnographic/ethnohistorical evidence that such goods were interred withpersons who their communities viewed negatively.
Thus, mortuary evidence on Burial 9 (its solitary location in Mound 1,prone position, body forced into a grave pit that was too small, absenceof grave goods, and the possible behavioral associated with severe leadpoisoning) combined with West African mortuary data on the treatment ofwitches or other despised/feared persons and slave beliefs concerning evilmagic leads to an interpretation of Burial 9 as a witch or sorceress --in any case, someone who, following African custom, was feared or sociallyostracized because she was a vehicle for supernatural contagion.
Submitted by John P. McCarthy
IMA Consulting, Inc.
While African-American culture is now generally recognized by the scholarlycommunity as a distinct cultural entity which formed from the unprecedentedsociocultural interaction of peoples from three continents. Africa. Europe,and the Americas. such was not always the case. It was widely held, eveninto the 1960s. that the forced importation of Africans into the Americashad resulted in the loss of all aspects of Africans' own culture (e.g. Elkins1963; Silberman 1964).
The implications of this perspective were, and continue to he, considerableThe past is a social construct (reconstruction) upon which critical aspectsof ideology and national policy are implicitly, and sometimes explicitly,based (Silberman 1989). These can include patterns of social domination,resistance. and collusion (Bond and Gilliam 1994). What people believe tohave been true in the past has great influence on what they believe to betrue and allow to happen in the present. Further. a people without a pastthat they remember, or without a written history, are more easily lookedupon as commodities or tools to be used and exploited (see Wolf 1982 foran extended discussion of this point). In the case of Africans brought tothe Americas via the slave trade. the processes of '"seasoning"and terms of subsequent enslavement seemed to have eradicated their Africanpast. As a result of these, and other issues too complex to address in thisbrief essay. the study of African-American history and culture has been.and continues to be, politically charged to a considerable extent. Thisessay briefly recounts the evolution of the study of African culture inAmerica in the hope that it will provide a clearer context for African-Americanarchaeology.
The modern study of African-American culture developed around the Herskovits-FrazierDebate. Melville Herskovits' (1990) pioneering study, the Myth of the NegroPast, first published in 1941, emphasized the importance of West Africancultural carryovers, or survivals, in the formation of African-Americanculture, primarily relying on data from the Caribbean and continental SouthAmerica. This work stood in dramatic contrast to the generally prevailingview of the period, as expressed by the work of E. Franklin Frazier (1932a,1932b, 1939, 1957), that held that African-American culture developed asan imitation of European-American culture. Frazier argued that the experienceof slavery had been so devastating as to have completely stripped enslavedAfricans of all aspects of their own culture. In his view African-Americanculture was an imperfect derivative of European-American culture.
While weaknesses in several aspects of Herskovits' study have becomeevident with the passage of time. research in anthropology, folklore, history,and sociology has tended to support his argument for the continuity of venousaspects of African culture in the Americas. Early studies set-out, and generallysucceeded. in documenting aspects of African culture in African-Americanreligious philosophy and arts. Among these Newbell N. Puckett's, (1968),Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro, first published in 1926, Carter G. Woodson's( 1968), The African Background, first published in 1936, and W. E. B. DuBois'(1939), Black Folk, Then and Now are the best known.
Research presented by Guy Johnson (1940), in Drum and Shadows. and LorenzoTurner (1949), in Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect, focused on Africancultural retentions in the Georgia Sea Islands and nearby Gullah communities,specifically language. Turner was particularly successful, tracing nearly5,000 words to west and central African
Building on that work over 20 years later, a flurry of research resultedin the clear recognition that African influences had contributed to a distinctiveAfrican-American culture. Theses studies included Norman Whitten and JohnSzwed's ( 1970) anthology, Afro-American Anthropology: Contemporary Perspectives,Peter H. Wood's (1974), Black Majority Negro in Colonial South Carolinafrom /670 through the Stono Rebellion. Lawrence W. Levine's (1977), BlackCulture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slaveryto Freedom, and John W. Blassingame's (1979), The Slave Community: PlantationLife in the Antebellum South.
