Excavations conducted in June of 2004 at 71 Park Place, then a vacant residential lot located in downtown St. Augustine, yielded a significant artifact and faunal assemblage. Historic maps and documents indicate that this property was once part of a 10ΒΌ acre orange grove and cornfield that existed from approximately 1790 until the late 1880s. Historic maps show that three structures once stood on this property, which is corroborated by the archaeological findings at 71 Park Place of post-holes that outline a two-room structure. As the majority of the artifacts and faunal remains recovered from the site were found around this possible structure, it is likely that these remains were left behind by the former occupants of this structure. Historic deeds indicate that the antebellum owners of the property were wealthy individuals and slaveholders, which raises the possibility that the former occupants of the structure identified on the property were slaves and that the artifacts and faunal remains recovered from 71 Park Place are representative of the material culture of urban slaves. This thesis examines this possibility by looking for previously determined ethnic markers of slavery within the assemblage, as well as by comparing the artifact and faunal remains to three plantation slave and three middle-to-upper class St. Augustine assemblages. Results indicate that although an urban salve occupation cannot be shown archaeologically, the possibility still remains, and further archaeological research in the thus far little studied field of urban slavery would be greatly beneficial to this study. / Thesis / Master
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_15406 |
| Creators | Beck, Rita |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Rights | unrestricted |
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