John D Metz | Boston University (original) (raw)

Publications by John D Metz

This book explores changes in rural households of the Georgia Piedmont through the material cultu... more This book explores changes in rural households of the Georgia Piedmont through the material culture of farmers as they transitioned from self-sufficiency to market dependence. The period between 1880 and 1910 was a time of dynamic change when Southern farmers struggled to reinvent their lives and livelihoods. Relying on primary documents, including probate inventories, tax lists, state and federal census data, and estate sale results, this study seeks to understand the variables that prompted farm households to assume greater risk in hopes of success as well as those factors that stood in the way of progress. While there are few projects of this type for the late nineteenth century, and fewer still for the New South, the findings challenge the notion of farmers as overly conservative consumers and call into question traditional views of conspicuous consumption as a key indicator of wealth and status.

- Provides new insights on the domestic and productive material culture of farmers and the economic and social changes in the postbellum South

- Focuses on the household economy of the New South when farmers were transitioning from self-sufficiency to market dependence and seeks to understand the variables that prompted farmers to assume greater risk in hopes of success as well as those factors that stood in the way of progress

- Utilizes a wealth of data from the counties of Crawford, Franklin and Jasper, making it possible to link probate inventories with sales and tax data to reveal specific trends in household assets over time

A survey of seventeenth-century industrial sites identified in York County, James City County, an... more A survey of seventeenth-century industrial sites identified in York County, James City County, and the City of Williamsburg in the Virginia Tidewater documents the diversification of the economy, an increase in craft specialization, and the emergence of new patterns of local exchange between 1660 and 1725. An archaeological consideration of these sites reveals an increase in local manufactures associated with the trend towards greater self- sufficiency.

In 1989, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation acquired the Bruton Heights School property for use... more In 1989, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation acquired the Bruton Heights School property for use as the Foundation’s new educational campus. The archaeological resources on the property document nearly 10,000 years of human activity in the remains of temporary campsites, an early fortification, a seventeenth-century plantation, eighteenth-century property boundaries, and part of an eighteenth-century neighborhood. Painstaking historical research and archaeological analysis has resulted in the recovery of a past that has a significant place in the history of the region.

Bermuda Journal of Archaeology and Maritime History, 1994

The development of settlement patterns in Bermuda poses an interesting dilemma due to a unique co... more The development of settlement patterns in Bermuda poses an interesting dilemma due to a unique combination of limited space (20 sq. miles), few resources, and a growing population. Traditionally, scholars have categorized English settlements in the New World according to Puritan and Chesapeake attributes. Bermuda is similar to, yet distinct from both areas. The analysis of nine assessments and over one hundred wills from Devonshire Parish provides for an in-depth analysis of settlement patterns as they developed in Bermuda. The assessments dating from 1698 to 1798 demonstrate parish-wide changes in land tenure over time. Wills dating from 1640 to 1798 contain information specific to the dynamics of these changes.

Book Reviews by John D Metz

William A. Link. Atlanta, Cradle of the New South: Race and Remembering in the Civil War’s Afterm... more William A. Link. Atlanta, Cradle of the New South: Race and Remembering in the Civil War’s Aftermath. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2013. 264 pp. $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4696-0776-4.
Reviewed by John D. Metz
Published on H-SHGAPE (April, 2015)

Papers by John D Metz

This project draws on a sample of 228 probate records from the Georgia counties of Crawford, Fran... more This project draws on a sample of 228 probate records from the Georgia counties of Crawford, Franklin, and Jasper between 1880 and 1910. These records provide an alternative approach to measuring wealth over time. The probate inventories showing the composition of household assets at the time of death are linked with sales, tax, and census data to reveal specific trends in household assets over time. The goal is to offer this dataset online for free so that others can explore the transition from traditional production and exchange systems to market capitalism.

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series — 1729, 1992

During the eighteenth century, Capitol Landing was the major link between Williamsburg and the Yo... more During the eighteenth century, Capitol Landing was the major link between Williamsburg and the York River. According to documentary sources, it was even more substantial than College Landing, which was the link to the James River. Being under less population stress in light of the increasing size of
Williamsburg in recent years, Capitol Landing was seen as an ideal location not only to gain more insight into a major eighteenth century transportation and industrial site but also as a glimpse of the periphery of Williamsburg. The immediate goal of the Capitol Landing Project was to identify sites associated with the colonial port at Capitol Landing.

The Phase I investigation of the area formerly known as Capitol Landing and currently owned by Richard D. Mahone was accomplished through controlled surface collecting and limited subsurface testing. A pedestrian reconnaissance of the entire property was conducted and four relative undisturbed areas were identified and deemed valuable for testing. These included ten acres of plowed field, a two-acre nursery, and two small terraces comprising an acre. The initial examination indicated that the surface visibility within plowed fields was greater than eighty percent. Based upon this finding, it was decided that a controlled surface collection would provide for a sufficient assessment of cultural resources within the field. In addition, shovel testing was selected as the most efficient means of locating artifact concentrations within the terrace areas. This Phase I effort was conducted between November 21 and December 11, 1991.

