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Historical Archaeology and Public Engagement

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Historical Archaeology Volume 44, Number 1 2010 Journal of The SocieTy for hiSTorical archaeology J. W. JoSePh, ediTor New South Associates, Inc. 6150 East Ponce de Leon Ave. Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083 in aSSociaTion WiTh Shannon daWdy, MargareT PurSer, naThan richardS, della ScoTT-ireTon, grace ZieSing, aSSociaTe ediTorS; charleS eWen, reviews ediTor; Mary BeTh reed, co-ediTor PuBliShed By The SocieTy for hiSTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY fronT cover: distriBuTion of historic ar Tifacts locaTed during The 2002 and 2003 Walk-over Sur veyS of The neW PhiladelPhia ToWn SiTe. (iMage By T. gWalTney and J. BeaSley, 2009.) historical archaeology iS indexed in The folloWing PuBlicaTionS: abstracts of anThroPology; aMerica: history and life; anThroPological liTeraTure; arT and archaeology Technical abstracts; arts and huManiTieS index; BriTiSh archaeological abstracts; currenT conTents/ arts and huManiTieS; historical abstracts; huManiTieS index; and inTernaTional BiBliograPhy of The Social ScienceS. coPyediTing By Mary BeTh reed coMPoSiTion By Morgan PrinTing auSTin, TexaS ©2010 By The SocieTy for hiSTorical archaeology PrinTed in The uniTed STaTeS of aMerica iSSn 0440-9213 The PaPer uSed in ThiS PuBlicaTion Meets The MiniMuM requireMents of The aMerican naTional STandard for inforMaTion ScienceS–PerManence of PaPer for PrinTed liBrar y MaTerialS, anSi Z39.48-1984. Contents Volume 44, No. 1, 2010 CONTRIBuTORS EDITOR’S PREFACE ARTICLES Foreword: An Engaged Archaeology for Our Mutual Benefit: The Case of New Philadelphia AnnA S. Agbe-DAvieS 1 Introduction: Remembering New Philadelphia PAul A. ShAckel 7 New Philadelphia Pedestrian Survey: Phase I Investigations at an Historic Town Site Joy beASley AnD Tom gwAlTney 20 Geophysical Detection of Features and Community Plan at New Philadelphia, Illinois michAel l. hArgrAve 43 Identity and Collective Action in a Multiracial Community PAul A. ShAckel 58 Agriculture and Regionalism at New Philadelphia clAire Fuller mArTin AnD TerrAnce J. mArTin 72 Courtly, Careful, Thrifty: Subsistence and Regional Origin at New Philadelphia TerrAnce J. mArTin AnD clAire Fuller mArTin 85 Voices of New Philadelphia: Memories and Stories of the People and Place cArrie A. chriSTmAn 102 Education and Gender in New Philadelphia emily g. helTon 112 Separated by Death and Color: The African American Cemetery of New Philadelphia, Illinois chArloTTe king 125 Damaging Detours: Routes, Racism, and New Philadelphia chriSToPher c. Fennell 138 Comment: Conditions of Subject and Object AbDul AlkAlimAT (gerAlD mcworTer) 155 Contributors Anna S. Agbe-Davies, Department of Anthropology, DePaul University, 2343 N. Racine Ave., Chicago, IL 60614. Abdul Alkalimat, Department of African American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1201 W. Nevada Ave., MC-143, Urbana, IL 61801 Joy Beasley, National Park Service, Monocacy National Battlefield, 4801 Urbana Pike, Frederick, MD 21704. Carrie A. Christman, c/o Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, 1111 Woods Hall, College Park, MD 20742. Christopher C. Fennell, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 109 Davenport Hall, MC-148, 607 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801. Tom Gwaltney, National Park Service, Monocacy National Battlefield, 4801 Urbana Pike, Frederick, MD 21704. Michael L. Hargrave, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 9005, Champaign, IL 61826-9005. Emily G. Helton, 19011 Peoria St., Athens, IL 62613. Charlotte King, Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, 1111 Woods Hall, College Park, MD 20742. Claire Fuller Martin, Illinois State Museum, Illinois State Museum Research and Collections Center, 1011 East Ash Street, Springfield, IL 62703. Terrance J. Martin, Illinois State Museum, Illinois State Museum Research and Collections Center, 1011 East Ash Street, Springfield, IL 62703. Paul A. Shackel, Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, 1111 Woods Hall, College Park, MD 20742. ediTor’S Preface v Editor’s Preface town, it tells us of racial and cultural interactions as well as archaeology’s ability to read race from material remains. Its historic development thwarted by racially motivated shifts in the Place is one of the cornerstones of historical historic landscape, New Philadelphia tells of us archaeology. Our discipline developed through racism in the Midwest and of the ways economic the excavation and analysis of landmark loca- power was used to undermine African American tions in North American history, and gradually accomplishments. With its history carried into expanded away from landmarks to the study of the present by its descendent community, New less-renowned settlements and sites. The histori- Philadelphia reminds us of the community’s role cal archaeology of place examined the ways in in maintaining the past and of archaeology’s which cultures and their architecture adapted to challenge to link the objects of the past with the new settings, the ways in which cultural land- ideals of descendents’ memories. scapes expressed traditions and transformations, Chris Fennell, Terrance Martin, Paul Shackel, and the ways in which place shaped cultures and their colleagues present us with an engaging and vice versa. set of papers in their thematic study of New Phil- In considering the archaeology of place, it is adelphia. Their use of the ethnohistoric approach easy to neglect the fact that places were not allows us to appreciate and assess the informa- associated with peoples in an equitable fashion. tion provided by applying a variety of disciplines, In particular, as we