Jamie C. Brandon and Jerry E. Hilliard, Arkansas
Archeological Survey
As additional data come to light regarding enslaved African-Americans
pressedinto service in the agricultural economy of the south,
attention shouldbe focused on enslavement in other contexts, such
as industrial settings,lest we run the risk of stereotyping the
system of enslavement (Otto 1980).Similarly, the African-American
communities of the Ozark Mountains, bothenslaved and free, remain
little studied among both historians and archaeologists,with few
exceptions (e.g., Catalfamo-Serio 1979; Doolin 1980; Otto 1980).Recent
investigations by the UAF station of the Arkansas Archeological
Survey(AAS) have the potential to add both to our knowledge of
African-Americancommunities in the Ozarks and the conditions of
industrial enslavement.
Mapping and limited testing of the Van Whinkle Site (3 BE 413),
a largedomestic/industrial complex located in Benton County, Arkansas,
was undertakenin response to the initial development of the Beaver
Lake State Park (Hilliard1997). This site, situated in a steep,
narrow hollow, housed one of thelargest mill operations in northwest
Arkansas from approximately 1858 tothe 1940s (Hicks 1990). Additionally,
it served as the home of Peter VanWinkle (the mill's owner/operator),
his family and the large work forcethat operated the mill. Just
prior to the Civil War, Peter Van Winkle wasknown to have owned
at least 18 slaves, whose involvement in mill work isevidenced
by their continued employment after emancipation (Hicks 1990:51).
Features located during the clearing/mapping stage of the project
includethe Van Winkle home, the associated spring house, the mill
site itself andat least two smaller structures (indicated by chimney
falls and depressions)interpreted as slave/worker housing. A possible
third structure appearsto have been modified, perhaps for industrial
use. A sherd of flow blueearthenware recovered from subsurface
testing around the chimney falls atteststo the possibility of
a relatively early occupation date.
These three small structures are situated along a narrow side-hollow
divergingfrom the main branch of Van Hollow and appear to be serviced
by a smallerspring. This spatial distribution seems to speak volumes
about attitudesregarding separation and social distancing of slave
quarters as well asprivacy afforded African-Americans in this
context (see Stewart-Abernathy1992 for a discussion of this phenomenon
among urban slaves in Arkansas).
Additionally, local folklore lead the authors to believe that
a "slavecemetery" was present somewhere in Van Hollow.
Two sets of upright,unmarked field stones were reported by a local
informant. These stones,situated on a ridge near the small domestic
structures, were identifiedby Park Ranger Mark Clippinger and
AAS personnel as possible grave locations.Non-invasive testing
is being considered to verify the existence of thiscemetery.
Another African-American related site investigated by the AAS
in BentonCounty is the "Anderson Slave Cemetery" (3
BE 625). After localinformants (including the Benton County Cemetery
Preservation Group) reportedthat a cemetery might be present on
land newly acquired by the NorthwestArkansas Regional Airport
Authority (NWARA), the NWARA requested that theAAS investigate
the area (Hilliard 1998).
Following informant leads, various locations within the thirty-acre
pasturewere investigated via mechanical stripping. In spite of
difficult soil conditions(large pockets of chert deposits), blade
cuts were sufficient to discernsoil anomalies.
Three features interpreted as infant or sub-adult grave pits were
exploredby a combination of mechanical stripping and hand-excavated
units. Thesefeatures were located on a small knoll at the back
corner of the formerAnderson family farm near an intermittent
creek. The upland soils of theOzarks are notoriously acidic, and
no artifacts or human remains were recoveredeven though fill was
collected and processed through a flotation system.Soil analysis
conducted on fill from two of the features seems to supportthe
grave-shaft interpretation through high phosphorus contents relativeto
the native matrix (Hilliard 1998:14). This higher phosphorous
contentmay be the result of bone decomposition, but interpretations
of grave-fillvia chemical signatures remain somewhat inconclusive
in archaeological literature(e.g., Bethell 1989; Solecki 1951).
No further excavations were conducted,as the project goal of identifying
the specific location of the cemeteryfor avoidance had been achieved.
Identification of various antebellum features, including the specific
locationof the slave cemetery, provides spatial data for the reconstruction
of thelandscape of the Anderson antebellum farm. The slave dwellings
and buryingground were located south of a road and in a relatively
lower topographicsetting than the white family home and cemetery.
The slave cemetery is locatedapproximately 400 meters south of
the Anderson family cemetery on a cornerof the property that is
subject to flooding. Extensive historical accountsand archival
data are currently being compiled by the authors in order toplace
this antebellum landscape in context and provide clues concerningthe
lives of the enslaved African-Americans associated with the Andersonfamily.
Bethell, Philip
1989 Chemical analysis of shadow burials. In Burial Archaeology:
CurrentResearch, Methods and Developments, Charlotte A. Roberts,
Frances Leeand John Bintliff, editors. BAR British Series 211.
Catalfamo-Serio, Chris
1979 Slavery in Northwest Arkansas. In The Effect of the Civil
War onOzark Culture. Joe Cavanaugh, editor. Arkansas Endowment
for the Humanities,Little Rock.
Doolin, James
1980 Conditions of slavery in Washington County. Flashback
30 (1).Washington County Historical Society.
Hicks, Marilyn Larner
1990 The Van Winkle Family: Peter Marsells Van Winkle 1814-1882.Privately
printed.
Hilliard, Jerry
1997 A brief look at one of northwest Arkansas's largest sawmills:
the VanWinkle site 3BE413. Field Notes 279 p. 10-12.
1998 Historical and Archaeological Account of the Anderson
Slave Cemetery(3BE625), Benton County, Arkansas. Report submitted
to the NWARA. ArkansasArchaeological Survey.
Otto, John Solomon
1980S lavery in the Mountains: Yell County, Arkansas, 1840-1860.
ArkansasHistorical Quarterly 39(1).
Solecki, R. S.
1951 Notes on soil analysis and archaeology. American Antiquity
16:254-56.
Stewart-Abernathy, Leslie C.
1992 Separate kitchen and intimate archeology: constructing
urban slaveryon the antebellum cotton frontier in Washington,
Arkansas. Paper presentedat the annual meeting of the Society
for American Archaeology, Pittsburgh.
I have several items of business to bring to your attention.
A-AA willbecome a quarterly with the new year, the supply of content
permitting.Your subscription renewals
for 1999 are duein January!
The editorial staff has been expanded.
I wantto welcome Dr. Paul Mullins as Assistant Editor. Paul will
help round-upmaterial and will assist with production scutwork.
To enhance the Book Review/Notessection, Dr. James Garmond has
come on as Book Review Editor. Finally, Ms.Carol McDavid will
serve as editor of a new semi-annual column: Progression:Advances
in African American Archaeology. More information about Progressioncan
be found on page 7.
