An Historical Archaeology of Early Modern Manhood in the Potomac River Valley of Virginia, 1645-1730
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2015 An Historical Archaeology of Early Modern Manhood in the Potomac River Valley of Virginia, 1645-1730 Danny Brad Hatch University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Hatch, Danny Brad, "An Historical Archaeology of Early Modern Manhood in the Potomac River Valley of Virginia, 1645-1730. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2015. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3303 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Danny Brad Hatch entitled "An Historical Archaeology of Early Modern Manhood in the Potomac River Valley of Virginia, 1645-1730." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Anthropology. Barbara J. Heath, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Walter E. Klippel, Elizabeth J. Kellar, Christopher P. Magra Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) An Historical Archaeology of Early Modern Manhood in the Potomac River Valley of Virginia, 1645-1730 A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Danny Brad Hatch May 2015 Copyright © 2015 by Danny Brad Hatch. All rights reserved. ii Dedication To my Dad Danny E. Hatch And my Grandma Virgie B. Jett iii Acknowledgements The completion of this work would not have been possible without the help and encouragement of numerous people. First, I would like to express my appreciation to my committee. My advisor, Barbara Heath, has been instrumental in shaping my work over the past several years, pushing me to integrate data and theory and making me into a better, and more thoughtful, archaeologist as a result. While her editorial comments on previous drafts were sometimes daunting they always led to a deeper interrogation of the data and a stronger product. I am deeply indebted to Barbara for her time and patience with me. Walter Klippel introduced me to the techniques of faunal analysis in archaeology and always had interesting suggestions about ways in which to analyze and interpret these data that moved beyond questions of diet. His willingness to discuss non-dissertation-related topics also led to numerous hours spent in his office and helped me to ward off cabin fever after days and weeks identifying faunal remains in the zooarchaeology lab. Elizabeth Kellar provided many useful suggestions and edits, which helped me to better explain my argument and the details related to it. Her keen editorial skills were welcome, particularly after I had read and edited multiple drafts. Finally, Christopher Magra’s seminar on Atlantic History introduced me to Atlantic scholarship and helped me to think outside of the Chesapeake region. His comments and suggestions on the historical sections of this dissertation and the work of other historians studying similar topics strongly shaped the course that I took. Although not on my committee, Julie King has also played a major role in this work and deserves many thanks. Working in the Potomac River Valley with her, and numerous discussions about the history and archaeology of the region, have proved invaluable over the years and she iv has heavily influenced my work. Dave Muraca gave me my first job in archaeology, working on the Maurice Clark site more than a decade ago. His constant encouragement and advice have always been welcome and greatly appreciated. His generosity, and the generosity of the George Washington Foundation, in allowing me to use the Maurice Clark data in this dissertation is greatly appreciated. Amy Muraca and the George Washington Birthplace National Monument also deserve special thanks for granting me access to the John Washington and Henry Brooks collections and allowing me to use their lab space. Dee DeRoche and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources have always been helpful over the years with granting access to the Hallowes and Nomini collections and extending loan terms when analyses were not completed as quickly as I expected. Fraser Neiman provided data on the ceramic vessel counts from Clifts and was very prompt and helpful with questions about that site. Scott Strickland provided the maps for the Henry Brooks and John Washington sites. Several people helped with the identification of obscure mid-17th-century ceramics, helping me to refine dates and better interpret the sites. Silas Hurry’s encyclopedic knowledge of all things 17th century was greatly appreciated during research trips to visit the study collection at St. Mary’s City or when I cornered him at conferences with questions on material culture. Henry Miller provided useful suggestions about faunal analysis in the Chesapeake, particularly in relation to the deer trade at the Hallowes site. Meta Janowitz, Paul Huey, and Richard Schaefer were excited to see the Dutch ceramics from Nomini and provided useful tips for identifying Dutch wares. Bly Straube and Merry Outlaw also aided in the identification of some more obscure wares and forms in the collections, in particular the Morgan Jones alembic from Nomini. v Kerri Barile and Mike Carmody deserve special thanks for having patience with my schedule as I completed my dissertation while working at Dovetail. Their encouragement and understanding during my last few months as a graduate student made finishing my dissertation much easier. Mike Klein provided much appreciated help with statistics at a crucial point during my revisions. Marco González, the GIS guru at Dovetail, was kind enough to help me with some maps. The graduate students at the University of Tennessee were also very helpful during my entire time in Knoxville, providing me with useful suggestions, encouragement, and friendship. Katie Lamzik was always willing to help in the zooarchaeology lab, and even let me in to use the lab on a few weekends. Meagan Dennison’s interest in gender and zooarchaeology, and our conversations that resulted, proved useful in helping me to formulate ideas. Crystal Ptacek spent numerous hours with me in the historical archaeology lab and often acted as an important sounding board for ideas about the Chesapeake during the 17th century. Andrew Wilkins and I have been doing archaeology together since we were undergraduates, and his encouragement and friendship, combined with his sharp wit, have meant a great deal to me over the years. Through my many years in school my family has always supported me. My brothers, Chad, Alex, and Jack have provided me with welcome distractions from dissertation research and writing, whether it was going out to dinner, watching a lacrosse game, fishing, working on the farm, or hunting. My best friend, Patrick Hockaday, has always been there for me and was always happy to talk about non-archaeology things. My uncle and aunt, Barry Jett and Jeannie Lockey, often opened their home to me on brief research trips to Virginia. Monty and Rita Jett, my other uncle and aunt, also provided support and encouragement over the years. My parents, Danny and Sheena, were always willing to provide encouragement, both emotional and financial, vi while I was “working on my paper.” My grandmother, Virgie Jett, was my greatest supporter for my first years in Knoxville and that will never be forgotten. I only wish that she and my dad could have seen me finish this. Finally, I thank my wife, Lauren McMillan, and my little dog, Dione. The unconditional love of these two kept me going through some of the toughest times and made me appreciate the good times even more. Lauren has been the best partner, both in archaeology and in life, that a person could ask for and I would not be where I am today without her. To all of those who have helped me in this journey, I offer my most sincere thanks. vii Abstract During the second half of the 17th century Chesapeake society was in flux. European immigrants were expanding their settlements up the rivers and creeks that fed the great bay while simultaneously pushing local Indians to ever-shrinking parcels of unclaimed land. Thrown into this cultural mix were African slaves imported to work the tobacco fields of planters in Virginia and Maryland. The conflict and intimate contacts that stemmed from these encounters forced the reconsideration and construction of important aspects of European, Native, and African identities including class, gender, and race which would have major effects on society in the region that continue to resonate today. This dissertation examines the coalescence of ideas about manhood among European colonists in the Potomac River Valley of Virginia from 1645-1730, focusing on how material culture, combined with unique political and demographic circumstances, was used to construct, reinforce, and challenge manly authority and identity in the Early Modern period in this region of Virginia. The primary question this dissertation begins with is: Did concepts of manly authority and identity change among English colonists in the 17th-century Potomac Valley of Virginia? I then move to questions concerning the details of these changing concepts of authority and identity, their relationship to gender, and the role of material culture in the intersection of these two topics.