Abstract
Subfloor pits, or root cellars, associated with African American housing and dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries, have been documented archaeologically in the Mid-Atlantic states and upland South. Excavations in 2014 and 2015 at the Bulow Plantation in Florida exposed the footprint of an early 19th-century slave cabin containing a stone-lined subfloor pit, which represents the only well-documented archaeological example of its type identified south of South Carolina. Two conflicting interpretations exist regarding the cultural origins of subfloor pits: that the subfloor-pit phenomenon, writ large, is an African tradition that was simply continued under enslavement in the United States, or, alternatively, subfloor pits are not African in origin at all, but were innovated in the British American colonies in the early years of enslavement. The combined archival and archaeological evidence gathered here entirely support the latter interpretation.
Resumen
Los pozos de subsuelo, o sótanos bodegas de legumbres asociados con viviendas afroamericanas y que datan del siglo XVII al XIX, han sido documentados arqueológicamente en los estados del Atlántico medio y en las tierras altas del sur. Las excavaciones en los años 2014 y 2015 en Bulow Plantation en Florida dejaron al descubierto la huella de una cabaña de esclavos de principios del siglo XIX que contenía un pozo de subsuelo revestido de piedra, que representa el único ejemplo arqueológico bien documentado de este tipo identificado al sur de Carolina del Sur. Existen dos interpretaciones contradictorias con respecto a los orígenes culturales de los pozos de subsuelo: que el fenómeno de los pozos de subsuelo, en general, es una tradición africana que simplemente continuó bajo la esclavitud en los Estados Unidos, o, alternativamente, los pozos de subsuelo no son de origen africano en absoluto, sino que fueron innovados en las colonias británicas americanas en los primeros años de la esclavitud. La evidencia combinada de archivo y arqueología reunida aquí apoya completamente la última interpretación.
Résumé
Des fosses en sous-sol ou caves à légumes, associées aux habitations des Africains-américains et datant du 17ème siècle jusqu'au 19ème siècle, ont fait l'objet d'une documentation archéologique dans les états du Moyen-Atlantique et du Sud supérieur. En 2014 et 2015, les fouilles entreprises à la Plantation Bulow en Floride ont révélé l'empreinte d'une case d'esclaves du début du 19ème siècle contenant une fosse en sous-sol bordée de pierres. Elle représente le seul exemple archéologique bien documenté de ce type ayant été identifié au sud de la Caroline du Sud. Deux interprétations contradictoires existent quant aux origines culturelles des fosses en sous-sol : l'une est que le phénomène de la fosse en sous-sol, au sens large, est une tradition africaine qui s'est simplement poursuivie durant l'esclavage aux États-Unis, ou l'autre est sinon que les fosses en sous-sol ne sont pas du tout d'origine africaine, mais sont nouvellement apparues dans les colonies britanniques américaines au cours des premières années de l'esclavage. La combinaison des preuves d'archives et archéologiques recueillies ici sont entièrement à l'appui de cette dernière interprétation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, John 1823 Remarks on the Country from Cape Palmas to the River Congo, Including Observations on the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants. G. and W. B. Whittaker, London, UK.
Adams, William Hampton (editor) 1987 Historical Archaeology of Plantations at Kings Bay, Camden County, Georgia. University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Report of Investigations, No. 5. Gainesville.
Adanson, Michel 1759 A Voyage to Senegal, the Island of Goree, and the River Gambia. Translated from the French, with Notes by an English Gentleman, Who Resided Some Time in that Country. J. Nourse and W. Johnson, London, UK.
Adjei, Ako 1943 Mortuary Usages of the Ga People of the Gold Coast. American Anthropologist 45(1):84–98.
Agee, James, and Walker Evans 1941 Let Us now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.
Agorsah, E. Kofi, and Thomas Butler 2008 Archaeological Investigation of Historic Kormantse, Ghana: Cultural Identities. African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter 11(3). Scholarworks@UMassAmherst <https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1327&context=adan>. Accessed 26 January 2021.
Allan, William, and Thomas R. H. Thomson 1848 A Narrative of the Expedition Sent by Her Majesty's Government to the River Niger, in 1841, under the Command of Captain H. D. Trotter, Vol. 1. Richard Bentley, London, UK.
Armstrong, Douglas V. 1990 The Old Village and the Great House: An Archaeological and Historical Examination of Drax Hall Plantation, St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, Elizabeth J. Reitz, contributor. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Armstrong, Douglas V., and Mark L. Fleishman 2003 House-Yard Burials of Enslaved Laborers in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 7(1):33–65.
Armstrong, Douglas V., and Kenneth G. Kelly 2000 Settlement Patterns and the Origins of African Jamaican Society: Seville Plantation, St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. Ethnohistory 47(2):369–397.
Babson, David W. 1990 The Archaeology of Racism and Ethnicity on Southern Plantations. Historical Archaeology 24(4):20–28.