One impact of this extended body of research has been to bring multipleaspects of African heritage into focus in the study of African-Americancommunities. For example, Charles Joyner's (1984), Down by the Riverside:A South Carolina Slave Community presents an analysis of the folklife ata community level Direct African parallels are documented for a number ofactivities and linguistic practices.
In a parallel movement, research in the area of African-American materialculture has also sought to document and understand the importance of linkswith Africa. Robert Farris Thompson (1969) in large part pioneered thisarea of study with his essay exploring African influences in American art.He and Joseph Carnet went on to document aspects of Central African carvingand sculpture in the folk art of African Americans living in coastal Georgiaand South Carolina in The Four Moments of the Sun: Kongo Art in Two Worlds(Thompson and Cornet 1981). Thompson (1983) then carried this research furtherin Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy HereThompson documented the cultural influence of five African cultures, theKonge, Yoruba, Ejagham, Mande, and Cross River, on aesthetic and metaphysicaltraditions in America.
More recent work by Thompson (1990) argued that the Kongo culture ofCentral Africa, as opposed to West Africa cultures, has had central influencein the formation of African-America artistic culture. He cited parallelsbetween African-American creation of cosmograms. patterns of body languageand gesture. creation of bottle and plate branches/trees. and practicesof adornment and decoration of graves and similar practices in the Kongoto support this proposition.
Two recent. and deservedly influential. studies concerned with African-Americanmaterial culture warrant particular mention. In the first of these JohnMichael Vlach (1991) documented the survival and maintenance of Africantraditions in a wide range of folk arts and crafts, including basketmaking,ironworking, boatbuilding. textiles, musical instruments. grave decoration.gravestone carvings, and architectural forms and the organization of spacein By the Work of Their Hands: Studies in Afro-American Folklife. He notedthat these venous art forms possess a cultural unity in their African heritageand that stylistic consistency in design and the process of creation (orstyle and performance appears to be a major aspect of ethnic integrity inAfrican-American material culture. While some artifacts represent the uninterruptedsurvival of African traditions. such as coiled grass baskets produced inthe Carolina Low Country, others such as quilts incorporate African themesinto an European-American object.
Second, as most readers of this newsletter are aware, Leland Ferguson's(1992) Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800focused largely on the ceramic earthenwares we term "Colono".or "Colono-lndian", Wares. This unglazed, low-fire earthenwareis often recovered on sites associated with enslaved Africans from Virginiaand throughout the southeast and is very similar to ceramics made in WestAfrica. Ferguson applied the concept of "creolization" to describethe cultural interactions of European-descended masters, enslaved Africans,and, to a more limited extent, Native Americans which took place as Newand various Old World peoples and cultures came into contact. From thisprocess, Ferguson argued, African Americans formed a unique culture havingmaterial and ideological components distinct from that of European-Americanculture.
In summary, researchers interested in the formation of African-Americanculture have built upon the work of Melville Herskovits to overcome theview that African-American culture developed as an imperfect imitation ofEuropean-American culture. African-American culture is now clearly recognizedas a distinct cultural entity. In addition, the material aspects of African-Americanculture have been recognized as representing important documentation ofAfrican culture in America and the processes contributing to the formationof African-American culture.
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Clark A. Dobbs, Ann Smart Martin, and Karolyn E.Smardz for their interest in this topic and the thoughtful comments thatthey provided as this essay developed. Any errors of fact or interpretationare solely the author's responsibility.
References Cited:
Abrahams, Roger D.. and John F. Szwed (editors)
1983 After Africa. Yale University Press, New Haven.
Blassingame, John W.
1979 The Slate Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South.Oxford University Press, New York. Bond, George C.. and Angela Gilliam 1994Introduction. In Social Construction of the Past: Representation as Poweredited by George C. Bond and Angela Gilliam, pp. 1-9. One World Archaeology.Volume 24. Rutledge, New York.
DuBois, W. E. B.
1939 Black Folk, Then and Now Holt, New York.
Elkins. Stanley
1963 Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and IntellectualLife. Universal Library, New York.
