Slavery and Archaeology: A Look at the Archaeology of Slavery in America with Holly Norton

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Just as we leave behind Black History Month, we cannot relegate #BlackHistory and #BlackFutures solely to the month of February. Therefore, in this episode we honor a small bit of black history through a closer look at the archaeology of slavery with archaeologist Holly Norton. We take a lens to Colonoware pottery of the South and other examples across the Americas, and discuss how we make interpretations around this important topic. Lastly, we remind ourselves that we must reflect on the biases and stereotypes we project into the past.

A full transcript for this episode can be found below. All of our transcripts are available on the Episode Transcription page.

Show Notes

• Holly’s Academia.edu page with her publications listed. https://syr.academia.edu/HollyNorton
• Holly’s mentor and influence in her work on slave communities and refugees: https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/anthro/Singleton,_Theresa/
• Stacy Camp’s Faculty page: http://anthropology.msu.edu/author/campstac/
• Holly’s journal publication, The Challenge in Locating Maroon Refuge Sites at Maroon Ridge, St. Croix
• Dr. Laurie Wilkie’s faculty webpage:
• https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/laurie-wilkie
• Paul Mullin’s blog on the archaeology and history in and around Indianapolis, Indiana: Archaeology and Material Culture: The material world, broadly defined

• #CiteBlackWomen on Twitter, Instagram, and elsewhere is an amazing place to see the work being done in academic works. Most academic citations don’t reference research done by those in the descendant communities. CiteBlackWomencollective.org has grown from the hashtag. Check it out!

• New York Times’ 1619 Project

Books

• Andres Resendez’ book, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
• Dr. Wilkie’s book, The Archaeology of Mothering: An African-American Midwife’s Tale
• Cathy Cameron, UC Boulder https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/cathy-cameron
• Edited volume, Invisible Citizens: Captives and Their Consequences
• Uncommon Ground, by Leland Ferguson
• Laurie Wilkie’s book mentioned by Holly, “If these Pots Could Talk” is actually, Sampling Many Pots: An Archaeology of Memory and Tradition on a Bahamian Plantation
• Great Dismal Swamp excavation work by Daniel Sayers, A Desolate Place for a Defiant People: The Archaeology of Maroons, Indigenous Americans, and Enslaved Laborers in the Great Dismal Swamp