A further phase of testing was conducted in the area known as Capitol Landing in February of 1992. This investigation concentrated on those areas of the property located to the east of the previously tested area. This investigation was conducted in hopes of further identifying sites associated with the colonial inland port. This area was shovel tested in intervals ranging from five meters to fifteen meters depending upon location (e.g., mud flats were tested in fifteen meter intervals).

Colonial Williamsburg Archaeological Reports, Jan 2003

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Bermuda National Trust completed an architectural an... more The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Bermuda National Trust completed an architectural and archaeological assessment of the Springfield property located in Sandys Parish, Bermuda, in 1994 and1995. The goal of the project the first year was to obtain an understanding of the history and evolution of the Springfield property. The investigation began in May 1994 when a history of the property was compiled using land assessments, deeds, wills, maps, and other documents from the in the Bermuda National Archives. The architectural and archaeological fieldwork was conducted shortly thereafter in July. Architectural historians from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation began a detailed study of the interior and exterior of Springfield in order to determine the original core of the house and date additions that accreted over time. At the same time, Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists assisted by staff and volunteers from the Bermuda National Trust conducted test excavations to help refine the chronology of the building campaigns and to explore how the use of the various yards and activity areas changed over time. Ultimately, fourteen test units were excavated in the south courtyard, the east yard, the north terrace, and the interior of the house.

The Monticello Department of Archaeology in conjunction with the Restoration and Buildings Depart... more The Monticello Department of Archaeology in conjunction with the Restoration and Buildings Departments conducted testing and data recovery projects at three sites during 1997: a collapsed section of the Garden Terrace Wall, the Kitchen Dependency and the four Corner Terraces of the mansion proper. The projects provided unique insights into the construction of Monticello and the modification of the surrounding landscape from Thomas Jefferson’s lifetime to the present.

Conference Presentations by John D Metz

John Hartwell Cocke (1780-1866), an influential planter in Fluvanna County, Virginia, was one of ... more John Hartwell Cocke (1780-1866), an influential planter in Fluvanna County, Virginia, was one of a handful of farmers in America to experiment with pisé de terre construction in an attempt to provide his slaves with healthier living conditions than the wooden structures of the day could provide. Pisé de terre, known simply as pisé, is a French form of adobe consisting of soil rammed into frames to create walls. While few in America experimented with this type of construction, fewer still were successful. Pisé structures are vulnerable to the elements and require sound roofs and frequent maintenance to ensure their survival. Historical records indicate that Cocke constructed two slave quarters and a garden wall in pisé at Bremo Recess in 1815, two more quarters and another garden wall at Upper Bremo in 1817, and at least one more quarter sometime around 1820 near the millpond along the "old Cocke Road.” A recent investigation of the pisé structure known as “the miller’s house” near the millpond at Upper Bremo provided an opportunity to document a deteriorating rammed earth structure reputed to be a slave quarter and archaeologically test the associated site. The data collected during this survey are relevant to questions of ethnicity, status, and progressive farm management in the Piedmont region of Virginia during the Federal period.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation completed the excavation in 1994 of a seventeenth-century pe... more The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation completed the excavation in 1994 of a seventeenth-century period brick and roofing tile manufactory and a domestic site located on the Bruton Heights parcel in Williamsburg, Virginia. The evidence from Bruton Heights provides some idea of the type of industrial activities engaged in as well as the self sufficiency of a plantation during the late seventeenth century. Ultimately, data are relevant to questions in the social realm. Page was wealthy and influential and he chose to display his wealth in a manner few could afford. Building with brick and roofing tile indicated to others that he was on par with the most powerful men in the colony. The Bruton Heights site is illustrative of the increase in the standard and scale of building during the late seventeenth century. This trend is but a part of the growing gentrification that would reach its height during the eighteenth century.

Dissertation by John D Metz

Boston University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, American and New England Studies Program... more Boston University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, American and New England Studies Program
UMI Dissertation Publishing. UMI 3483468.

Thesis by John D Metz

Drafts by John D Metz

Buildings are designed and constructed in ways that communicate specific messages to others. Sla... more Buildings are designed and constructed in ways that communicate specific messages to others. Slave quarters, however, are unique in the architectural experience of the United States because they were purposely intended to reinforce the subjugation of enslaved African Americans. Given this, the evolving design, construction, and use of slave quarters after 1790 offers a unique perspective on the methods of social control used to enforce the slaveholding regime as well as the extent and the impact of slave resistance in opposing these efforts. Paper given at the 2013 Virginia Forum.

- Provides new insights on the domestic and productive material culture of farmers and the economic and social changes in the postbellum South

Bermuda Journal of Archaeology and Maritime History, 1994

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series — 1729, 1992

Colonial Williamsburg Archaeological Reports, Jan 2003