Frazier. E Franklin
1932a The Free Negro Family. Fisk University Press, Nashville.
1932b The Negro Family in Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
1939 The Negro Family in the United States. University of ChicagoPress, Chicago.
1957 The Negro in the United States. Macmillan Co, New York (revisededition).
Ferguson, Leland
1992 Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800.Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
Herskovits, Melville J.
1990 The Myth of the Negro Past. Beacon Press, Boston (originallypublished in 1941).
Johnson. Guy
1940 Drum and Shadows. University of Georgia Press, Athens.
Joyner. Charles
1984 Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community. Universityof Illinois Press, Urbana.
Levine, Laurence
1977 Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thoughtfrom Slavery to Freedom Oxford University Press, New York.
Puckett. Newbell N.
1968 Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro. Patterson Smith, Montclair.NJ (originally published in 1996).
Silberman. Charles E.
1964 Crisis in Black and White. Vintage Books, New York.
Silberman, Neil A.
1989 Between Past and Present: Archaeology, Ideology, and Nationalismin the Modern Middle East. Henry Holt and Co., New York.
Thompson. Robert F.
1969 African Influences on the Art of the United States. In BlackStudies in the University: A Symposium, edited by Armstead L. Robinson,Craig C. Foster and Donald H. Ogilvie, pp. 122-170. Yale University Press,New Haven.
1983 flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy.Random House, New York.
1990 Kongo Influences on African-American Artistic Culture. In Africanismsin American Culture. edited by Joseph E. Holloway, pp. 148- 184. IndianaUniversity Press, Bloomington.
Thompson. Robert F., and Joseph
1981 The Four Moments of the Sun: Kongo Art in Two Worlds. SmithsonianInstitution, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Turner. Lorenzo
1968 Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect. Arno Press, New York (originallypublished in 1949).
Vlach, John M.
1991 By the Work of Their Hands: Studies in Afro-American Folklife.The University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville.
Whitten, Norman, and John Szwed (editors)
1970 Afro-American Anthropology: Contemporary Perspectives. Free Press,New York.
Wolf Eric
1982 Europe and the People Without History. University of CaliforniaPress, Berkeley.
Wood, Peter H.
1974 Black Majority: Negro in Colonial South Carolina from /670through the Stono Rebellion. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Woodson, Carter G.
1968 The African Background Outlined. Negro Universities Press, NewYork
Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culturein the Eighteenth Century by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, LSU Press, 1995.
Gwendolyn Hall, consulting research professor at the University of NewOrleans and professor of history at Rutgers. offers a fascinating new takeon colonial history, portraying the essential role of Africans in the makingof Louisiana. An extensive set of appendices provide raw data on population,inventories. and African survivals.
Africanisms in American Culture, edited by Joseph E. Holloway, IndianaUniversity Press, 1991.
Holloway and a group of distinguished scholars present a strong casefor the survival of distinct Africanisms in the United States up to thepresent day. The final essay, The African Heritage of White America."puts forth a strong case for a very high degree of cross-cultural pollinationand that much of what we call southern culture is rich in African survivals.
Beyond the Great House, Archaeology at AshlandBelle Helene Plantation,Discovering Louisiana Archaeology vol. 1, Shell Chemical Company in corporationwith Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Baton Rouge,n.d.
This is the first in a series of publications making the results of culturalresource management projects available to the public in a well written andvery well illustrated format. Maps, photographs, drawings and a jargon freetext make this an entertaining look into the past that will hopefully increasepublic awareness and support of historic preservation.
Submitted by Chris Espenshade
Brockington and Associates, Inc.
Data recovery excavations are underway in December 1994, at four apparentslave loci on the former Eigelberger Plantation, Daufuskie Island. Mr. ScottButler and Mr. Chris Espenshade are supervising the excavations by Brockingtonand Associates, Inc. The test excavations revealed that this plantationwas apparently occupied in the early nineteenth century. The main housecomplex has been lost to bank erosion, but at least four associated loci(suspected slave cabins) remain. The field results to date indicate thatat structural features from two earthfast structures are present in oneof the loci.
