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Emergence
of African American Cultures
Servant Quarters, Middleburg from African Americans on Southern Plantations"
The spirit of the Civil Rights
movement in the 1960s inspired archaeologists, like Charles Fairbanks, to
probe beneath the ground for a deeper understanding of slavery and the creation
of African-American cultures. Heading to the heart of the southern plantation--its
slave quarters--Fairbanks began to write the story of the work and lives
of enslaved Africans. The story emphasized enslaved people drawing upon
their African heritage to make their way in a new, and for them, especially
difficult world.
A decade later, other archaeologists like Leland Ferguson were drawn to
the task, bringing a humanistic perspective to an historical archaeology
increasingly devoted to a scientific view of the world. Ferguson and a younger
generation of scholars like Terry Weik continue to help us see and come
to terms with the pain, inhumanity, and the creative cultural power intertwined
in the institution of slavery. Their task has led them to plantations across
the South, to colonial cities like Annapolis, New York, Charleston, and
St. Augustine, and to the maroon communities built by escaped captives.
Projects in the Book
(Click on bold link to view an excerpt)
Leland Ferguson – African Americans on Southern
Plantations
Terrance Weik - Black Seminole Freedom Fighters
on the Florida Frontier
Sidebar 5: Fort Mose, St. Augustine, Florida - Lu Ann De Cunzo