A-AA now has a new organizational home. The Council for Maryland
Archaeologyhas agreed to be the fiscal agent for A-AA, so I am
now able to establisha local checking account. I have been holding
a number of checks pendingcompletion of such an arrangement, so
be warned - if one of these is yours,it will be deposited shortly!
Editor's Note: from a bibliography complied by the New York
StateLibrary, January 1992
Abajian, James, comp.
1977 Blacks in Selected Newspapers, Censuses and other Sources:
anIndex to Names and Subjects. 3 vols. Boston: G.K. Hall.
1839 African Captives: Trial of the Prisoners of the Amistad
on the Writof Habeus Corpus, before the Circuit Court of the United
States, for theDistrict of Connecticut, at Hartford; Judges
Thompson and Judson, SeptemberTerm, 1839. n.p.
Aptheker, Herbert, ed.
1951 A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United
States.Preface by W.E.B. Du Bois. New York: Citadel Press.
Austin, Allan, ed.
1984 African Muslims in Antebellum America: a Sourcebook.
NewYork: Garland Pub.
Barker, Lucius Jefferson
1988 Our Time Has Come: a Delegate's Diary of Jesse Jackson's
1984Presidential Campaign. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, .
Bell, Howard Holman
1969 Minutes of the Proceedings of National Negro Conventions,
1830-1864.New York: Arno Press,.
Bennett, Lerone, Jr.
1979 Wade in the Water: Great Moments in Black History.
Chicago:Johnson Pub. Co.
Bergman, Peter M. and Jean McCarroll, comps.
1969 Negro in the Congressional Record, 1789-1801. New
York: Bergman,.
Berlin, Ira, et al, eds.
1985 Freedom, a Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867,
vol.1. The Destruction of Slavery. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
1982 Freedom, a Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867,
vol.2. The Black Military Experience. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Black Culture Collection, from the Holdings of Atlanta
UniversityLibrary. Wooster, OH: Bell & Howell, Micro Photo
Division, 1971-1973.(Microform collection containing approximately
10,000 books, pamphlets,portraits, letters by and about African
Americans, mostly items collectedby Henry P. Slaughter between
1900 and 1940.)
The Black Panther Leaders Speak: Huey P. Newton, Bobby
Seale, EldridgeCleaver and Company Speak Out through the Black
Panther Party's OfficialNewspaper. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press,
1976.
Brotz, Howard
1966 Negro Social and Political Thought, 1850-1920; RepresentativeTexts.
New York: Basic Books.
Bureau of National Affairs
1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964: Text, Analysis, Legislative
History;What It Means to Employers, Businessmen, Unions, Employees,
Minority Groups.Washington, DC.
Carmichael, Stokely
1971 Stokely Speaks: Black Power Back to Pan-Africanism.
New York:Random House.
Chester, Thomas Morris
1989 Thomas Morris Chester, Black Civil War Correspondent:
His Dispatchesfrom the Virginia Front. Edited by R.J.M. Blackett.
Baton Rouge: LouisianaState University Press.
Clark, Kenneth B.
1963 Negro Protest: James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther
King talkwith Kenneth B. Clark. Boston: Beacon Press.
Cleaver, Eldridge
1969 Eldridge Cleaver: Post-Prison Writings and Speeches.
NewYork: Random House.
Commager, Henry Steele
1967 Struggle for Racial Equality: a Documentary Record.
New York:Harper & Row.
Davis, Angela
1974 Angela Davis Case Collection, Meiklejohn Civil
LibertiesInstitute, Berkeley, California. Edited by Ann Fagan
Ginger. 13 microfilmreels. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Trans-Media Publishing
Company.
1971 If They Come in the Morning; Voices of Resistance.
Forewordby Julian Bond. A Joseph Okpaku Book. New York: Third
Press.
Douglass, Frederick
1979 The Frederick Douglass Papers. New Haven: Yale
UniversityPress.
Du Bois, W.E.B.
1988 Writings. Edited by Nathan Huggins. Library of
America. NewYork: Literary Classics of America.
Eaklor, Vicki Lynn
1988 American Antislavery Songs: a Collection and Analysis.
NewYork: Greenwood Press
Eicholz, Alice and James M. Rose, comps.
1981 Free Black Heads of Household in the New York State
Federal Census,1790-1830. Gale Genealogy and Local History
Series, vol. 14. Detroit,MI: Gale Research Co.
Elliot, Jeffrey M
1986 Black Voices in American Politics. San Diego: Harcourt
BraceJovanovich.
Foner, Philip S
1972 Voice of Black America: the Major Speeches by Negroes
in the UnitedStates, 1797-1971. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Foner, Philip S. , and George E. Walker, eds.
1979-80 Proceedings of the Black State Conventions, 1840-1865.Philadelphia:
Temple University Press.
1986 Proceedings of the Black National and State Conventions,
1865-1900.Philadelphia: Temple University Press-.
Forman, James
1972 Making of Black Revolutionaries; a Personal Account.
NewYork: Macmillan.
Forten, Charlotte L.
1988 The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke. Edited
by BrendaStevenson. New York: Oxford University Press.
Franklin, John Hope
1967 Negro in Twentieth Century America: a Reader on the
Strugglefor Civil Rights. New York: Vintage Books.
Gunther, Lenworth, ed.
1978 Black Image: European Eyewitness Accounts of Afro-American
Life.Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press.
Jacques-Garvey, Amy, ed.
1969 Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. 2 vols.
New Prefaceby Hollis R. Lynch. Studies in American Negro Life,
NL 14. New York: Atheneum.
Kennebeck, Edwin
1973 Juror Number Four: the Trial of Thirteen Black Panthers
As Seenfrom the Jury Box. New York: Norton.
Katz, William Loren, comp.
1974 Eyewitness: the Negro in American History. New
York: PitmanPub. Corp.
King, Martin Luther
1958 Stride Toward Freedom: the Montgomery Story. New
York: Harper.
1986 A Testament of Hope: the Essential Writings of Martin
Luther King,Jr. San Francisco: Harper & Row, .
The Liberator
Boston: William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp. 35 vols.
Lincoln, Abraham
1863 Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. September
22, 1863.
1989 Speeches and Writings. 2 vols. Selected and annotated
by DonE. Fehrenbacher. The Library of America, vols. 45 and 46.
New York: LiteraryClassics of the United States, .
Little, Malcolm. See X, Malcolm
Loyal Publication Society
1863 Opinions of the Early Presidents and of the Fathers
of the Republicupon Slavery and upon Negroes as Men and Soldiers.
Pamphlets, LoyalPublication Society, vol. 18. New York: C.
Bryant & Co., Printers.
The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association
Papers.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983-.