Baker, Vernon G. 1980 Archaeological Visibility of Afro-American Culture: An Example from Black Lucy’s Garden, Andover, Massachusetts. In Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America, Robert Schuyler, editor, pp. 29–37. Baywood, Farmingdale, NY.
Barrow, John 1801 An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, in the Years 1797 and 1798: Including Cursory Observations on the Geology and Geography of the Southern Part of That Continent. T. Cadell, jun. and W. Davies, London, UK.
Basden, George T. 1921 Among the Ibos of Nigeria: An Account of the Curious and Interesting Habits, Customs and Beliefs of a Little Known African People by One Who Has for Many Years Lived amongst Them on Close and Intimate Terms. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, PA.
Baumann, Timothy E. 2001 “Because That’s Where My Roots Are”: Searching for Patterns of African-American Ethnicity in Arrow Rock, Missouri. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee––Knoxville, Knoxville. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Bowdich, T. Edward 1873 Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a Descriptive Account of That Kingdom, new edition. Griffith and Farran, London, UK.
Boyd, Douglas K., Aaron R. Norment, Terri Myers, Maria Franklin, Nedra Lee, Leslie L. Bush, and Brian S. Shaffer 2015 The Ransom and Sarah Williams Farmstead: Post-Emancipation Transitions of An African American Family in Central Texas, Vol. 1. Report to Texas Department of Transportation, Environmental Affairs Division, Austin, from Prewitt and Associates, Austin, TX.
Brock, Terry Peterkin 2014 “All of Us Would Walk Together”: The Transition from Slavery to Freedom at St. Mary’s City, Maryland. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Brown, David Arthur 2014 An Enslaved Landscape: The Virginia Plantation at the End of the Seventeenth Century. Doctoral dissertation. Department of History, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Brown, Kenneth L., and Doreen C. Cooper 1990 Structural Continuity in an African-American Slave and Tenant Community. Historical Archaeology 24(4):7–19.
Burton, Richard F. 1860 The Lake Regions of Central Africa, a Picture of Exploration. Harper and Brothers, New York, NY.
Burton, Richard F. 1864 A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome. With Notices of the So Called “Amazons,” the Grand Customs, the Yearly Customs, the Human Sacrifices, the Present State of the Slave Trade, and the Negro’s Place in Nature, Vol. 2. Sley Brothers, London, UK.
Chambers, Douglas B. 1992 Afro-Virginia Root Cellars and African Roots? A Comment on the Need for a Moderate Afrocentric Approach. African American Archaeology 6:7–10. The African Diaspora Archaeology Network <http://www.diaspora.illinois.edu/A-AAnewsletter/Spring1992.pdf>. Accessed 2 February 2021.
Chambers, Douglas B. 1996 ‘He Gwine Sing He Country: Africans, Afro-Virginians, and the Development of Slave Culture in Virginia, 1690–1810. Doctoral dissertation, Department of History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Clarke, Robert 1843 Sierra Leone: A Description of the Manners and Customs of the Liberated Africans; with Observations upon the Natural History of the Colony, and a Notice of the Native Tribes. James Ridgeway, London, UK.
Cohen, Myer M. 1836 Notices of Florida and the Campaigns. Burges & Honour, Charleston, SC.
Combes, John D. 1974 Ethnography, Archaeology, and Burial Practices among Coastal South Carolina Blacks. Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers 1972 7:52–61.
Corry, Joseph 1807 Observations upon the Windward Coast of Africa, the Religion, Character, Customs, &c. of the Natives; with a System upon Which They May Be Civilized, and a Knowledge Attained of the Interior of this Extraordinary Quarter of the Globe. G. & W. Nicol and James Asperne, London, UK.
Crow, Hugh 1830 Memoirs of the Late Captain Hugh Crow of Liverpool: Comprising a Narrative of His Life together with Descriptive Sketches of the Western Coast of Africa, Particularly of Bonny; the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, the Productions of the Soil, and the Trade of the Country. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, and G. and J. Robinson, London, UK.
Cruickshank, Brodie 1853 Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, including an Account of the Native Tribes, and Their Intercourse with Europeans, Vol. 2. Hurst and Blackett, London, UK.
Cuthbertson, Thomas J. 2016 A Confluence of Cultures: Complicating the Interpretation of 17th Century Plantation Archaeology Using Data from Rich Neck Plantation. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
Dalzel, Archibald 1793 The History of Dahomey, an Inland Kingdom of Africa; Compiled from Authentic Memoirs; with an Introduction and Notes. T. Spilsbury and Son, Snowhill, UK.
Davidson, James M. 2004a Mediating Race and Class through the Death Experience: Power Relations and Resistance Strategies of an African-American Community, Dallas, Texas (1869–1907). Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Davidson, James M. 2004b Rituals Captured in Context and Time: Charm Use in North Dallas Freedman’s Town (1869–1907), Dallas, Texas. Historical Archaeology 38(2):22–54.