A major research question of the project is why Colonoware is so rareat plantation sites on Daufuskie Island. As delineated below, several factorswere identified as possibly influencing the frequency of Colonoware at slavesites. Potential factors include:
Chronology. It has been suggested that Colonoware use decreased throughtime as inexpensive refined ceramics became popular in the early nineteenthcentury, and as owners took increased control over their slave populations.In addition, Colonoware can be seen as a frontier solution to high supplycosts, a solution which was not necessary on later. more established, plantations.
Control by Planters. It has been argued that planters may have discouragedAfricanisms in their slave corps in an effort to stifle rebellion and eliminatecultural identity. Colonoware was an obvious African trait which could bereplaced readily by European or American goods.
Wealth of Planter. Even if a plantation included a potter and suitablematerials, Colonoware may not have been produced if the planter was sufficientlywealthy to provide refined ceramics to his slaves. The use of dirt dishes"by slaves may have been considered a reflection on the status of the planter,and well-to-do planters may have rapidly replaced Colonoware with refinedceramics.
Concerns of Health and Hygiene. Colonoware pottery, as an unglazed, low-firedware, was susceptible to absorbing food, thereby making cleaning difficult.In the nineteenth century, there was a movement of increased attention toslave health and living conditions. In this context, planters may have replacedthe "dirt dishes" with harder, more sanitary, refined ceramics.
Population Probabilities The analysis of slave pottery from settlementssuggests that there were only one or two contemporaneous potters per community.It is likely that there were communities without trained potters, and thatpotters may have been removed from communities by death or slave trading.With the end of slave importation in the early nineteenth century, the potentialsupply of new potters disappeared.
Ceramic Ecology Even in the event that an African potter was presentin a slave population, that potter could not produce vessels unless shehad access to acceptable clay. Slaves were not generally free to roam beyondtheir home plantations, and it is unlikely that they were allowed to explorethe region for clay. It is likely that the lack of appropriate clay resourceslimited the potential for potting on many plantations.
The present project has chosen to focus on the availability of suitableclays by examining the local ceramic resources. The preliminary field resultsindicate that suitable clay was present within the site boundaries. A finalreport is expected by late 1995.
The Newsletter lost two regional editors this year, Chuck Orser and JerryHandler. There places have been taken by John McCarthy of IMA Consultingin Minnesota, and by Laurie Wilkie at UC Berkeley. I look forward to gettingsome really good stuff out them. Remember, that if you have something youthink others might find useful, contact your regional editor. Also. sometimenext spring, I will send out a list of members. There are too many to includein this issue of the Newsletter.
Association for Living Historical Farms & Agricultural Museums, May19-23, 196, University of Houston, Houston, Texas. For information contact:Debra Reid, Strecker Museum Complex, Baylor University, P.O. Box 97154,Waco, TX, 817 755 1160, or REIDD@Baylor.edu.
Interpretation, The Journal of Heritage and Environmental Interpretationis a reincarnation of an earlier series of journals published in Great Britain.Interpretation is the new periodical for professionals who work in environmentaland heritage interpretation in any of its forms, and for anyone whose interestsor course of study lie in this field. A recent issue had articles on multiculturalismand one dealing with the issues. ethics and morality of dealing with trans-Atlanticslavery. To subscribe contact: Alison Maddock. 36 Westhaven Cresent, Aughton,Nr Ormskirk. Lancashire L39 5BW. Great Britain.
Pottery Reproduction Services. Chris Espenshade and Linda Kennedy havebegun offering pottery reproduction services for Native American and Colonowarevessels. The two potters are both archaeologists with extensive experienceat southeastern slave sites. The available services range from basic vesselform reproductions (using commercial clays) based on sherds or vessel profilesto full replications including site-specific clay collection and pit firingSamples of their work are soon to go on sale at the Charleston Museum andat the Preservation Shop at Drayton Hall Plantation: the Museum of the Tunica-BiloxiIndians presently utilizing one of their reproductions. The Colonoware reproductionsalso work as interesting educational items and as gifts. A catalog is plannedfor 1995, and Mr. Espenshade hopes to have a display at the 1995 SAA meetings.As an aside, the potters note that even large jars can indeed by producedby lump/pinch forming without the use of coiling or slab construction. Forfurther information. please contact Chris Espenshade or Linda Kennedy at1644 Mill Run Court, Lawrenceville, Georgia, 30245 (770) 995-5508.