McFarlin, Annjenette Sophie, comp.
1976 Black Congressional Reconstruction Orators and Their
Orations,1869-1879. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question. Proceedings. Boston:
TheConference, 1890-91.
Moore, Richard B.
1988 Richard B. Moore, Caribbean Militant in Harlem: Collected
Writings,1920-1972. Edited by W. Burghardt Turner and Joyce
Moore Turner, witha biography by Joyce Moore Turner. Introduction
by Franklin W. Knight. Bloomington:Indiana University Press.
Motley, Mary Penwick, comp.
1975 The Invisible Soldier: the Experience of the Black
Soldier, WorldWar II. Foreword by Howard Donovan Queen. Detroit:
Wayne State UniversityPress.
Mullin, Michael, ed.
1976 American Negro Slavery: a Documentary History.
Columbia:University of South Carolina Press.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
1981-Papers of the NAACP. Editorial Advisor, August
Meier. Frederick,MD: University Publications of America.
Owens, Jesse
1970 Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man.
New York:William Morrow and Company, Inc.
Owens, Jesse and Paul Neimark.
1972 I Have Changed. New York: William Morrow &
Company.
Paul, Nathaniel
1827 An Address, Delivered on the Celebration of the Abolition
ofSlavery, in the State of New York, July 5, 1827, by Nathaniel
Paul, Pastorof the First African Baptist Society in the City of
Albany. Albany,NY: Printed by John B. Van Steenbergh.
Ripley, C. Peter, ed., Jeffrey S. Rossbach, associate ed.,
et al.
1985- The Black Abolitionist Papers. Chapel Hill: University
ofNorth Carolina Press.
Robeson, Paul
1978 Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews,
1918-1974.Edited with an introduction and notes by Philip
S. Foner. Larchmont, NY:Brunner-Mazel.
Rosengarten, Theodore
1986 Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter; with the Journal
of ThomasB. Chaplin. Edited and annotated with the assistance
of Susan W. Walker.New York: Morrow.
Rustin, Bayard
1971 Down the Line: the Collected Writings. Chicago:
QuadrangleBooks.
Slavery: Source Material Selected from a Bibliography of
Anti-Slaveryin America. Microfiche. Louisville, KY: Lost Cause
Press, 1971.
Slavery: Source Material Selected from Items Entered under
the SubjectGroup "Slavery" in the Catalog of the Library
of Congress. Microfiche.Louisville, KY: Lost Cause Press, 1972.
Smith, Billy G. and Richard Wojtowicz, comps.
1989 Blacks Who Stole Themselves: Advertisements for Runaways
in thePennsylvania Gazette 1728-1790. Philadelphia: University
of PennsylvaniaPress.
Sterling, Dorothy, ed.
1973 Speak Out in Thunder Tones: Letters and Other Writings
by BlackNortherners, 1787-1865. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
1976 The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Story of
Reconstruction.Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Stewart, Maria W.
1987 Maria W. Stewart, America's First Black Woman Political
Writer:Essays and Speeches. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press.
Sweet, Leonard I.
1976 Black Images of America, 1784-1870. New York: Norton.
Taylor, Clara, comp.
1974 British and American Abolitionists: an Episode in TranslatlanticUnderstanding.
Chicago: Aldine.
Taylor, Clyde, comp.
1973 Vietnam and Black America: an Anthology of Protest
and Resistance.Garden City, NY: Anchor Press.
Taylor, Susis King
1988 A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs: Reminiscences of
My Life inCamp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Trops, Late 1st South
Carolina Volunteers.Edited by Patricia W. Romero. New York:
M. Wiener Pub.
Turner, Henry McNeal
1971 i. Compiled and edited by Edwin S. Redkey. New
York: ArnoPress.
United States Congress, House of Representatives. Civil
Rights Actsof 1957, 1960, 1964, 1968; Voting Rights Act of 1965;
Voting Rights ActAmendments of 1970. Washington, DC: Government
Printing Office, 1970.
United States. Supreme Court. The Case of Dred Scott in
the UnitedStates Supreme Court: the Full Opinions of Chief Justice
Taney and JusticeCurtis, and Abstracts of the Opinions of the
Other Judges; with an Analysisof the Points Ruled, and Some Concluding
Observations. New York: HoraceGreeley and Co., 1857.
Vincent, Theodore G., ed.
1973 Voices of a Black Nation; Political Journalism in the
HarlemRenaissance. Foreword by Robert Chrisman. San Francisco:
Ramparts Press.
Washington, Booker T.
1972-1989 The Booker T. Washington Papers. 14 vols.
Editedby LouisR. Harlan. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Wilkins, Roy
1977 Talking It Over With Roy Wilkins: Selected Speeches
and Writings.Compiled by Helen Solomon and Aminda Wilkins.
Norwalk, CT: M & B Pub.Co.
Woodson, Carter Godwin, ed.
1924 Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the United States in
1830, Togetherwith Absentee Ownership of Slaves in the United
States in 1830. Washington,DC: The Association for the Study
of Negro Life and History.
1926 Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written during
the Crisis.Washington, DC: The Association for the Study of
Negro Life and History.
X, Malcolm
1965 Malcolm X Speaks; Selected Speeches and Statements.
EditedbyGeorge Breitman. New York: Merit Publishers.
1968 The Speeches of Malcolm X at Harvard. Edited with
an introductoryessay by Archie Epps. New York: W. Morrow, .
1970 By Any Means Necessary; Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter.Edited
by George Breitman. New York: Pathfinder Press, .
James M. Davidson, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
The earliest cemetery established in Dallas, Texas, had lain buried,
lost,and forgotten for nearly a hundred years. Now, from a clue
found while researchingthe origin of Freedman's Cemetery (the
historic African-American cemeterythat was the focus of intensive
archaeological investigations in recentyears), this lost cemetery,
the Old Dallas Burial Ground, has been rediscovered.The information
recovered regarding this cemetery's origin and demographyhas provided
significant insight into life in antebellum Dallas.
Dallas's oldest cemetery is located a mere four blocks north of
two famouslandmarks in Dallas history - the Texas School Book
Depository and DealeyPlaza- and some two miles to the south of
Freedman's Cemetery. While thevillage of Dallas itself was founded
in 1841 by John Neely Bryan, the precisefounding date of the old
Dallas Burial Ground remains unknown. From ourcurrent understanding,
however, it is likely that it was formed in the early1840s in
an impromptu manner, and only when the first death to visit thevillage
of Dallas dictated its necessity. Importantly, and not atypicalfor
the antebellum South, the Old Dallas Burial Ground marked the
finalresting place of both "anglo" settlers and enslaved
African Americans,making it a true communal graveyard. From the
archival record, it wouldseem that Dallas's first cemetery was
closed to further interments sometimearound 1869, the very year
that Freedman's Cemetery was founded.
