Montpelier begins slave site excavation
By Ted Strong <[log in to unmask]>
Charlottesville Daily Progress : July 10, 2010
*MONTPELIER *STATION — At James Madison’s house, Montpelier, archaeologists
are unearthing the undisturbed remains of slave dwellings.

The actual dwellings of house, stable, garden and field slaves were
abandoned abruptly in about 1840. But the sites on which they had stood were
never dug up again, leaving a trove for researchers.

“We’ve just got an incredible playground for archaeologists to work in,”
said Matthew Reeves, director of archaeology at Montpelier.

Researchers are in the first year of a three-year program backed by a
$250,000 We the People grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The digging has begun with stable and garden slave quarters, which were
closer to the main house than the quarters of field slaves, but not as close
as those of house slaves.

Assistant professor Christopher T. Fennel of the University of Illinois
referred in an e-mail to the work Reeves and the others are doing as
“great.”

In an article this year in the Journal of Archaeological Research he
reported that researchers are approaching the question of African
experiences outside of Africa in a variety of ways and from a variety of
angles.

Among other things, “archaeologists have focused on questions concerning the
ways in which ethnic group identities and social networks among African
diaspora populations form, evolve and dissipate over time and in particular
spatial domains, engaging with related debates concerning the processes of
[the mixing and creation of racial, cultural and religious identity].”

So far, workers at Montpelier are digging survey pits, trying to work out
the exact outline of the building. Later, they’ll fully excavate the area
where they determine the building stood. The work is being done by students
under Reeves’ supervision.

One of those students is Donna Mann, of Gap, Pa., who attends Millersville
University in that state.

She said her most exciting discovery so far is a bone-handled pocket knife.
When she uncovered it with her trowel, it was badly corroded, and the bone
looked like old wood, she said.

Reeves said he hopes that the artifacts he recovers at the sites will let
historians better understand the lives of the slaves. For example, the fact
that china from the house was found in the quarters of stable and garden
slaves raises interesting questions: Did it come from owners who interacted
with the slaves? Or did it come from house slaves who had acquired it as it
was discarded from the house?

Reeves is also excited to figure out whether the clay soil beneath the
fireplace is hardened from its heat. If it is, the floor was probably placed
directly on the ground. If not, it probably had a raised floor.

“It’s little, really nit-picky details, but it’s these details we rely on to
tell what the house looked like,” he said.

Eventually, Reeves said, officials hope to put up frame outlines of the
buildings to mark their locations. They won’t fully reconstruct the
buildings for a variety of reasons, including that the archaeology they’re
doing now likely won’t reveal in full detail what the structures were like.

Visitors to the site are able to watch the archaeologists as they work, and
the laboratory where the artifacts are analyzed is open every day.  The
historic site is also offering packages where non-students can, for a fee,
work the excavation for a week as volunteers. For more information, visit
http://www.montpelier.org/archaeologyprograms.
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Jon Kukla
www.JonKukla.com

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