Davidson, James M. 2006 Preliminary Report of Investigations of the 2006 University of Florida Archaeological Field School, Kingsley Plantation, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, National Park Service, Duval County, Florida. Report to National Park Service, Southeast Archaeological Center, Tallahassee, FL, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M. 2007 University of Florida Historical Archaeological Field School, 2007 Preliminary Report of Investigations, Kingsley Plantation (8Du108), Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, National Park Service, Duval County, Florida. Report to National Park Service, Southeast Archaeological Center, Tallahassee, FL, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M. 2008 Interim Report of Investigations of the University of Florida 2008 Historical Archaeological Field School: Kingsley Plantation (8Du108), Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, National Park Service, Duval County, Florida. Report to National Park Service, Southeast Archaeological Center, Tallahassee, FL, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M. 2009 Preliminary Report of Investigations of the University of Florida 2009 Historical Archaeological Field School: Kingsley Plantation (8DU108), Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve National Park, Duval County, Florida. Report to National Park Service, Southeast Archaeological Center, Tallahassee, FL, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M. 2010 Keeping the Devil at Bay: The Shoe on the Coffin Lid and other Grave Charms in 19th and Early 20th Century America. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 14(4):614–649.
Davidson, James M. 2011 Interim Report of Investigations of the University of Florida 2010 Historical Archaeological Field School: Kingsley Plantation (8DU108), Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve National Park, Duval County, Florida. Report to National Park Service, Southeast Archaeological Center, Tallahassee, FL, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M. 2012a Preliminary Report of Investigations of the University of Florida 2011 Historical Archaeological Field School: Kingsley Plantation (8DU108), Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve National Park, Duval County, Florida. Report to National Park Service, Southeast Archaeological Center, Tallahassee, FL, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M. 2012b “They Laid Planks ’crost the Coffins”: The African Origin of Grave Vaulting in the United States. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 16(1):86–134.
Davidson, James M. 2013 Preliminary Report of Investigations of the University of Florida 2012 Historical Archaeological Field School: Kingsley Plantation (8DU108), Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve National Park, Duval County, Florida. Report to National Park Service, Southeast Archaeological Center, Tallahassee, FL, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M. 2014 Deconstructing the Myth of the “Hand Charm”: Mundane Clothing Fasteners and Their Curious Transformations into Supernatural Objects. Historical Archaeology 48(2):18–60.
Davidson, James M. 2015 “A Cluster of Sacred Symbols”: Interpreting an Act of Animal Sacrifice at Kingsley Plantation, Fort George Island, Florida (1814–1839). International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19(1):76–121.
Davidson, James M. 2017 Historical Archaeology, Kingsley Plantation, and the Construction of Past Time. History Now 49. History Now: The Journal, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History <https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-now/journals/2017-11/excavating-american-history>. Accessed 26 January 2021.
Davidson, James M. 2020 Black and White Beads in the African Diaspora. Historical Archaeology 54(4):681–737.
Davidson, James M., and Mary Elizabeth Ibarrola 2016 Cabin 1 at the Bulow Plantation (8FL7): Final Results of the 2014 and 2015 University of Florida Archaeological Field Schools at Bulow Plantation. Report to Tomoka Basin State Parks, Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, Tallahassee, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M., and Mary Elizabeth Ibarrola 2017 The Bulow Plantation (8FL7): Final Results of the Cabin 1 East Yard Exploration, and Preliminary Results of the Cabin 3 Investigations—the University of Florida 2016 Archaeological Field School at Bulow Plantation Historic Ruins State Park (Flagler County, FL). Report to Tomoka Basin State Parks, Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, Tallahassee, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M., David M. Markus, and Brett Mogensen 2015 Archaeological Investigations at Cabin 1—the Bulow Plantation (8FL7): Results of the 2014 University of Florida Archaeological Field School, Bulow Plantation Historic Ruins State Park (Flagler County, FL). Report to Tomoka Basin State Parks, Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, Tallahassee, from University of Florida, Department of Anthropology, Gainesville.
Davidson, James M., and Karen E. McIlvoy 2012 New Perspectives from Old Collections: Potential Artifacts of African Spirituality at Couper Plantation, Georgia. Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 1(2):107–166.
DeBoer, Warren R. 1988 Subterranean Storage and the Organization of Surplus: The View from Eastern North America. Southeastern Archaeology 7(1):1–20.
DeCorse, Christopher R. 2001 An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400–1900. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC.
de Souza, Marcos André Torres, and Luís Cláudio Pereira Symanski 2009 Slave Communities and Pottery Variability in Western Brazil: The Plantations of Chapada dos Guimarães. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 13(4):513–548.
Deetz, James 1996 In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life, revised and expanded edition. Anchor, New York, NY.
Drucker, Lesley M., and Ronald W. Anthony 1979 The Spiers Landing Site: Archaeological Investigations in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Report to Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service Interagency Archeological Services, United States Department of the Interior, Atlanta, from Carolina Archaeological Services, Columbia, SC.
