Research Catalog

Subfloor pits and the archaeology of slavery in colonial Virginia

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

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	E445.V8 S26 2007	Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 232 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm

Summary

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

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-224) and index.

Contents

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.

ISBN

9780817315863
0817315861
9780817354541
0817354549

LCCN

2007016291

OCLC

ocn123955021
123955021
SCSB-14054098

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library