Juneteenth Lecture at St. Mary’s City
Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in June 1865 in Texas, and is officially celebrated on June 19th. There are a number of …
Making A Home: Window Glass and the Transition from Slavery to Freedom
One of the questions that I’m asking in the research about the lives of African Americans during and after slavery is how they used, modified, and manipulated different spaces on …
Looking at Space: Identifying Activity Areas with GIS
One of the major components of understanding the lives of slaves and tenant farmers at St. Mary’s Manor is understanding how they used space before and after Emancipation. This is …
Landscapes of Slavery and Freedom at the Wye House Plantation
Archaeologists and historians throughout the United States conduct research about the transition from slavery to freedom. Occasionally, we will be featuring guest posts from these researchers to demonstrate ways that these …
The Initials in the Lintel
It is not often that archaeologists are able to examine writing in the material record. Most of the time we are dealing with broken plates and bottles. Very rarely do …
Understanding an African American Community in Gloucester County, Virginia
Archaeologists and historians throughout the United States conduct research about the transition from slavery to freedom. Occasionally, we will be featuring a guest post from these researchers to demonstrate the ways …
Maryland Slaves in the Civil War: How it Happened in St. Mary’s County
[one_third]The enlistment card of Aelxander Gough (courtesy of ancestry.com)[/one_third][two_third_last]On October 19th, 1863, Lieutenant Eben White of the Union Army headed to St. Mary’s County to recruit African American slaves to …
Looking for Comparisons: Shirley Plantation Duplex Quarters in Virginia
One of the difficulties in working with archaeological material is that our data set is inherently incomplete. While looking at what people from the past have left behind does give …