Du Chaillu, Paul 1867 A Journey to Ashango-Land, and further Penetration into Equatorial Africa. John Murray, London, UK.
Duncan, John 1849 Travels in Western Africa in 1845 and 1846. Comprising a Journey from Whydah, through the Kingdom of Dahomey, to Adofoodia, in the Interior, to which is Now First Added, Some Account of the Last Expedition to the Niger, 3rd edition, Vol. 1. Richard Bentley, London, UK.
Dupuis, Joseph 1824 Journal of a Residence in Ashantee. By Joseph Dupuis, Esq. Henry Colburn, London, UK.
Ellis, Alfred B. 1894 The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc. Chapman and Hall, London, UK.
Ellis, George W. 1914 Negro Culture in West Africa: A Social Study of the Negro Group of Vai-Speaking People with Its Own Invented Alphabet and Written Language Shown in Two Charts and Six Engravings of Vai Script. Neale Publishing Company, New York, NY.
Epperson, Terrence W. 1990 Race and the Disciplines of the Plantation. In Historical Archaeology on Southern Plantations and Farms, Charles E. Orser, Jr., editor. Thematic issue, Historical Archaeology 24(4):29–36.
Fairbanks, Charles H. 1974 The Kingsley Slave Cabins in Duval County, Florida, 1968. Conference on Historic Site Archaeology, Papers 1972 7:62–93.
Falls, Eva 2014 An Archaeological Exploration of a Settlement at Dixie Plantation, Hollywood, SC. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University, Greenville, SC.
Faulkner, Charles H. 1986 The Pit Cellar: A Nineteenth Century Storage Facility. Ohio Valley Urban and Historical Archaeology 4:54–65.
Ferguson, Leland 1980 Looking for the “Afro” in Colono-Indian Pottery. In Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America: Afro-American and Asian American Culture History, Robert L. Schuyler, editor, pp. 14–28. Baywood Publishing Co., Farmingdale, NY.
Ferguson, Leland 1992 Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650–1800. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Ffoulkes, Arthur 1909 Funeral Customs of the Gold Coast Colony. Journal of the Royal African Society 8(30):154–164.
Floridian 1823 East Florida. Floridian 21 June:1. Pensacola, FL.
Forbes, Frederick B. 1851 Dahomey and the Dahomans: The Journals of Two Missions to the King of Dahomey, and Residence at His Capital, in the Years 1849 and 1850, Vol. 1. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, London, UK.
Franklin, Maria 2001 The Archaeological Dimensions of Soul Food: Interpreting Race, Culture, and Afro-Virginian Identity. In Race and the Archaeology of Identity, Charles E. Orser, Jr., editor, pp. 88–107. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Freeman, Richard Austin 1898 Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman. Archibald Constable and Company, Westminster, UK.
Gall, Michael J., Adam Heinrich, Ilene Grossman-Bailey, Philip A. Hayden, and Justine McKnight 2020 The Place Beyond the Fence: Slavery and Cultural Invention on a Delaware Tenant Farm. Historical Archaeology 54(2):305–333.
Gibson, Heather R. 2009 Domestic Economy and Daily Practice in Guadeloupe: Historical Archaeology at La Mahaudière Plantation. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 13(1):27–44.
Green, John (editor) 1746 A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels: Consisting of the Most Esteemed Relations, which Have Been hitherto Published in Any Language; Comprehending Every Thing Remarkable in Its Kind, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, Vol. 3. Thomas Astley, London, UK.
Gurstelle, Andrew W. 2015 The House of Oduduwa: An Archaeological Study of Economy and Kingship in the Savè Hills of West Africa. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Hall, Martin 1992 Small Things and the Mobile, Conflictual Fusion of Power, Fear, and Desire. In The Art and Mystery of Historical Archaeology: Essays in Honor of Jim Deetz, Anne Yentsch and Mary Beaudry, editors, pp. 373–399. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Hamer, Fritz, and Michael Trinkley 1997 African Architectural Transference to the South Carolina Low Country, 1700–1880. Tennessee Anthropologist 22(1):1–34.
Harris, P. G. 1930 Notes on Yauri (Sokoto Province), Nigeria. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 60(2):283–334.
Hatch, D. Brad 2009 Bottomless Pits: The Decline of Subfloor Pits and Rise of African American Consumerism in Virginia. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
Hauser, Mark W. 2015 The Infrastructure of Nature’s Island: Settlements, Networks and Economy of Two Plantations in Colonial Dominica. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19(3):601–622.
Heath, Barbara J., and Eleanor E. Breen 2009 Assessing Variability among Quartering Sites in Virginia. Northeast Historical Archaeology 38:1–28.
Herskovits, Melville J. 1941 The Myth of the Negro Past. Harper and Brothers, New York, NY.
Hill, Matthew H. 1992 Towards a Chronology of the Publications of Francis Moore’s “Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa ...” History in Africa 19:353–368.