Prior to the discovery of the Old Dallas Burial Ground, it had
been widelybelieved that Freedman's Cemetery actually contained
the remains of bothfreedmen and slaves, and that Freedman's Cemetery
could ultimately traceits origin to a slave cemetery. The discovery
of this earlier burial groundwill thus alter many basic assumptions
regarding the origin and historyof the early community of Freedman's
Town, of which Freedman's Cemeterywas but one part.
Ironically, like Freedman's Cemetery, an acre of which was paved
over byhighway construction in the 1940s, the Old Dallas Burial
Ground suffereda similar fate. It was first impacted by the physical
plant of the DallasBrewery during its expansion at the turn-of-the-century,
and was finallypaved over by the creation of Woodall Rogers Freeway
in the 1970s.
There is indirect archival evidence suggesting that most, if not
all, ofthe graves of whites were moved from the Old Dallas Burial
Ground in theearly 1870s to the newly formed City Cemetery. No
archival evidence, however,has been found regarding the fate of
the remains of the enslaved AfricanAmericans. Freedman's Cemetery
was formed in 1869 specifically to supersedethe Old Dallas Burial
Ground's role, and so it would have been the logical(and indeed
the only) place available for such re-interments. Although theearliest
portion of the Freedman's Cemetery was completely cleared of gravesduring
the highway department's archaeological investigation, no cases
ofgraves containing the disturbed remains of secondary burials
were recovered.With the complete lack of secondary burials at
Freedman's Cemetery, andnothing in the archival record to suggest
their removal, it seems highlylikely that the remains of Dallas's
slaves and early freedmen still liewithin the Old Dallas Burial
Ground.
The presence or extent of subsurface impacts that may have occurred
to thegraves, due either to the turn-of-the-century brewery expansion
or the constructionof Woodall Rogers Freeway, is unknown. In the
vicinity of the Old BurialGround, Woodall Rogers Freeway consists
of an elevated roadway, and so thecemetery is not capped off with
roadbed materials in any conventional sense.Accordingly, archaeological
investigation could potentially reveal any survivinggraves, which
could then be removed to a nearby cemetery.
Note: A full length article on the Old Dallas Burial Ground will
be publishedin the October 1998 issue of the Southwestern Historical
Quarterly.
Elizabeth M. Scott, Zooarch Research, St. Mary, Missouri
A few years ago I had the opportunity to analyze the animal remains
fromNina Plantation (16PC62), a c. 1820s-1890s sugar plantation
in central Louisianaon the banks of the Mississippi River. Excavated
in 1993 and 1994 by R.Christopher Goodwin & Associates on
behalf of the US Army Corps of Engineers,New Orleans District,
the project included investigation of the Main Houseand two structures
in an Outbuilding Complex associated with African Americans,although
the slave quarters proper were not excavated (since that area
wasnot in danger of destruction by the Mississippi River). The
site has theadvantage of an 1851 alluvial flood deposit that serves
to distinguish antebellumand postbellum occupations in both areas
of the site. This coincides aswell with a change in ownership
of the plantation in 1857, from a FrenchCreole family to an Anglo-American
family from Philadelphia (Markell 1996).Thus, it was possible
to analyze differences in French, Anglo-American,and African American
diets; differences in pre-Emancipation and post-EmancipationAfrican
American diets; and whether the differences could be attributedto
ethnicity, economic position, or both. This analysis brought severalthings
to mind that seem to have relevance for understanding the variabilityof
African American foodways in a plantation setting, and which I
wouldlike to discuss here.
The Outbuilding Complex at Nina Plantation appears, from the material
culture,to have been where African Americans resided, first as
slaves and lateras tenants (Markell 1996). One of the Outbuildings,
Structure 1, probablyserved as a residence for enslaved African
American and tenants as wellas a kitchen for the Main House residents.
The function of the second Outbuilding,Structure 2, is somewhat
less clear, although butchering and food preparationoccurred there
as well. Deer, raccoons, rabbits, turkey, doves and pigeons,alligator,
and suckers were consumed only in the Outbuildings. The residentsate
some species that also were consumed at the Main House, including
cow,pig, chicken, squirrel, ducks and geese, and turtles. Some
species, suchas opossum, occur in small amounts at the Main House,
but in larger amountsin the Outbuilding area. This is especially
true of fish; although catfishes,gar, bowfin, drum, and sunfishes
occur at the Main House, they played amuch greater role in the
diet at the Outbuilding area. Comparison of earlierFrench period
(c. 1820-1851) with later Anglo period (1851-1890s) dietsat the
Outbuilding area indicates an increase in domestic species and
amarked decrease in the use of wild mammals, birds, and fish in
the laterperiod. A similar pattern is seen at the later Anglo
Main House.
The evidence from Nina Plantation brings to mind discussions about
differencesin the ways enslaved African American and tenants obtained
their subsistence.Because assemblages associated with the later
tenant period Outbuildingsat Nina seem much more like those associated
with the Anglo Main House intheir increased use of beef and sharp
reduction in wild animals, one mightbe tempted to assume that
the plantation owners, the Allens, were controllingwhat meat provisions
were even available to African- American tenants. Inother words,
the shift in the African American diet at Nina in the samedirection
as the new owners' shift might be taken to suggest greater ownercontrol
of meat sources during the Anglo period.
However, what the faunal data might be revealing is an effect
on men's andwomen's time. If the plantation owner no longer provided
food rations (ashe/she might have done in the antebellum period),
then a tenant family wouldhave to spend more time (outside of
work on the sugar plantation) growingits own crops and otherwise
getting food for subsistence. Less time wouldbe available for
both hunting and agriculture, such that a choice mighthave been
made for investing time in gardens near the house rather thanin
procuring wild animals further afield. It might have made more
sensefor the tenants to have purchased were available from the
plantation owneror from nearby stores, even if this meant a change
in diet.
It is also possible that African-American tenants wanted to change
theirdiets, i.e., preferred the same foods as the Anglo owners,
or wanted todemonstrate their ability to purchase a similar array
of foods. This couldbe read both as "buying into" the
ideology of the dominant classas well as "in your face"
resistance to the dominant class byco-opting one of the signs
of that class its food choices. At Nina Plantation,with the shift
from slave to tenant status, the African-American diet changedfrom
one dominated by pork and wild species to one dominated by beef
andvirtually devoid of wild species.
