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Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage, 2020
The once-dynamic Oval Site at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, is a pr... more The once-dynamic Oval Site at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, is a prime example of how the history of an enslaved community can be lost to time. As an eighteenth-century farm quarter that housed both an overseer and enslaved individuals, the undocumented space was a location of constant cultural interaction and negotiation that, without archaeology, would have remained unknown. An archaeobotanical analysis conducted on plant remains recovered from the site demonstrates how enslaved Africans and African Americans on the site acquired and consumed food, and interacted with the site overseer and slave owners. Identified botanical material suggests that food was both a mechanism and a product of community development, identity formation, and agency assertion. The botanical assemblage further illuminates the multitude of influences and experiences that went into forming new, creolized African American foodways.
Society for Historical Archaeology, 2018
Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home to an enslaved community and over... more Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home to an enslaved community and overseer charged with growing Virginia's cash crop: tobacco. No documentary evidence references the site, leaving archaeology as the only means to reconstruct the lives of the site's inhabitants. This research uses the results of a macrobotanical analysis conducted on soil samples taken from an overseer's basement and a dual purpose slave quarter/kitchen cellar at the Oval Site to understand what the site's residents were eating and how the acquisition, production, processing, provisioning, and consumption of food impacted their daily lives. The interactive nature of the overseer, enslaved community, and their respective v botanical assemblages suggests that food was not only used as sustenance, it was also a medium for social interaction and mutual dependence between the two groups. The botanical assemblage is also utilized to discuss how the consumption of provisioned, gathered, and produced foods illustrate the ways that Stratford's enslaved inhabitants formed communities and exerted agency through food choice. A mixture of traditional African, European, and native/wild taxa were recovered from the site, revealing the varied cultural influences that affected the resident's cuisine. The assemblage provides evidence for ways that the site's enslaved Africans and African Americans adapted to the local environment, asserted individual and group food preferences, and created creolized African American identities as they sought to survive and persist in the oppressive plantation landscape. The results from the Oval Site are compared to nine other 18th-and 19th-century plantation sites in Virginia to demonstrate how food was part of the cultural creolization process undergone by enslaved Africans and African Americans across the region. The comparison further shows that diverse, creolized food preferences developed by enslaved communities can be placed into a regional framework of foodways patterns. Analyzing the results on a regional scale acknowledges the influence of individual preferences and identities of different communities on their food choices, while still demonstrating how food was consistently both a mechanism and a product of African American community formation. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the support and guidance of an enormous amount of people. I would like to express my deep gratitude to my committee chair Dr. Heather Trigg for training me and being an unwavering source of guidance and enthusiasm during all stages of this research. I would also like to thank Dr. Nedra Lee for providing useful critiques and thoughtful insight. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Douglas Sanford for his encouragement and advice on this project, and for his academic investment in the Oval Site. The faculty and staff of the Andrew Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, my cohort, and my colleagues have been constant sources of inspiration and encouragement throughout this entire process. I would also like to acknowledge the guidance and scholarship on the site contributed by Dr. Andrew Wilkins. Additional thanks are extended to Justine McKnight, the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, and the authors of the comparative data used in this project. A special thanks to my friends and family for their love and patience. I would like to specifically thank my parents Ann and Jim for always encouraging me to follow my dreams, and my beautiful blended family for their endless support. Thanks to Betsy and Carol for always being sources of light and laughter, even from across the country, and to Jasper for his relentless support and writing assistance. Finally, I would like to thank Dale for always believing in me and never letting me give up on myself or this project. vii
Stratford Hall Plantation’s Oval Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home ... more Stratford Hall Plantation’s Oval Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home to an enslaved community and overseer charged with growing Virginia’s cash crop: tobacco. No documentary evidence references the site, leaving archaeology as the only means to reconstruct the lives of the site’s inhabitants. This research uses the results of a macrobotanical analysis conducted on soil samples taken from an overseer’s basement and a dual purpose slave quarter/kitchen cellar at the Oval Site to understand what the site’s residents were eating and how the acquisition, production, processing, provisioning, and consumption of food impacted their daily lives. The interactive nature of the overseer, enslaved community, and their respective botanical assemblages suggests that food was not only used as sustenance, it was also a medium for social interaction and mutual dependence between the two groups.
The botanical assemblage is also utilized to discuss how the consumption of provisioned, gathered, and produced foods illustrate the ways that Stratford’s enslaved inhabitants formed communities and exerted agency through food choice. A mixture of traditional African, European, and native/wild taxa were recovered from the site, revealing the varied cultural influences that affected the resident’s cuisine. The assemblage provides evidence for ways that the site’s enslaved Africans and African Americans adapted to the local environment, asserted individual and group food preferences, and created creolized African American identities as they sought to survive and persist in the oppressive plantation landscape.
The results from the Oval Site are compared to nine other 18th- and 19th-century plantation sites in Virginia to demonstrate how food was part of the cultural creolization process undergone by enslaved Africans and African Americans across the region. The comparison further shows that diverse, creolized food preferences developed by enslaved communities can be placed into a regional framework of foodways patterns. Analyzing the results on a regional scale acknowledges the influence of individual preferences and identities of different communities on their food choices, while still demonstrating how food was consistently both a mechanism and a product of African American community formation.
Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage, 2020
The once-dynamic Oval Site at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, is a pr... more The once-dynamic Oval Site at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, is a prime example of how the history of an enslaved community can be lost to time. As an eighteenth-century farm quarter that housed both an overseer and enslaved individuals, the undocumented space was a location of constant cultural interaction and negotiation that, without archaeology, would have remained unknown. An archaeobotanical analysis conducted on plant remains recovered from the site demonstrates how enslaved Africans and African Americans on the site acquired and consumed food, and interacted with the site overseer and slave owners. Identified botanical material suggests that food was both a mechanism and a product of community development, identity formation, and agency assertion. The botanical assemblage further illuminates the multitude of influences and experiences that went into forming new, creolized African American foodways.
Society for Historical Archaeology, 2018
Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home to an enslaved community and over... more Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home to an enslaved community and overseer charged with growing Virginia's cash crop: tobacco. No documentary evidence references the site, leaving archaeology as the only means to reconstruct the lives of the site's inhabitants. This research uses the results of a macrobotanical analysis conducted on soil samples taken from an overseer's basement and a dual purpose slave quarter/kitchen cellar at the Oval Site to understand what the site's residents were eating and how the acquisition, production, processing, provisioning, and consumption of food impacted their daily lives. The interactive nature of the overseer, enslaved community, and their respective v botanical assemblages suggests that food was not only used as sustenance, it was also a medium for social interaction and mutual dependence between the two groups. The botanical assemblage is also utilized to discuss how the consumption of provisioned, gathered, and produced foods illustrate the ways that Stratford's enslaved inhabitants formed communities and exerted agency through food choice. A mixture of traditional African, European, and native/wild taxa were recovered from the site, revealing the varied cultural influences that affected the resident's cuisine. The assemblage provides evidence for ways that the site's enslaved Africans and African Americans adapted to the local environment, asserted individual and group food preferences, and created creolized African American identities as they sought to survive and persist in the oppressive plantation landscape. The results from the Oval Site are compared to nine other 18th-and 19th-century plantation sites in Virginia to demonstrate how food was part of the cultural creolization process undergone by enslaved Africans and African Americans across the region. The comparison further shows that diverse, creolized food preferences developed by enslaved communities can be placed into a regional framework of foodways patterns. Analyzing the results on a regional scale acknowledges the influence of individual preferences and identities of different communities on their food choices, while still demonstrating how food was consistently both a mechanism and a product of African American community formation. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the support and guidance of an enormous amount of people. I would like to express my deep gratitude to my committee chair Dr. Heather Trigg for training me and being an unwavering source of guidance and enthusiasm during all stages of this research. I would also like to thank Dr. Nedra Lee for providing useful critiques and thoughtful insight. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Douglas Sanford for his encouragement and advice on this project, and for his academic investment in the Oval Site. The faculty and staff of the Andrew Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, my cohort, and my colleagues have been constant sources of inspiration and encouragement throughout this entire process. I would also like to acknowledge the guidance and scholarship on the site contributed by Dr. Andrew Wilkins. Additional thanks are extended to Justine McKnight, the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, and the authors of the comparative data used in this project. A special thanks to my friends and family for their love and patience. I would like to specifically thank my parents Ann and Jim for always encouraging me to follow my dreams, and my beautiful blended family for their endless support. Thanks to Betsy and Carol for always being sources of light and laughter, even from across the country, and to Jasper for his relentless support and writing assistance. Finally, I would like to thank Dale for always believing in me and never letting me give up on myself or this project. vii
Stratford Hall Plantation’s Oval Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home ... more Stratford Hall Plantation’s Oval Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home to an enslaved community and overseer charged with growing Virginia’s cash crop: tobacco. No documentary evidence references the site, leaving archaeology as the only means to reconstruct the lives of the site’s inhabitants. This research uses the results of a macrobotanical analysis conducted on soil samples taken from an overseer’s basement and a dual purpose slave quarter/kitchen cellar at the Oval Site to understand what the site’s residents were eating and how the acquisition, production, processing, provisioning, and consumption of food impacted their daily lives. The interactive nature of the overseer, enslaved community, and their respective botanical assemblages suggests that food was not only used as sustenance, it was also a medium for social interaction and mutual dependence between the two groups.
The botanical assemblage is also utilized to discuss how the consumption of provisioned, gathered, and produced foods illustrate the ways that Stratford’s enslaved inhabitants formed communities and exerted agency through food choice. A mixture of traditional African, European, and native/wild taxa were recovered from the site, revealing the varied cultural influences that affected the resident’s cuisine. The assemblage provides evidence for ways that the site’s enslaved Africans and African Americans adapted to the local environment, asserted individual and group food preferences, and created creolized African American identities as they sought to survive and persist in the oppressive plantation landscape.
The results from the Oval Site are compared to nine other 18th- and 19th-century plantation sites in Virginia to demonstrate how food was part of the cultural creolization process undergone by enslaved Africans and African Americans across the region. The comparison further shows that diverse, creolized food preferences developed by enslaved communities can be placed into a regional framework of foodways patterns. Analyzing the results on a regional scale acknowledges the influence of individual preferences and identities of different communities on their food choices, while still demonstrating how food was consistently both a mechanism and a product of African American community formation.