Subfloor pits and the archaeology of slavery in colonial Virginia /

This revised dissertation is a tightly focused and thorough investigation of a specific type of archaeological feature, sub-floor pits that appear to be typical of many African American sites of enslaved laborers, particularly on Virginia plantations. Samford (Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory) studied the sub-floor pits in various functional and symbolic contexts: as root cellars and personal storage areas or as shrines from five quarters of enslaved laborers from 18th-century plantations: Kingsmill Quarter, Carter's Grove, Utopia, Rich Neck Plantations, and others throughout Tidewater Virginia. This investigation serves as a welcome supplement to earlier work done on other enslaved sites such as Poplar Forest, Williamsburg, Monticello, and Jamestown. Although the study, with its detailed attention to archaeological field methodology, is geared specifically toward archaeologists, it is an important source for any scholar of African American history as well as archaeology. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. B. C. Ryan Syracuse University