I think it is difficult to determine whether the meat diet we
see revealedin the slave and tenant households on plantations
truly reflects Africanor African-American food preferences or
whether it reflects slave and tenantchoices from a limited range
of available options. Certainly some culinarypractices, such as
reliance on stews and "one-dish" meals, andthe use of
certain plant foods, such as okra and cowpeas, can be tracedto
Africa (Ferguson 1992; Wagner 1981; Hall 1991). However, pigs'
feet,stereotypically an African-American food preference, occurred
in higherproportions in the French and Anglo Main Houses at Nina
than in the slaveand tenant Outbuildings; in the case of the earlier
French period, the percentagewas much higher at the Main House.
During the later tenant period, therewas a marked decrease in
consumption of pork in the Outbuildings and a correspondingincrease
in consumption of beef. High and medium food value cuts of beefincreased
and the less meaty cuts decreased, suggesting that African-Americantenants
at Nina were better off economically, and perhaps physically,
thantheir enslaved predecessors had been.
In addition to the change in work and "free" time that
is partand parcel of the shift from slavery to tenancy, there
are the very realdifferences between French and Anglo-American
systems of slavery to consider.One article of the French Code
Noir (Black Code) forbade owners to workslaves on Sundays and
holidays, leaving this time available for enslavedmen and women
to engage in their own pursuits which might include, amongmany
other things, hunting and fishing as well as bartering and sellinggoods
and services (Ekberg 1985:215). We know relatively little about
NorthAmerican French plantations archaeologically, to know how
this might berevealed materially; however, the subject has been
examined by historiansfor the middle Mississippi valley (Ekberg
1985) and the Louisiana colonyin general (Usner 1987). The much
greater consumption of wild mammals andfish by enslaved African
Americans at Nina during the period French Creolesowned the plantation
suggests access to and time for acquisition of thoseresources
in a way that is consistent with the Code Noir.
Another factor to consider is the economic base of the plantation
understudy, which is related to its environmental setting. One
would expect quitea lot of variation in food consumption between
those who lived on coastalrice, indigo, and sea cotton plantations,
upland tobacco, cotton, hemp,and wheat plantations, and sugar
plantations; between those who lived onthe banks of large rivers
and oceans and those who had only creeks or pondsnearby; between
those who lived near heavily forested areas and those nearopen
grassland or prairie. When we combine the different kinds of laborthat
were required of enslaved men and women for different plantation
economieswith the variation in nearby plant and animal resources,
it is clear thatcomparisons and generalizations about African
American subsistence on plantationscan be neither easy nor facile.
Temporal and technological changes alsomust be brought into the
picture. For example, late nineteenth-century changesin meat processing
and in shipping meant more people had greater accessto domesticated
meats than before, especially if they lived along majorwaterways.
All of these factors (the ethnicity of owners, overseers, slaves,
and tenants);economic position; economic base of plantation; environmental
setting; temporal/technologicalcontext) need to be taken into
consideration when looking at similaritiesand differences in African-American
foodways on plantations. (Even morevariability would be expected,
of course, when African-American contextsin non-plantation settings
[enslaved and free] are examined.) The foodspeople ate reflect
access to, choices about, and preferences for, particularresources
and can tell us much about the role of subsistence in planter-slaveand
planter-tenant relations on plantations. To even begin to understandthis,
we need faunal and botanical data from many more kinds of plantationsin
various environmental settings dating to several different periods.
Hopefully,research in the not-too-distant future will include
increased attentionto topics such as these.
Ekberg, Carl J.
1985Colonial Ste. Genevieve: An Adventure on the Mississippi Frontier.
ThePatrice Press, Gerald, Missouri.
Ferguson, Leland G.
1992 Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800.Smithsonian
Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Hall, Robert L.
1991Savoring Africa in the New World. In Seeds of Change: Five
Hundred YearsSince Columbus, edited by Herman Viola and Carolyn
Margolis, pp. 160-185.Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington,
DC.
Markell, Ann
1996Patterns of Change in Plantation Life in Pointe Coupee Parish,
Louisiana:The Americanization of Nina Plantation, 1820-1890. Draft
report submittedto the US Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans
District. R. ChristopherGoodwin & Associates, Inc., New Orleans.
Usner, Daniel H., Jr.
1987 The Frontier Exchange Economy of the Lower Mississippi Valley
in theEighteenth Century. William and Mary Quarterly XLIV:2:165-192.
Wagner, Mark
1981The Introduction and Early Use of African Plants in the New
World. TennesseeAnthropologist 6(2):112-123.
Carol McDavid, Cambridge University
A-AA has been in existence for some years now, and those of you
who havebeen long-term subscribers have seen it through a number
of changes in editor,content, style, and appearance. In many way
these changes have been in responseto changes in the content and
social context of our field as it has matured.Another change is
in the works, which we hope will help the newsletter tobe even
better tool for researchers. Starting with the Spring 1999 issuewe
will begin a regular column, under my editorship, entitled Progression:Advances
in African American Archaeology.
This semi-annual column will attempt to map the changing theoretical,
methodological,social, and political terrain that researchers
in this field must navigate.As column editor, I hope to receive
contributions drawn from ongoing research-particularly research
that is attempting to establish new directions inthis area of
inquiry. These new directions can be "purely" archaeological,or
have to do with issues more social and political than technical.
Reportson significant community work will be as welcome in this
forum as reportswhich detail theoretical and methodological challenges.
I will also occasionallysolicit pieces, so suggestions about work
that would be of interest to subscriberswill also be appreciated.
The content of the column will include both informationand commentary,
and will, I hope, include as much of both from our subscribersas
from me.
My address can be found below, please drop me a note with your
ideas orproposals!
On Tuesday, October 13, 1998, The Washington Post (Page B03)
carriedan article reporting the work of College of William and
Mary archaeologistTom Higgins at the slave quarters of Wilton
plantation. The excavationsindicated that "enslaved Africans
partially supported their familieswith their own gardens and livestock
and that they hunted for game and fishedthe river. They became
part of entrepreneurial America, bartering or buyingdishes, beads
and children's toys."
We hope to have more information about this project in a future
A-AA.
Deborah L. Rotman, Archaeological Resources Management Service,
BallState University
Editor's Note: This paper discusses the results of research first
brieflyreported in A-AA No. 20.
African-Americans have played an important role in east central
Indiana'slong agricultural heritage. As a free state, Indiana
was a frequent destinationfor African-Americans and Quakers migrating
from the south, particularlyfrom North Carolina and Virginia (Lyda
1953:18). Many of these individualscame to Randolph County and
formed three distinct agricultural communities- Greenville, Cabin
Creek, and Snow Hill (Tucker 1882:133-134).
These settlements were recently the focus of archaeological and
historicalinvestigations. The project included extensive documentary
research andinterviews with descendants of early pioneers. A reconnaissance
level surveyof nearly 1,000 acres was also conducted 72 percent
of which was owned byAfrican-Americans and 28 percent by Quakers
and other white farmers. Fourteenhistoric sites associated with
African Americans were identified, each witha mean ceramic date
(MCD) before 1850. The goals for this research included:understanding
early agricultural practices in the region, examining economicstratification
within and between cultural groups, and determining if anarchaeological
correlate for ethnicity existed. This paper briefly outlinesthe
project results.
