Anthropology
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Item The Archaeology of Enslaved Children in Antebellum America(2024) Lee, Samantha Jane; Leone, Mark P; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is the first archaeological study that centers on the lives and experiences of enslaved children in the nineteenth century United States. I utilize a combination of archival research, oral histories and nineteenth-century slave narratives, as well as an archaeological artifact analysis component to provide innovative and necessary ways to understand how children experienced enslavement and how they may be represented archaeologically. This dissertation addresses the ways in which faunal and plant remains may be representative of the hunting, fishing, and foraging activities of enslaved children. A comprehensive summary of the work and labor that enslaved children were responsible for at early ages highlights the abundance of possibilities for artifact interpretations. Additionally, a critical analysis of archival documents and slave narratives demonstrates that not only were enslaved children considered a staple of the domestic slave trade, they were raised in virtually the same way and according to the same methods across the American Lower South, suggesting a childrearing protocol widely shared both publicly and privately between enslavers.Item LOST LABOR: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE INTERPRETATION OF IRISH CANAL WORKER HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL(2022) Hauber, Samuel; Palus, Matthew M; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal would not exist without the labor of thousands of Irish immigrants in the 19th century. Through a framework of labor history, critical archaeology, and public history this study sought to improve interpretation of these canal workers. Archaeological and visitation data were analyzed to form recommendations for improvements to the parks interpretive materials on this subject. Labor history may have begun with the intent to balance historical narratives which had previously focused on powerful individuals. But continuing the trend of narrating specific groups experiences within history limits the perspective on these groups and perpetuates the issue of narrow, marginalizing, perspectives on complex history. The archaeological record from the C&O Canal construction can fulfill the parks interpretive mission through critical archaeology and labor theory. The interpretive potential of the archaeological findings, combined with the knowledge of visitation trends, form an exciting opportunity to build upon an evolving interpretive art which began with Freeman Tilden.Item THE CLOISTERED INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE OHIO & ERIE CANAL: AN ANALYSIS AND INVENTORY OF THE CANAL WITH A THEORETICAL LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPROACH(2022) Waugh, Mason Richard; Palus, Matthew M; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The period of the 1820s and 1830s experienced a burst of canal construction across Ohio. The Ohio & Erie Canal connected the Cuyahoga River to Akron, and thence southward to Portsmouth along the Ohio River. The opening of the canal allowed early settlers within Ohio to easily transport products, effectively lowering the costs of goods and increasing the profitability of businesses utilizing the thoroughfare. Towns near the canal flourished as commodities previously difficult to obtain were now brought from long distances. These improvements that the Ohio & Erie Canal brought, as well as the context and significance of the canal, have been thoroughly documented in historical literature. A few intact portions of the Ohio & Erie Canal are currently included on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and listed on the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) online Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping system. Several Cultural Resource Management (CRM) compliance surveys have also identified and documented canal remnants. However, most portions of the canal are not inventoried or listed on the SHPO online GIS mapping system. Few components of the canal are listed on the NRHP and within Scioto County there are only two locks represented on the NRHP. The general location of the Ohio & Erie Canal is well documented on historical maps; however, the placement of stream crossings and ancillary components (culverts, weirs, bridges) are poorly understood or perhaps cloistered, communicating little to the outside world as they are currently known. A series of plat maps was recorded in the early 1900s by the Canal Commission of the State of Ohio. Plat maps of the Ohio & Erie Canal in Scioto County were obtained for this project and were provided by the Ohio History Connection (2022). No large-scale effort to my knowledge has been made to georeference the plat maps of the Ohio & Erie Canal and analyze archaeological potential using Historical GIS (hGIS), which uses historical documents such as plat maps to answer questions about the past or to inventory canal features based on their location. To address the lack of recorded ancillary structures on the southern descent of the Ohio & Erie Canal, a total of 35 separate portions of the canal plat maps were georeferenced to the modern landscape to identify archaeological potential, ancillary structure locations, and to support recommendations for new contributing resources to the NRHP-listed historic districts. Seven separate categories of ancillary canal components or features which could be extrapolated from the canal plat maps were assigned GPS coordinates. The seven categories consisted of aqueducts, buildings, bridges, culverts, inlets, locks, and waste weirs. These components represent 70 individual features correlating to what was indicated on the canal plat maps through stations 1770-2660 in Scioto County. The inventory of these features breaks down the Ohio & Erie Canal component types and lists coordinates to increase accessibility of the information for future researchers and planners. A cross comparison of the portions of the canal currently listed on the NRHP and the SHPO online GIS mapping system is also completed and contained in this thesis. With the previously inventoried canal components and the newly georeferenced portions of the canal analyzed, this thesis assists further studies in assessing archaeological potential along the canal. Lastly, a recommendation is made suggesting which ancillary components along the canal could be contributing elements to the discontinuous or incomplete NRHP listing. This thesis attempts to provide interested researchers a better understanding of the ancillary components of the canal and how these components should be evaluated for NRHP eligibility. The Ohio & Erie Canal was not simply a historical waterway providing transportation of commodities, but also an early historical engineering feat containing a culmination of various structures whose design was to maintain water levels and one of the first mass engineering attempts in Ohio to manage the landscape and communities around the canal. Culverts along the canal are not only important, but they are also necessary for understanding how the Ohio & Erie Canal operated, how it adapted to certain topographical challenges, and were essential to the functioning of the canal. Removing culverts along the canal would not have allowed the canal to function due to the necessity of proper water levels. The public dissemination of the georeferenced data included in this thesis is intended to be a lasting benefit to gongoozlers, historians, researchers, and planners alike. As such this data will be made available by allowing the georeferenced maps and associated layers available through ArcGIS Pro. The map package in ArcGIS Pro is available upon request by contacting the author of this thesis.Item More Than the 'Physical Remains of Yesterday's Industry:' A Case Study of the Clayton Cotton Mill(2021) McCoy, Abigail; Palus, Matthew M.; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The historic Clayton Cotton Mill located in Clayton, North Carolina, operated from the early- to mid-twentieth century. This research investigates the quality and quantity of data that is recovered from twentieth century industrial sites when investigators utilize the methodologies and research interests of labor archaeology. It also examines how labor archaeology informs questions relating to race, paternalism, and child labor, and how labor archaeology’s methodologies highlight the potential public value of the resource.The initial archaeological investigations conducted at this mill were focused on traditional industrial archaeology research questions and concluded that the resource was not eligible for listing on the NRHP without considering research avenues associated with labor archaeology. The goal of this project is to evaluate this resource through the lens of labor archaeology, identifying valuable information that adds to a more complete understanding of the resource and would have been lost if the original recommendation was accepted.