Submitted by Da; id Babson
Midwestern A rchaeological Research Center
In November of 1994. the Midwestern Archaeological Research Center (MARC)at Illinois State University submitted a report of investigations to theTennessee Historical Commission. This report, Families and Cabins: Archaeologicaland Historical Research at Wessyngton Plantation. Robertson County, Tennessee.is the final report on two survey and planning grant survevs undertakenby MARC at Wessyngton Plantation in 1991 and 1993. It includes informationabout the archaeological investigation of three discrete cabin sites anda five-cabin area. occupied from the early nineteenth to mid-twentieth century.It also includes an extensive discussion of African-American genealogy andhistory. developed from an independent program of oral history. genealogyand research in primary documents underway at A essyngton Plantation sincethe 1970s
Under the terms of the survey and planning grant program, the purposeof this research was to establish the National Register eligibility of thearchaeological site. This was amply established by the work described above.and nomination of the site to the National Register is now under consideration.Manuscript copies of the final report are on file at the Tennessee HistoricalCommission and at the Tennessee State Archives in Nashville. Publicationof the report is under consideration. and may be completed in 1996.
Submitted by Chris Espenshade
Brockington and Associates. Inc.
Ms. Elsie Eubanks. As. Marian Roberts. and Mr. Chris Espenshade of Brockingtonand Associates have completed data recovery investigations of the formerlocation of the Bonny Shore slave row, Spring island. South Carolina. Theinvestigations were sponsored by Spring Island Plantation. The site (38BU791) was first examined through complete site coverage with 5 m (15 ft) intervalshovel testing. The shovel testing indicated seven potential cabin locations.although no structural remains were encountered. The data recovery was composedof the excavation of a A by A m (12 by 12 ft) block in each of the sevenloci, followed by machine-assisted stripping. The analysis included zooarchaeological.ethnobotanical and ceramic technological i n vestigations.
Dating of the recovered assemblage indicates that most of the cabinswere occupied from circa 1815 through 1840. At least two of the cabins wereapparently occupied through 1860. The assemblage was noteworthy for itshigh frequency of Colonoware, several of which exhibited post-firing markssimilar to the cosmograms hypothesized by Ferguson (1991). The detailedtechnological and stylistic analysis of the Colonoware indicates that thepottery was produced from locally available clay, was made probably by asingle potter. and was comprised exclusively of small bowl forms. The zooarchaeologicalanalysis indicated a very low contribution to the diet by wild resources.possibly related to the large numbers of cows and pigs on the fencelesspasture of Spring Island. Copies of the report (Eubanks and Espenshade 1994)are available on request.
Submitted by Chris Espenshade
Brockington and Associates, Inc.
In 1992. Ms. Linda Kennedy. Ms Marian Roberts. and Mr. Chris Espenshadeof Brockington and Associates. Inc. conducted data recovery investigationsof two slave cabins at Site 38BU880. The study was sponsored by Indigo RunPlantation. The excavations focused on the structures associated with twotabby chimney remnants. One of the cabin locations was situated in a protected.wooded area, while the second had been severely impacted through plowingand modern nursery activity. A total of 41 2 by 2 m (6 by 6 ft) units wereexcavated
The excavation of the least impacted structure revealed several postfeatures and a dirt floor remnant. An earthfast. single pen structure isindicated by the data; the structure measured 19.6 by 16.4 ft) it had asingle, gable end tabby chimney which measured 5.0 by 7.5 t't at its base.An interesting aspect of the cabin was the recovery of 25 Archaic throughWoodland projectile points and a groundstone adze from the hearth area,suggesting the occupants were collecting Native-American items. A finalreport should now be available.