Early African-American and Quaker pioneers had familial, cultural,
andeconomic ties to one another, both in their home states and
after resettlingin Indiana (Cord 1993:107-108). Members of both
groups assisted fugitiveslaves on their way north as well as provided
support to those who choseto remain in Randolph County. The Underground
Railroad brought new membersinto the communities and offered opportunities
for individuals and familiesto relocate to northern Indiana, Michigan,
and Canada (Funk 1964:9). Thenumber of African-American residents
in Randolph County increased from fivein 1820 to 825 in 1850 (Thornbrough
1993:45). Greenville appeared to havebeen the largest and most
dynamic of these settlements. At its peak, ithad 800-900 members
(Tucker 1882:133). This community was also the hometo the Union
Literary Institute (ULI), founded in 1845 by a board comprisedof
both African-Americans and white Quakers. This manual boarding
schoolbecame the first integrated, coeducational institution in
the area (Dye1981).
Despite being a free state, four-fifths of Indiana's population
was in sympathywith slavery prior to mid-century (Cockrum 1969:12).
By 1831, African Americanswere required by law to give bond as
guarantee of good behavior and againsttheir becoming public charges
(Thornbrough 1993:31). As the Civil War drewnearer, African Americans
were increasingly unwelcome in Indiana. The FugitiveSlave Law
of 1850 mandated the capture and return of fugitives who had fledto
free states (Thornbrough 1993:32). In 1854, the Indiana ConstitutionalConvention
adopted a provision which prohibited African Americans from becomingresidents
of the state (Litweck 1961:70).
In addition to these social and political changes, agricultural
productionin Indiana and elsewhere was undergoing a transformation.
Prior to circa1855, and depending on location, many farm households
were virtually self-sufficientfamily units. However, after mid-century,
the size of land holdings increasedand farmers began to focus
on one or two primary crops rather than tendingto a broad spectrum
of livestock and agricultural pursuits (McMurry 1988:54).Poor
farmers were often unable to meet the increased capital requirementsof
this new system and were, therefore, at a greater competitive
disadvantage.Many abandoned farming and sought employment in urbanized
areas (Tucker1882:133).
Randolph County communities grew and expanded from the first wave
of migrationafter statehood (1816) until the Civil War, but by
the turn of the 20thcentury, the African-American and Quaker settlements
in Randolph Countyhad virtually disappeared (Thornbrough 1993:177).
The transformation ofthe agricultural system in east central Indiana
coincided with deterioratingrace relations as the Civil War approached.
The migration of black farmersout of the settlements in Randolph
County may have been motivated by decreasedeconomic opportunities
in farming or marginalized social position as a resultof the changing
political climate . . . or perhaps both (Leavell 1997; Robbins1997).
Although merchants, shoemakers, and blacksmiths were operating
withinthese communities, agriculture was the primary focus. Few
specific referencesto material possessions and farming practices
in Randolph County were found.However, a study of a rural African-American
community in St. Joseph County,whose inhabitants also originated
from North Carolina and Virginia, indicatedthat "life was
apparently typical for the pioneer period in Indiana"(Karst
1978:261). Threshing, butchering, and other farm tasks were sharedwith
neighbors, many of whom were white. Farming included the cultivationof
general crops and the raising of livestock. There is no evidence
to suggestthat life in the Randolph County settlements deviated
from this pattern.
All but three of the sites investigated contained agricultural-related
artifacts(i.e., tools, plow parts, etc.), although the relative
percentage of theseitems was low. The absence of large numbers
of agricultural artifacts substantiatedthat farm tools were highly
valued, curated, and re-used (Smith and Driver1914:786). According
to the 1850 census, there were three blacksmiths residingin the
Cabin Creek settlement. These individuals would have been instrumentalin
refurbishing and repairing important metal components of agriculturalimplements.
As a result, these items would have entered the archaeologicalrecord
in limited quantities. Additionally, the wooden pieces of hoes,
axes,harrows, and plows would not have been preserved archaeologically.
These early agricultural communities were stratified economically. However,stratification appears to cross ethnic, social, and religious boundaries.A wide range of farm values and sizes were noted in the 1850 agriculturalcensus (Reel 3895) for African Americans and for Quakers and other whitesettlers (Table 1). The archaeological evidence also illustrated economicvariation. Some assemblages contained only a few undecorated earthenwaresand utilitarian stonewares, while others were dominated by transfer-printedand other decorated whitewares. Consequently, all points on the economicspectrum appeared to have been occupied by individuals from multiple socialcategories.
| Table 1: Summary of Sample Data from the 1850 Agricultural Census,Randolph County, Indiana. | ||
African-American Quaker | ||
| Mean | 82.9 | 101.2 |
| Median | 80 | 102 |
| Range | 0-320 | 0-250 |
| Mean | 933 | 1,179 |
| Median | 700 | 1,000 |
| Range | 0-4,000 | 0-3,000 |
Overall, however, the Quakers and other white farmers fared better
thantheir African-American neighbors, particularly during the
shift to commercialagriculture after mid-century. White farmers
generally occupied their farmslonger and retained possession of
them later into the 19th century. Onlyhalf (N=7) of the properties
owned by African Americans were occupied longerthan 20 years,
compared to 80 percent (N=4) of farms owned by whites. Additionally,in
the decade following the transformation of the agricultural system
(ca.1855-1865), only 33 percent (N=1) of white farmers had sold
their property,while 55 percent (N=5) of land held by African
Americans was sold duringthe same time period.
The sites surveyed were associated with landowners from a range
of ethnic,social, and religious backgrounds, yet the artifacts
recovered were quitesimilar. Another study, which compared African
American and Euroamericanfarmsteads from the early 20th century,
also did not indicate any significantdifferences in material culture
attributed to ethnicity (Stine 1990:48).Within Indiana, rural
African-American settlements in St. Joseph Countyduring the 19th
century were much like white rural communities of the sametime
period (Karst 1978:267).
The only discernible differences in the archaeological assemblages
appearedto be along economic, not racial lines. Material culture
may not have playeda primary role in asserting social boundaries
on the frontier in Indianaduring the first half of the 19th century.
As was suggested by Stine (1990:49)character attributes, such
as being "crooked," slovenly or lazy,may have been more
important than class, occupation or race. Consequently,no clear
archaeological correlate of ethnicity was discerned for sites
withinthe project area.