Hinderer, Anna 1872 Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country. Memorials of Anna Hinderer, Gathered from Her Journals and Letters. Seeley, Jackson and Halliday, London, UK.
Howson, Jean E. 1990 Social Relations and Material Culture: A Critique of the Archaeology of Plantation Slavery. Historical Archaeology 24(4):78–91.
Hutchinson, Thomas J. 1855 Narrative of the Niger, Tshadda, & Binuë Exploration: Including a Report on the Position and Prospects of Trade up Those Rivers, with Remarks on the Malaria and Fevers of Western Africa. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London, UK.
Hutton, Catherine 1821 The Tour of Africa, Containing a Concise Account of All the Countries in That Quarter of the Globe, hitherto Visited by Europeans; with the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, Selected from the Best Authors, Vol. 2. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, London, UK.
Jervey, Elizabeth Heyward 1952 Marriage and Death Notices from the City Gazette of Charleston, S. C. (Continued). South Carolina Historical Magazine 53(2):113–116.
Johnston, Harry H. 1897 British Central Africa: An Attempt to Give Some Account of a Portion of the Territories under British Influence North of Zambezi. Methuen and Company, London, UK.
Jones, Steven L. 1985 The African-American Tradition in Vernacular Architecture. In The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life, Theresa A. Singleton, editor, pp. 195–213. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
Kelly, Kenneth Goodley 1995 Transformation and Continuity in Savi, a West African Trade Town: An Archaeological Investigation of Culture Change on the Coast of Benin during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Kelly, Kenneth G. 2008 Creole Cultures of the Caribbean: Historical Archaeology in the French West Indies. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 12(4):388–402.
Kelso, William M. 1984 Kingsmill Plantations, 1619–1800: Archaeology of Country Life in Colonial Virginia. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
Kimmel, Richard H. 1993a Notes on the Cultural Origins and Functions of Sub-Floor Pits. Historical Archaeology 27(3):102–113.
Kimmel, Richard H. 1993b Notes on the Use of Sub-Floor Pits as Root Cellars and Places of Concealment. African American Archaeology 7:11–12. The African Diaspora Archaeology Network <http://www.diaspora.illinois.edu/A-AAnewsletter/Spring1993.pdf>. Accessed 22 January 2021.
Laird, Macgregor, and R. A. K. Oldfield 1837 Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa, by the River Niger, in the Steam-Vessels Quorra and Alburkah, in 1832, 1833, and 1834, Vol. 1. Richard Bentley, London, UK.
Leonard, Arthur Glyn 1906 The Lower Niger and Its Tribes. Macmillan and Company, London, UK.
Leone, Mark P. 2005 The Archaeology of Liberty in an American Capital: Excavations in Annapolis. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Leone, Mark P., and Gladys-Marie Fry 1999 Conjuring in the Big House Kitchen: An Interpretation of African American Belief Systems Based on the Uses of Archaeology and Folklore Sources. Journal of American Folklore 112(445):372–403.
Leone, Mark P., and Gladys-Marie Fry 2001 Spirit Management among Americans of African descent. In Race and the Archaeology of Identity, Charles E. Orser, Jr., editor, pp. 143–157. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Liebeknecht, William, Patrick Harshbarger, and Alison Haley 2014 Farmer’s Delight: An 18th-Century Plantation in Southern Delaware. Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery, the Cedar Creek Road Site 7s-C-100, Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware. Report to Delaware Department of Transportation, Dover, from Hunter Research, Trenton, NJ.
Lowrie, Walter (editor) 1834 Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, in Relation to the Public Lands, from the First Session of the First Congress to the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress: March 4, 1789, to June 15, 1834, Vol. 4. Senate of the United States, Washington, DC.
Lucas, Michael T. 2014 Empowered Objects: Material Expressions of Spiritual Beliefs in the Colonial Chesapeake Region. Historical Archaeology 48(3):106–124.
Macdonald, George 1898 The Gold Coast, Past and Present: A Short Description of the Country and Its People. Longmans, Green, and Company, London, UK.
Mahon, John K. (editor) 1966 Reminiscences of the Second Seminole War by John Bemrose. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
Mayer, Robert 1995 Some Research Notes on Root Cellars, Ice Houses and Coolers. Arch Notes 6(6):10–17. Toronto, ON.
McCarthy, John P. 1997 Material Culture and the Performance of Sociocultural Identity: Community, Ethnicity, and Agency in the Burial Practices at the First African Baptist Church Cemeteries, Philadelphia, 1810–1841. In American Material Culture: The Shape of the Field, Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison, editors, pp. 359–379. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE.
McFarlane, Suzanne S. 1975 The Ethnohistory of a Slave Community: The Couper Plantation Site. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
McKee, Larry 1992 The Ideals and Realities behind the Design and Use of 19th Century Virginia Slave Cabins. In The Art and Mystery of Historical Archaeology: Essays in Honor of Jim Deetz, Anne Yentsch and Mary Beaudry, editors, pp. 195–213. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
McKee, Larry 1993 Summary Report on the 1991 Hermitage Field Quarter Excavation. Tennessee Anthropological Association Newsletter 18(1):1–17.