Submitted by Chris Espensade
Brockingron and Associates, Inc.
In 1993, Ms. Linda Kennedy, Ms. Marian Roberts, and Mr. Chris Espenshadeof Brockington and Associates, Inc. conducted data recovery excavationsat the Colleton River slave row, Site 38BU647. The site consists of 14 deteriorated,tabby chimney bases and associated midden from a nineteenth-century slaverow. The phased field approach began with complete site coverage throughthe excavation of 50 by 50 cm shovel tests on a 5 m (15 ft) interval. Theshovel test coverage represents the first effort in South Carolina to retrievesignificant samples from all areas of a slave row site (not quite the first,ed.). The shovel test data were utilized to select three hose loci for excavation.Occupation span, location within the slave row, and apparent status wereconsidered in selecting the three structures. Nine 2 by 2 m (6 by 6 ft)units were excavated at each structure, and additional units were excavatedto examine non-structural features.
Three structural patterns were documented. All three of the excavatedcabins had tabby chimneys measuring approximately 2.5 by 6.0 ft) at thebase. The dimensions of three single pen cabins were 13 by 18 ft, 23 by18 ft, and 16 by 21 ft.
The site is noteworthy for a high frequency of Colonoware vessels, severalof which had possible cosmographic markings; the pots were produced by oneor two potters using locally available clays. The late use of Colonowareat this site may be related to its role as an isolated slave row. A comparisonof the South artifact pattern data from the full site and structure specificcoverage indicates the limitations pattern analysis. The pattern from theshovel tests was very similar to the Carolina Slave Pattern, while the structureexcavations yielded a pattern similar to the Piedmont Tenant Pattern. Thefinal report is available from Brockington and Associates.
Submitted by Paul Farnsworth and Laurie Wilkie
Louisiana State University
From June 7 - 30, 1995. the Louisiana State University field school underthe direction of Paul Farnsworth and Laurie Wilkie excavated at Marine Farmand Great Hope plantations on Crooked Island in the Bahamas. During thecourse of fieldwork, forty-six meter square units were excavated at MarineFarm and seventy-three meter square units were excavated at Great Hope.In addition, the standing buildings of the plantations were recorded photographicallyand elevations were drawn, oral histories were collected and the artifactsrecovered were identified, cataloged, photographed and illustrated. BothMarine Farm and Great Hope plantations are located on property owned bythe Bahamas National Trust. The research was conducted in cooperation with,and partially funded by, the Bahamas National Trust and with the permissionof the Government of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. All of the artifactswere deposited with the Bahamas National Trust in Nassau for permanent curation.
Marine Farm was the site of both a plantation complex and a militarycomplex. Six structures, a barracks building, a kitchen. two storage buildings,a guardhouse' and a gun battery with five cannons still present, were identifiedat the military complex. At the plantation portion of the site. four structureswere located: the great house; the kitchen; a slave cabin; and a privy building.The privy was located late in the field season. and unfortunately. not testexcavated this summer. All of the other structures were tested archaeologically.
Documentary evidence shows that the plantation was first granted to JosephHunter in 1791, but during the first two decades of the nineteenth century,it was owned by James Moss, President of the Bahamian House of Assembly.Archaeological evidence suggests that the military buildings were occupiedfrom the early nineteenth century to the 1850s. Artifactual data from theplantation component of the site suggests a slightly earlier occupationfrom the late eighteenth century, but by the 1830s, however, the plantationbuildings appear to have been taken over by the military. As with the militarycomponent. there is no evidence of occupation of the site after the midnineteenth century.
Great Hope plantation was first granted to George Gray in 1791. but wassold in 1792 to James Menzies, who became a member of the House of Assemblyand Treasurer of the colony. He died in 1815, and the plantation was purchasedin 1818 by Henrv Moss, nephew of James Moss. Henry and his wife Helen wereaccused and convicted of the worst case of cruelty to a slave in the Bahamasas a result of an incident which took place in 1826 at Great Hope. HenryMoss owned Great Hope through 1847, based on ongoing documentary research.