study the archaeology of including oral history, history, and archaeology, to the American past, we recognize that African the understanding of a single place. Ethnohistory American places are less common, less obvi- carries over to their study of a variety of spaces ous, less understood, and much less recognized. within New Philadelphia, including cemeteries We realize that African Americans valued the and schools as well as domestic households, pro- spaces available for their use and shaped them viding us with looks at New Philadelphia from a through their cultural practices, yet had much number of views. Their approach considers New less control over such space. As places like the Philadelphia within a larger, regional landscape, African Burial Ground in New York City remind and presents archaeological methods for studying us, the historic African American physical world large, complex, community sites. Finally, this lies largely forgotten, paved beneath the archi- study addresses the ways in which archaeolo- tecture and economies of those who owned and gists and communities interact. This volume is controlled that world in denial of other cultural an important contribution to the archaeology of associations and meanings. place and to the archaeology of African America, New Philadelphia, Illinois, is by its mere while the collaborative ethnohistoric approach existence a highly significant point on the map of it presents offers a model for other community African America; a midwestern town established studies. New Philadelphia is both a place and a in the 1830s by a free African American, Frank project that historical archaeology needs to know, McWorter. Were New Philadelphia nothing more a place worth remembering and encountering. than that, it would be important as one of the Welcome to New Philadelphia. limited locations that we can point to as African American. Yet New Philadelphia is far more J. W. Joseph than that. Created by McWorter as a multiracial Editor, Historical Archaeology Historical Archaeology, 2009, 44(1):v. Permission to reprint required. Contents Volume 44, No. 1, 2010 CONTRIBuTORS EDITOR’S PREFACE ARTICLES Foreword: An Engaged Archaeology for Our Mutual Benefit: The Case of New Philadelphia AnnA S. Agbe-DAvieS 1 Introduction: Remembering New Philadelphia PAul A. ShAckel 7 New Philadelphia Pedestrian Survey: Phase I Investigations at an Historic Town Site Joy beASley AnD Tom gwAlTney 20 Geophysical Detection of Features and Community Plan at New Philadelphia, Illinois michAel l. hArgrAve 43 Identity and Collective Action in a Multiracial Community PAul A. ShAckel 58 Agriculture and Regionalism at New Philadelphia clAire Fuller mArTin AnD TerrAnce J. mArTin 72 Courtly, Careful, Thrifty: Subsistence and Regional Origin at New Philadelphia TerrAnce J. mArTin AnD clAire Fuller mArTin 85 Voices of New Philadelphia: Memories and Stories of the People and Place cArrie A. chriSTmAn 102 Education and Gender in New Philadelphia emily g. helTon 112 Separated by Death and Color: The African American Cemetery of New Philadelphia, Illinois chArloTTe king 125 Damaging Detours: Routes, Racism, and New Philadelphia chriSToPher c. Fennell 138 Comment: Conditions of Subject and Object AbDul AlkAlimAT (gerAlD mcworTer) 155 1 AnnA S. Agbe-DAvieS shaped the field for many years. One could examine the juxtaposition of various stakeholder perceptions of, and uses for the past and its An Engaged Archaeology residues. Finally, one can contemplate how this for Our Mutual Benefit: transformed archaeology fits with the categories customarily used to partition archaeological The Case of New Philadelphia work––period, region, cultural group, and social institution. These various stances are used to Of all of the factors to shape archaeologi- frame the remarks which follow. cal practice––curiosity about the peoples and At whatever scale it is considered––archae- events
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    CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND HISTORY Paul A. Shackel INTRODUCTION Juliet Walker’s (1983) book, Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier , provides significant information about Free Frank McWorter and his experience related to the founding and early development of New Philadelphia until his death in 1854. Other monographs provide overviews of the McWorter family and/or the community’s past. These include: Grace Matteson (1964) “Free Frank” McWorter and the “Ghost Town” of New Philadelphia, Pike County, Illinois ; Helen McWorter Simpson’s (1981) Maker’s of History; and Larry Burdick’s (1992) New Philadelphia: Where I Lived . The goal of the current New Philadelphia Archaeology Project is to further explore the story unfolding about the town by providing additional information about the social history of the entire community, and documenting the rise of the town from 1836 through its demise during the Jim Crow era in the early twentieth century. Using historical information, oral histories, and archaeological information, the project explores the physical and social development of the town and explores some of the social relations in the community through the early twentieth century. This work also shows how individuals of African–American and European–American heritage view this community’s past. The archaeological, historical, and oral history data contribute information related to an important episode of past social and racial relations that should be a vital component of our national public memory. EARLY SETTLEMENT OF ILLINOIS Most of the early European settlers of Illinois came from states south of the Ohio River, and they established communities by waterways where they had easy access to transportation, power sources, and food.
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