Miller, Stephen F. (editor) 1858 The Bench and Bar of Georgia: Memoirs and Sketches, with an Appendix Containing a Court Roll from 1790 to 1857, etc., Vol. 2. J. B. Lippincott & Co, Philadelphia, PA.
Milligan, Robert H. 1912 The Fetish Folk of West Africa. Fleming H. Revell Company, London, UK.
Mockler-Ferryman, Augustus F. 1892 Up the Niger: Narrative of Major Claude Macdonald’s Mission to the Niger and Benue Rivers, West Africa. George Philip and Son, London, UK.
Mockler-Ferryman, Augustus F. 1902 British Nigeria: A Geographical and Historical Description of the British Possessions Adjacent to the Niger River, West Africa. Cassell and Company, London, UK.
Moore, Francis 1738 Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa: Containing a Description of the Several Nations for the Space of Six Hundred Miles up the River Gambia. E. Clave, London, UK.
Moore, Sue Mullins 1981 The Antebellum Barrier Island Plantation: In Search of an Archaeological Pattern. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Morgan, Philip D. 2006 Archaeology and History in the Study of African-Americans. In African Re-Genesis: Confronting Social Issues in the Diaspora, Jay B. Haviser and Kevin C. MacDonald, editors, pp. 53–61. UCL Press, New York, NY.
Mouer, L. Daniel 1993 Chesapeake Creoles: The Creation of Folk Culture in Colonial Virginia. In The Archaeology of 17th Century Virginia, Theodore R. Reinhart and Denis J. Pogue, editors, pp. 105–166. Dietz Press, Richmond, VA.
Muraca, David, Philip Levy, and Leslie McFaden 2003 The Archaeology of Rich Neck Plantation (44WB52): Description of the Features. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Department of Archaeological Research, Williamsburg, VA.
Muraca, Dave, Paul Nasca, and Phil Levy 2011 Report on the Excavation of the Washington Farm: The 2002 and 2003 Field Seasons. State Site No: 44ST174. Manuscript, George Washington Foundation, Fredericksburg, VA
Murray, Hugh 1853 The African Continent: Narrative of Discovery and Adventure. T. Nelson and Sons, London, UK.
Naglich, Dennis, Joe Harl, Sara Hixson, Janet Kneller, Meredith McLaughlin, Andrew Weil, Rachel Radziul, Kristina Hill, Mary Jo Cramer, Eric Roselle, Marjorie B. Schroeder, and Lucretia S. Kelly 2004 Data Recovery Investigations at the Galbraith Site (23LF138): An Historic Farmstead in Lafayette County, Missouri. Research Report No. 241. Report to Federal Highways Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC, and Missouri Department of Transportation, St. Louis, from Archaeological Research Center of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO.
Nassau, Robert Hamill 1914 My Ogowe, Being a Narrative of Daily Incidents during Sixteen Years in Equatorial West Africa. Neale Publishing Company, New York, NY.
Neiman, Fraser D. 2008 The Lost World of Monticello: An Evolutionary Perspective. Journal of Anthropological Research 64(2):161–193.
Neuwirth, Jessica L. 1996 Archaeological Investigations at the Sotterley Plantation Slave Cabin, St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Sotterly Mansion Foundation, Hollywood, MD.
Noël Hume, Ivor 1982 Martin’s Hundred: The Discovery of a Lost Colonial Virginia Settlement. Knopf, New York, NY.
Norman, Neil L. 2008 An Archaeology of West African Atlanticization: Regional Analysis of the Huedan Palace Districts and Countryside (Bénin), 1650–1727. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Norman, Neil L. 2009 Powerful Pots, Humbling Holes, and Regional Ritual Processes: Towards an Archaeology of Huedan Vodun, ca. 1650–1727. African Archaeological Review 26(3):187–218.
Norman, Neil L. 2011 Collective and Interpretive Openings: Perforated Gbe Ritual Ceramics at Local, Regional and Diasporic Spheres of Interpretation. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 46(3):294–316.
Norman, Neil L. 2014 Sacred Vortices of the African Atlantic World: Materiality of the Accumulative Aesthetic in the Hueda Kingdon, 1650–1727 CE. In Materialities of Ritual in the Black Atlantic, Akinwumi Ogundiran and Paula Saunders, editors, pp. 47–67. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Ogundele, Samuel Oluwole 2005 Ethnoarchaeology of Domestic Space and Spatial Behaviour among the Tiv and Ungwai of Central Nigeria. African Archaeological Review 22(1):26–54.
Ogundiran, Akinwumi 2007 Living in the Shadow of the Atlantic World: History and Material Life in a Yoruba-Edo Hinterland, ca. 1600–1750. In Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora, Akinwumi Ogundiran and Toyin Falola, editors, pp. 77–99. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Orser, Charles E., Jr. 1988 The Archaeological Analysis of Plantation Society: Replacing Status and Caste with Economics and Power. American Antiquity 53(4):735–751.