The documentary research, oral interviews, and reconnaissance
level surveyconducted during this project are only the first step
to understanding dynamicAfrican-American and Quaker communities
in Randolph County. However, thedata collected provides an important
foundation upon which to base futurehistorical and archaeological
research of pioneer settlement, farming practices,and social interaction
within African-American communities in Indiana andthe Midwest.
Note: If interested in ordering a copy of the research report
for this project, please contact the author at dlrotman@aol.com
My sincerest thanks to my research team: Rachel Mancini, Aaron Smith,and Elizabeth Campbell. This project was funded by Ball State Universityand through a Department of Interior grant administered by the Indiana Departmentof Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.
Cockrum, William M.
1969 The History of the Underground Railroad. Negro Universities
Press,New York.
Cord, Xenia
1993 Black Rural Settlements in Indiana Before 1860. In Indiana's
African-AmericanHeritage: Essays from Black History News &
Notes, edited by W. L. Gibbs,pp. 99-110. Indiana Historical Society,
Indianapolis.
Dye, Kitty
1981 Story of the Old School. The Muncie Star, Section B:1, August
30.
Funk, Arville L.
1964 Railroad to Freedom. Outdoor Indiana 8 (5):5-10.
Karst, Frederick a.
1978 A Rural Black Settlement in St. Joseph County, Indiana before
1900.Indiana Magazine of History 74:252-267.
Leavell, Harry
1997 Telephone conversation with Elizabeth Campbell, 9 November.
Litweck, Leon F.
1961 North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860.
Universityof Chicago Press, Chicago.
Lyda, John W.
1953 The Negro in the History of Indiana. Hathoway Printery, Coatesville,Indiana.
McMurry, Sally
1988 Families and Farmhouses in Nineteenth-Century America: Vernacular
Designand Social Change. Oxford University Press, New York.
Robbins, Coy
1997 Telephone conversation with Elizabeth Campbell, 13 October.
Smith, John L., and Lee L. Driver
1914 Past and Present in Randolph County, Indiana. A. W. Bowen
& Company,Indianapolis.
Stafford, James and Barbara Stafford
1997 Interview with Elizabeth Campbell, New Paris, Ohio, 18 July.
Stine, Linda
1990 Social Identity and Turn-of-the-Century Farmsteads: Issues
of Class,Status, Ethnicity, and Race. Historical Archaeology 24(4):37-49.
Velma Maia Thomas, Crown Publishers Inc., New York, 1997.
Ed Hood, Old Sturbridge Village
In Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation,Velma
Maia Thomas, creator and curator of the Black Holocaust Museum,
providesan accessible overview and perspective on the enslavement
of Africans inAmerica. The book includes "interactive"
features, primarily facsimilesof period documents, pertaining
to the slave trade and to the experiencesof those who were enslaved.
From a paper reproduction of a tobacco can onecan produced the
treasured manumission papers of Robert Green, who had beenenslaved
in Missouri until set free by his owner in 1838. The facsimilecopy
captures the folded and worn character of the original paper,
and evenincludes an additional note on its back from the former
owner stating that"Should the bearer Robert Green be so unfortunate
as to be placed inany situation that may require aid or friends
and cannot procure, if anygentleman that will write me and of
his situation will greatly oblige".The effect is similar
to handling the actual artifact, making Robert Green'sexperience
that much more real for the reader. Photographs and first-handaccounts
of life under slavery help make the terrible pain and enormousscope
of African enslavement in America tangible and personal.
The book is divided into self-contained sections composed of the
two facingpages in front of the reader - providing a succinct
but effective exposureto a variety of issues associated with slavery:
the Middle Passage, TheAuction, "seasoning", childhood
under slavery, emancipation, andso forth. The color format of
this book includes half-toned images behindthe text, photographs
of individuals, cut-out details of artifacts suchas a whip, reproduced
period documents such as fugitive slave advertisements,and other
historic engravings and images. Transcriptions are provided atthe
end of the book for the period documents reproduced in facsimile
form(though I did not realized this until I had read the entire
book and wasflipping through its last pages). The text includes
enough detailed factualinformation to support itself without overloading
a non-academic reader,and the clear and well organized writing
style further contributes to thebook's effectiveness. It is in
many ways a traveling-exhibit of sorts, whosewell-captioned images
will provide a significant amount of interesting informationto
those who choose not to stop and read the more detailed text.
Thomas keeps the experience of individuals in the fore and helps
put thereader in the place of the person on the auction block
about to be separatedfrom their family forever. The experience
of fear and powerlessness createdthrough the Middle Passage, seasoning,
arbitrary punishment and humiliation,the constant threat of loss
of family and community through sale, and thedesire to resist
slavery by any means possible are brought into focus. Thomasemphasizes,
that though enslaved, Africans and African Americans alwaysmaintained
their own identity and constantly resisted slavery and racismin
a variety of ways, from open revolt to working slow. By consistentlyreferring
to enslaved Africans and African Americans as "my ancestors",she
brings their experience closer to home and provides a sense of
identityto the enslaved that a reader may not feel in a more academic
account. Asshe states in her afterword, "Lest We Forget is
a tribute to thosewhose lives are told through the documents you've
seen and read.".Indeed it is, and it is a very effective,
non-academic, presentation ofa very central element of American
history - Slavery.
Madeline Burnside and Rosemarie Robotham. Foreword by Cornel
West.Simon and Schuster, New York, 1997. 192 pp., plates, index.
$35.00.
Paul Mullins, George Mason University
Madeline Burnside and Rosemarie Robotham weave a sweeping, eloquent,
andcomplex account of the transatlantic slave trade in this volume.
Burnsideand Robotham's telling probes the international dimensions
of enslavementand colonialism by examining the material culture
recovered from the HenriettaMarie. A French-built English merchant
slaver, the Henrietta Marie carriedover 400 enslaved Africans
and a range of slave trade cargo between 1697and 1700, when it
sank off the Florida coast. The ship lay there until itsexcavation
by the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society in the 1980s. Spiritsof
the Passage is a model of lucid and thorough writing on perhaps
the mosttangled of historical stories, synthesizing a wide range
of historiographicalresources and contemplating the myriad facets
of the 17th-century world.Rather than an account of an isolated
shipwreck, Spirits of the Passageis primarily a narrative which
traces slave trade connections across spaceand time between sub-Saharan
African trade, western European maritime commerce,the Middle Passage,
and African resistance in the Americas.
The volume's foreword by Cornel West adds the sort of concise
and penetratingcommentary readers expect from West. West's sharply
thought-out introductionraises familiar but powerfully articulated
paradoxes about the fundamentalsocial contradictions of slavery
and racism and their reach across fivecenturies. Robotham pens
a brief introduction to the volume which focuseson the human experiences
of the slave trade. Burnside, executive directorof the Mel Fisher
Maritime Heritage Society, adds an afterword on the archaeologicaldiscovery
and excavation of the Henrietta Marie. The book's exquisite aestheticsand
production will be the envy of every archaeologist resigned to
readand write contract reports or small press volumes which do
not have thebenefit of costly technical production.
