Subfloor Pits and the Archaeology of Slavery in Colonial Virginia 1st Edition by Patricia Samford ISBN 0817315861 978-0817315863

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Product details: 

ISBN 10:  0817315861 

ISBN 13: 978-0817315863

Author: Patricia Samford

Investigates the development of hypotheses about how West African, possibly Igbo, cultural traditions were maintained and transformed in the Virginia Chesapeake

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.

Table of contents: 

Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter 2: Regional Context
Chapter 3: Historical and Archaeological Overview of Study Sites
Chapter 4: Intersite Comparisons: The Material Lives of the Enslaved
Chapter 5: Preliminary Analysis and Proposed Functions of Subfloor Pits
Chapter 6: Subfloor Pits as Root Cellars
Chapter 7: Subfloor Pits as Personal Storage Areas
Chapter 8: Subfloor Pits as Shrines
Chapter 9: Subfloor Pits and Slavery in Colonial Virginia

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Tags: Patricia Samford, Subfloor Pits, the Archaeology, Colonial Virginia