Orser, Charles E., Jr. 1994 The Archaeology of African-American Slave Religion in the Antebellum South. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4(1):33–45.
O’Sullivan, Rebecca Claire 2012 Out of the Land of Forgetfulness: Archaeological Investigations at Bulow Plantation (8FL7), Flagler County, Florida. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa.
Otto, John Solomon 1984 Cannon’s Point Plantation, 1794–1850: Living Conditions and Status Patterns in the Old South. Academic Press, New York, NY.
Park, Mungo 1799 Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa: Performed under the Direction and Patronage of the African Association, in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. With an Appendix, Containing Geographical Illustrations by Major Rennell, 3rd edition. W. Bulmer and Co, London, UK.
Parkinson, John 1907 A Note on the Efik and Ekoi Tribes of the Eastern Province of Southern Nigeria, W.C.A. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 37(2):261–267.
Partridge, Charles 1905 Cross River Natives: Being Some Notes on the Primitive Pagans of Obura Hill District, Southern Nigeria, Including a Description of the Circles of Upright Sculptured Stones on the Left Bank of the Aweyong River. Hutchinson and Company, London, UK.
Potter, Parker B., Jr. 1991 What Is the Use of Plantation Archaeology? Historical Archaeology 25(3):94–107.
Poyner, Robin 1978 The Ancestral Arts of Owo, Nigeria. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Fine Arts, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Rawick, George P. (editor) 1972a The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, Vol. 9, Arkansas Narratives, Parts 3 and 4. Greenwood Publishing Company, Westport, CT.
Rawick, George P. (editor) 1972b The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, Vol. 10, Arkansas Narratives, Parts 5 and 6. Greenwood Publishing Company, Westport, CT.
Roth, H. Ling 1903 Great Benin: Its Customs, Art and Horrors. F. King and Sons, Halifax, UK.
Samford, Patricia M. 2007 Subfloor Pits and the Archaeology of Slavery in Colonial Virginia. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Sanford, Douglas 1991 A Response to Anne Yentsch’s Research Note on Below-Ground “Storage Cellars” among the Ibo. African American Archaeology 5:4–5. African Diaspora Archaeology Network <http://www.diaspora.illinois.edu/A-AAnewsletter/Fall1991.pdf>. Accessed 25 January 2021.
Schafer, Daniel L. 2000 Zephaniah Kingsley’s Laurel Grove Plantation, 1803–1813. In Colonial Plantations and Economy in Florida, Jane G. Landers, editor, pp. 98–120. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Schafer, Daniel L. 2003 Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Owner. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Schafer, Daniel L. 2013 Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World: Slave Trader, Plantation Owner, Emancipator. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Singleton Theresa A. 1980 The Archaeology of Afro-American Slavery in Coastal Georgia: A Regional Perception of Slave Household and Community Patterns. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Singleton, Theresa A. 1995 The Archaeology of Slavery in North America. Annual Review of Anthropology 24:119–140.
Skertchly, J. Alfred 1874 Dahomey as It Is; Being a Narrative of Eight Months’ Residence in That Country, with a Full Account of the Notorious Annual Customs, and the Social and Religious Institutions of the Ffons. Chapman and Hall, London, UK.
Skertchly, J. Alfred 1878 A Visit to the Gold-Fields of Wassaw, West Africa. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 48:274–283.
Smith, W. W. 1836 Sketch of the Seminole War, and Sketches during a Campaign. Dan. J. Dowling, Charleston, SC.
Stine, Linda France, Melanie A. Cabak, and Mark D. Groover 1996 Blue Beads as African-American Cultural Symbols. Historical Archaeology 30(3):49–75.
Stowell, Daniel W. 1996 Timucuan Ecological and Historical Resource Study. National Park Service, Southeast Field Area, Atlanta, GA.
Stowell, Daniel W. (editor) 2000 Balancing Evils Judiciously: The Proslavery Writings of Zephaniah Kingsley. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Strickland, Alice 1963 James Ormond, Merchant and Soldier. Florida Historical Quarterly 41(3):209–222.
Symanski, Luís Cláudio Pereira 2006 Slaves and Planters in Western Brazil: Material Culture, Identity and Power. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Talbot, P. Amaury 1912 In the Shadow of the Bush. William Heinemann, London, UK.
Thomas, Northcote W. 1910 Anthropological Report on the Edo-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Part 1, Law and Custom. Harrison and Sons, London, UK.
Thomas, Northcote W. 1914 Anthropological Report on Ibo-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Part 4, Law and Custom of the Ibo of the Asaba District, S. Nigeria. Harrison and Sons, London, UK.
Thomas, Northcote W. 1917 Some Ibo Burial Customs. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 47:160–213.
Thomas, Northcote W. 1920 Notes on Edo Burial Customs. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 50:377–411.