As a social history drawing on a vast range of period narratives,
graphics,and secondary accounts examining the worldwide breadth
of the traffic inhumans, Spirits of the Passage is an incisive
and compelling study of thecomplex state, material, and social
forces shaping slavery. Spirits of thePassage aspires to paint
a picture of the world's players in the slave trade,and it does
so quite well. Yet, as an archaeological account, Spirits ofthe
Passage does not devote sufficient attention to the Henrietta
Marie'smaterial culture. The evocative power of the Henrietta
Marie's materialculture--from ankle shackles to Venetian trade
beads--certainly is well-suitedto emphasizing the tragic, gripping,
and ignoble human dimensions of thetransatlantic slave trade and
the Middle Passage. Robotham's introductionrecognizes that items
like nearly 100 pairs of shackles can conjure powerfulhuman stories,
but Spirits of the Passage is generally a measured marchthrough
slave trade history that is periodically punctuated by illustrationsof
excavated objects. While it synthesizes a rich range of resources
andliterature, Spirits of the Passage devotes relatively little
close and detailedattention to specific objects from the Henrietta
Marie, their aestheticsor function, or the ship itself with the
rigor expected of underwater andAfrican-American archaeologies.
Spirits of the Passage is constructed likea conventional, albeit
eloquent historical narrative with an episodic storyline,a textual
style unlike most historical archaeology's use of fine-grainedmaterial
analyses to illuminate concealed and otherwise-lost minutia ofeveryday
life. The illustrations of Henrietta Marie artifacts are strikingand
the sidebars articulate, but Spirits of the Passage's text tells
thestory of worldwide social and material changes which created
slavery andwere in turn impacted by the slave trade, not the history
of this one ill-fatedship or the men, women, and children who
were captors and captives aboardit. In this sense, Spirits of
the Passage charts a distinctive textual stylewhich synthesizes
archaeological and historiographical conventions. Thebook eschews
the rigorous material analysis associated with most archaeologicalliterature
and instead uses stunning graphics to evoke the human storiesconcealed
by the book's otherwise standard slave trade historiography. Somearchaeologists
may prefer to see systematic material analysis at the heartof
such a book, concerned that this sort of graphic-intensive text
simplyreduces objects to superfluous ornamentation. Indeed, Spirits
of the Passagemight well have been written without the Henrietta
Marie material culture.Yet the incorporation of even a modest
quantity of material culture--eventhough these figure primarily
as illustrations--clearly advances the book'seffort to contemplate
the human experiences of slavery, so it charts a provocativepath
for the writing of African-American archaeologies.
Archaeological readers inevitably will wonder about the politics
of thisexcavation and its well-known excavators. The Henrietta
Marie was identifiedby Mel Fisher in 1972 as he surveyed for the
Spanish galleon the NuestraSenora de Atocha. Fisher's team returned
to the Henrietta Marie after thehighly publicized Atocha excavation,
a dig which likely illuminated theconflict between treasure hunters
and archaeologists more than any otherunderwater archaeological
project. In 1972, Fisher passed over the HenriettaMarie when it
yielded artifacts which revealed it to be English and toolate
to be the Atocha, but Spirits of the Passage does not illuminate
whyFisher returned to the Henrietta Marie a decade later. Madeline
Burnside'safterword to the volume discusses the wreck's excavation,
but it is a quitebrief and circumspect account of the wreck's
identification which will notaddress archaeologists' detailed
research questions about the excavation,the ship's material culture,
or the politics of underwater salvage. Burnsideincludes a poignant
account of dives on the Henrietta Marie by the NationalAssociation
of Black Scuba Divers, but the afterword, and, by extension,the
political context of the ship's excavation and interpretation,
is notclearly linked to the book's historical narrative.
Spirits of the Passage is a thorough, critical, and lucidity written
analysisof the birth of the slave trade, and it is a visually
stunning production.Perhaps the powerful material evidence of
the Henrietta Marie could be moreclearly linked to Spirits of
the Passage's broader focus, serving less asan accent for the
historical narrative than the framework for the story.Nevertheless,
the book provides a solid introduction to the slave tradeand suggests
how African-American archaeologists can begin to integratethorough
historical narrative, object analysis, and inchoate material symbolismin
an imaginative, accessible, and empirically rigorous text style.
On Wednesday, October 14, 1998, the 11th Annual James Monroe
Lecture,"Slavery and James Monroe's America" was presented
by Robert P.Forbes, executive coordinator, Gilder Lehrman Center
for the Study of Slavery,Resistance and Abolition, Yale University
and author of Slavery and theMeaning of America: The Missouri
Crisis and its Aftermath. For additionalinformation contact John
Pearce, Director, James Monroe Museum and MemorialLibrary, (540)
654-1311.
Getting the Word: Monticello has initiated an African-American
oral historyproject which is seeking to locate and interview descendants
of the site'sAfrican-American community. The project's staff includes
Lucia Stanton,Dianne Swann-Wright, and Beverly Gray. To learn
more contact The Gettingthe Word Project , Monticello, P. O. Box
316, Charlottesville, VA 22902.(804) 984-9864.
Look for news from the January meetings of the Society for Historical
Archaeologyand the World Archaeological Congress in A-AA No. 23,
this winter.
Editor/Publisher:John P. McCarthy, Greenhorne & O'Mara, Inc.,9001 Edmonston Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770 (301)-220-1876
Assistant Editor: Paul Mullins, Anthropology Program,
George MasonUniversity, MSN-3GS, Fairfax, VA 22030
Progression:Carol McDavid, 1406 Sul Ross,Houston, TX 77007
Northeast/ Book Reviews:James Garmon, Public Archaeology Laboratory,Inc., 210 Lonsdale Avenue, Pawtucket, RI 02860 (401)-728-8780
Mid-Atlantic:Barbara Heath, The Corporation for Jefferson's PopularForest, P. O. Box 419, Forest, VA 24551
Southeast:Joe W. Joseph, New South Associates, Inc. 4889 LewisRoad, Stone Mountain, GA 30083 (770)-498-4155
Caribbean:Paul Farnsworth, Dept. of Geography and Anthropology,Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Midwest: Matthew Emerson, Anthropology Department, Southern IllinoisUniversity, Edwardsville, IL 62026 (618)-692-5689
Mid-South/So. Plains: Leslie "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy,Arkansas Archaeological Survey, P. O. Box 8706 AKU, Russellville, AK 72801(501)-968-0381
West:Laurie Wilkie, Anthropology Department, University of California,Berkeley, CA 94720
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