Subfloor pits and the archaeology of slavery in colonial Virginia

Title
  1. Subfloor pits and the archaeology of slavery in colonial Virginia / Patricia M. Samford.
Published by
  1. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, ©2007.
Author
  1. Samford, Patricia.

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StatusFormatTextAccessUse in libraryCall numberE445.V8 S26 2007Item locationOff-site

Details

Description
  1. xii, 232 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm
Summary
  1. Enslaved Africans and their descendants comprised a significant portion of colonial Virginia populations, with most living on rural slave quarters adjacent to the agricultural fields in which they labored. Archaeological excavations into these home sites have provided unique windows into the daily lifeways and culture of these early inhabitants. A common characteristic of Virginia slave quarters is the presence of subfloor pits beneath the houses. The most common explanations of the functions of these pits are as storage places for personal belongings or root vegetables, and some contextual and ethnohistoric data suggest they may have served as West Africa-style shrines. Through excavations of 103 subfloor pits dating from the 17th through mid-19th centuries, Samford reveals a wealth of data including shape, location, surface area, and depth, as well as contents and patterns of related feature placement. Archaeology reveals the material circumstances of slaves' lives, which in turn opens the door to illuminating other aspects of life: spirituality, symbolic meanings assigned to material goods, social life, individual and group agency, and acts of resistance and accommodation. Analysis of the artifact assemblages allows the development of hypotheses about how West African, possibly Igbo, cultural traditions were maintained and transformed in the Virginia Chesapeake.
Subject
  1. 1600-1865
  2. Enslaved persons > Virginia > Social life and customs
  3. Enslaved persons > Homes and haunts > History. > Virginia
  4. Root cellars > Virginia > History
  5. Hiding places > Virginia > History
  6. Sacred space > Virginia > History
  7. Material culture > Virginia > History
  8. African Americans > Virginia > Antiquities
  9. Excavations (Archaeology) > Virginia
  10. African Americans > Antiquities
  11. Excavations (Archaeology)
  12. Hiding places
  13. Material culture
  14. Root cellars
  15. Sacred space
  16. Enslaved persons > Social life and customs
  17. Ausgrabung
  18. Sklave
  19. Soziale Situation
  20. Ausgrabung
  21. Sklave
  22. Soziale Situation
  23. Virginia > History > Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
  24. Virginia > History > 1775-1865
  25. Virginia
  26. Virginia
Genre/Form
  1. History
Contents
  1. Introduction -- Regional context -- Historical and archaeological overview of study sites -- Intersite comparisons : the material lives of the enslaved -- Preliminary analysis and proposed function of subfloor pits -- Subfloor pits as root cellars -- Subfloor pits as personal storage areas -- Subfloor pits as shrines -- Subfloor pits and slavery in colonial Virginia.
Owning institution
  1. Princeton University Library
Bibliography (note)
  1. Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-224) and index.