Thompson, George 1859 Palm Land; or West Africa, Illustrated. Being a History of Missionary Labors and Travels, with Descriptions of Men and Things in Western Africa. Also a Synopsis of All the Missionary Work on that Continent, 3rd edition. Moore, Wilstach, Keys and Company, Cincinnati, OH.
Trinkley, Michael, and Debi Hacker 2009 Shoolbred’s Old Settlement: Excavations at 38ch123, Kiawah Island, Charleston County, South Carolina, Mari K. Poulos, and S. Homes Hogue, contributors. Chicora Foundation, Columbia, SC.
Udoh, Claton Thomas 1977 Religion and Change among the Annang and Ibibio, 1846–1930. Doctoral dissertation, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Upton, Dell 1988 New Views of the Virginia Landscape. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 96(4):403–470.
U.S. Bureau of the Census 1830 Schedule of the Whole Number of Persons within the Division Allotted, Mosquito, Florida. Ancestry.com <https://www.ancestry.com>. Accessed 8 April 2018.
U.S. Bureau of the Census 1950 Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1950. U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC.
U.S. Senate 1839 Documents in Relation to the Claim of the Executor of John J. Bulow, Jr. to be Indemnified for the Loss of Property Destroyed by the Hostile Seminole Indians. In Public Documents Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States, Third Session of the Twenty-Fifth Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Washington, December 3, 1838, and in the Sixty-Third Year of the Independence of the United States, Vol. 2, Report No. 129. Blair and Rives, Washington, DC.
Waddell, Hope Masterton 1863 Twenty-Nine Years in the West Indies and Central Africa: A Review of Missionary Work and Adventure, 1829–1858. T. Nelson and Sons, London, UK.
Walker, Karen Jo 1988 Kingsley and His Slaves: Anthropological Interpretation and Evaluation. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
Walsh, Lorena S. 2001 The Chesapeake Slave Trade: Regional Patterns, African Origins, and Some Implications. William and Mary Quarterly 58(1):139–170.
Warren, Dennis Michael 1974 Disease, Medicine, and Religion among the Techiman-Bono of Ghana: A Study in Culture Change. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Washington, Booker T. 1901 Up from Slavery: An Autobiography. Doubleday, Page and Company, New York, NY.
Weather Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce 1943 Naval Air Pilot: West Central Africa (Including Cape Verde, Ascension, and St. Helena Islands): Weather Summary. Hydrographic Office, U.S. Navy Department, Washington, DC.
Weeks, John H. 1913 Among Congo Cannibals: Experiences, Impressions, and Adventures during a Thirty Years’ Sojourn amongst the Boloki and other Congo Tribes, with a Description of Their Curious Habits, Customs Religion, and Laws. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, PA.
Wheaton, Thomas R., and Patrick H. Garrow 1985 Acculturation and the Archaeological Record in the Carolina Lowcountry. In The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life, Theresa Singleton, editor, pp. 239–269. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
Wilkie, Laurie A. 1995 Magic and Empowerment on the Plantation: An Archaeological Consideration of African-American World View. Southeastern Archaeology 14(2):136–157.
Williams, John Lee 1837 The Territory of Florida, Or, Sketches of the Topography, Civil and Natural History, of the Country, the Climate, and the Indian Tribes, from the First Discovery to the Present Time, with a Map, Views, etc. A. T. Goodrich, New York, NY.
Wilson, Ruth Danenhower 1945 The Bulow Plantation, 1821–1835. Florida Historical Quarterly 23(4):227–240.
Wilson, Wilford M. 1913 Climatological Data for January 1913. District No. 1, North Atlantic States. Monthly Weather Review 41(1):2–13. Washington, DC.
Winterbottom, Thomas 1803 An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighborhood of Sierra Leone; to which Is Added, an Account of the Present State of Medicine among Them. C. Whittingham, London, UK.
Yentsch, Anne 1991 A Note on an 19th Century Description of Below-Ground “Storage Cellars” among the Ibo. African American Archaeology 4:3–4. Academia <https://www.academia.edu/30633013/A_note_on_a_19th_century_description_of_below_ground_storage_cellars_among_the_Ibo>. Accessed 16 December 2020.
Young, Amy Lambeck 1997 Cellars and African-American Slave Sites: New Data from an Upland South Plantation. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 22(1):95–115.
Acknowledgments:
I would like to thank my graduate students Mary Elizabeth Ibarrola, David Markus, Brett Mogensen, and Amber Grafft-Weiss; the undergraduate students of the five University of Florida archaeological field schools; as well as the numerous volunteers. Additional thanks must be extended to Phillip Rand and staff of the Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park. Finally, I am beholden to the numerous previous researchers who explored the subfloor-pit phenomenon.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davidson, J.M. The Subfloor-Pit Tradition in the United States: A Florida Case Study and Critical Reappraisal of Its Origins. Hist Arch 55, 353–377 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-021-00287-3
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-021-00287-3