The main compound of Great Hope Plantation includes an impressive twostory great house, a kitchen. a standing chimney from a slave cabin, a structureknown as "the guest house", a hurricane shelter. a stable, a privy.a gun battery and four storage buildings. Each of these buildings was testedarchaeologically. Ceramic and glass artifacts indicate that Great Hope Plantationwas first occupied in the last decades of the eighteenth century and upuntil the early twentieth century, a conclusion supported by oral historygathered during the project. Based on its architectural remains, Great Hopewas a very prosperous plantation, however, no examples of "status"ceramics were recovered. The lack of these ceramics may represent the natureof trade networks and ceramic availability on the island, one of the majorresearch problems this project is seeking to address.
Numerous examples of ship drawings scratched into the walls are presentat the kitchen and great house of Marine Farm Plantation and at the greathouse of Great Hope. The carvings were made after the buildings were completeand were etched into the building plaster with a sharp, narrow pointed object.The carvings at both sites demonstrate that the artists have a thoroughunderstanding of ship rigging and sails. In two instances at Marine Farm.even the Union Jack can be seen flying from ships' masts. Single, doubleand triple massed ships are portrayed. At both sites, the ship carvingsare most commonly found on building wails with a sea view. These carvingsmay have served as some form of recording system. but the purpose for recordingthe ships remains unclear.
This summer's research represents the first phase of a long-term researchprogram on these sites as the Bahamas National Trust works to open thesesites to the public as National Historic Parks. The first archaeologicalsites to be preserved in this way in the Bahamas.
Submitted b Paul Farnsworth
Louisiana State University
From late April through the month of May, student volunteers from LouisianaState University spent each Saturday carrying out preliminary survey andtesting at The Edward Douglass White Historic Site near Thibodaux. Louisiana,under the direction of Laurie Wilkie and Paul Farnsworth. The site is preservedas it was the home of Edward Douglass White who was governor of Louisianafrom 1835 to 1839 and subsequently to his son. also Edward Douglass White.who was a justice on The Supreme Court of the United States from 1894 to1910. and Chief Justice from 1910 until his death in 1921. Justice Whiteis best known for the ruling which established the legality of the "separatebut equal" philosophy that dominated race relations in the South intothe 1960s.
The site is located on a parcel that was claimed by Guillaume Arcemanin 1803. based on his having occupied the land for ten or more years previously.The land was purchased by E.D. White in 1831 and was developed into a thrivingsugar plantation. The White home sits on a parcel owned and preserved bythe State of Louisiana, while the plantation's outbuildings, cabins. etc.are believed to have been located on a privately owned, wooded parcel locatedimmediately behind the State's land. The preliminary research included troththe State and privately owned property. The research was made possible bya grant from the Friends of the Edward Douglass White State Historic Site.The goals were simply to locate any buildings or archaeological depositsassociated with the plantation. and assess their chronology and function.
An area of 1 6,800 square meters was divided into 20 meter squares andall historic artifacts from the surface were collected. Sixty-tour shoveltest pits were then excavated at each corner of the twenty meter and. Basedon the results of the surface collection and the twenty meter shovel testing,twenty-one additional shovel tests spaced at five meter intervals were dugin two areas of artifact concentration and structural indications. In additionto a general scatter of materials across the area studied, and the abovementioned concentrations, several other areas were defined for additionaltesting. The two areas tested so far correspond with the locations of twohouses noted in oral historical information gathered since the conclusionof the current field research.
The artifacts were washed and cataloged at the LSU Archaeology laboratory,and will be curated by the State of Louisiana Detailed analysis of the artifactsand their distributions is currently in progress, and a report is in preparation.The artifacts reflect the intensive use of the property throughout periodof the White's occupation from 1830 to 1921. The presence of a fewr sherdsof creamware and significant quantities of pearlware in the area adjacentto the main house suggest that it was first built and occupied during Arceman'sownership. However. as with most Louisiana plantations, eighteenth-centurydeposits remain elusive. Additional research is planned for 1996 which willexplore the deposits located this year in more detail.