THE ENTANGLEMENTS OF MARY MUSGROVE AND HER COWPENS: TRADE, FEASTING, AND THE LONGUE DURÉE OF THE GEORGIA BIGHT

Abstract

I analyze the faunal assemblage from the Musgrove Cowpens (9Ch137) Feature 231, a cellar feature filled during Mary Musgrove’s later years of occupation on her property outside Savannah, Georgia, on Yamacraw Bluff. Mary’s life (c. 1700-c. 1760) coincided with several pivotal moments in southeastern history, including the Muscogee Creek Confederacy’s consolidation of political influence and the establishment of Savannah, Georgia. Her significance to colonial political economy is evident in historical accounts of her roles as an interpreter, trader, and supplier of animal products. Her engagement with both the deerskin trade and the Lowcountry cattle economy at her Musgrove Cowpens illustrates the entanglement of colonial subsistence systems and underscores the importance of Indigenous relationships to colonial trade. I use the analysis of archaeological faunal remains to draw inferences about long-term and colonial processes surrounding animal-human relationships. I employ species representation, element recovery, bone surface modifications, epiphyseal fusion, and several quantitative indices to understand the roles of butchery, animal husbandry, subsistence, and cultural connections to animals at the Musgrove Cowpens. The Mary Musgrove Cowpens has an extensive legacy collection that includes this dissertation’s zooarchaeological dataset, with my analysis completing the primary analysis of Feature 231. I also use primary historical documents and secondary historical sources to inform my interpretations of the economic, social, and environmental implications of animal-human relationships in this coastal region. This combined approach to zooarchaeology and ethnohistory seeks to center Mary Musgrove’s economic and social activities at the Musgrove Cowpens. Two significant forces behind the colonial Southeast were the deerskin trade and the cattle economy—economic systems intrinsically tied to Mary’s Yamacraw Bluff property. Mary was able to participate in these seemingly conflicting economic systems. What remains unclear in the documentary record is whether she was more active in one or an equal participant in both. Another uncertainty is whether her approach to these economic systems remained consistent during her occupation of the Musgrove Cowpens. My research uses Feature 231’s extensive faunal assemblage to understand the political-economic activities of Mary Musgrove and other inhabitants of the Musgrove Cowpens. It also expands conversations about the role of Indigenous individuals and communities in colonial subsistence economies through centering Muscogee Creek ontologies around gift-giving, reciprocity, feasting, and space.