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Black History & Public Archaeology in Conestoga Township Emily Preserving Hallowed Memories: Black History & Public Archaeology in Conestoga Township Emily Rutherford Department of Anthropology Anthropology 490: Independent Study Project Submitted: 27 April 2020 Graduation Date: 16 May 2020 Rutherford 2 Abstract The following is the product of eight months of independent anthropological research into the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century population of African Americans in Conestoga Township, and acts as a case study within the larger history of African American settlement in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. This archaeological analysis was informed by archival documents, oral histories, secondary analysis, and the surviving site of the Conestoga African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Cemetery (c. 1846-1946), located in Conestoga, Pennsylvania. The objectives, methodology, and interpretative analysis presented in this independent study followed the theoretical teachings of historical, post-processual, and public archaeologists dedicated to studying historically oppressed minority groups (see Delle 2019; Levine & Delle 2009; Rotman 2015; Baram 2015, Scott 1994; Spector 1993). This thesis seeks to enrich the narrative of African American history in Lancaster county, and provide new details and interpretations of the lived experiences of rural African American Lancastrians whose existence and impact on Lancaster’s civil rights history remain relatively unknown to current Lancastrians. Additionally, by forming research partnerships with the living familial descendants of the Conestoga AME Cemetery, two historical societies, and the Bethel AME Church community in Lancaster city, this study transformed into an active public archaeology project that effected increased public knowledge, engagement, and ongoing interest in studying and preserving the neglected cemetery site. Suggestions for future research and community education projects are also presented. Rutherford 3 Acknowledgements This thesis and the resulting public archaeology project would not exist without the near-constant encouragement, support, teaching, and advising I received during the 2019-2020 academic year by several kind and gracious people, and a proper thank you is necessary before proceeding to the research. First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Leroy Hopkins, Ms. Darlene Colón, and Mr. Gerald Wilson, who collectively gifted several days of their personal time to teach me about their wonderful family histories and the Conestoga AME Cemetery, answer my unending list of questions, and listen to my many interpretive speculations. Your dedication to your families is unquestionable, your passion for researching and educating the public on Lancaster black history is awe-inspiring, and your approval and sponsorship of this project is deeply gratifying. It is site descendants like you that make historical archaeology so personally rewarding, and your guidance and perseverance in this culturally significant work serves as a wonderful example for future public archaeology projects to follow nationwide. Next, I give a heartfelt thank you to Reverend Edward Bailey and Mrs. Helen Jackson of Bethel AME Church in Lancaster city, for welcoming me at Bethel with open and curious hearts. Rev. Bailey was critical in approving the non-invasive field work of the site, including the geophysical testing, and provided critical feedback for current and future community research projects involving the Conestoga AME property. Mrs. Jackson was instrumental in introducing me to Rev. Bailey and providing access to Bethel’s documentary records. I thank both for their kindness and assistance during my visits to Bethel and with my research throughout the year. Rutherford 4 My next expression of unending gratitude goes to John Forewood, John Stehman, and the Board of the Conestoga Area Historical Society, who provided crucial primary documents and oral history lessons free of charge, granted me exclusive access to the Historical Society during the winter off-season, and gifted me with a platform to share my thesis research to the site descendants and the general public of Conestoga Township. I will never forget your eagerness and dedication in assisting an out-of-towner with her research, and your gratitude, curiosity, and willingness to grapple with hard questions upon hearing the results. Thank you to the research librarians and Vice Curator of LancasterHistory, who helpfully answered my questions, provided documents, granted me close-up inspections of artifacts not on display, and put up with my last-minute dash to scan as many pages as possible before closing. Many of the primary sources for this thesis were accessed at the Research Center, and thus LancasterHistory was invaluable to my work. Thank you to my parents, Lorene and Doug Rutherford, for eagerly listening on the phone to all my lectures on Conestoga black history; for cheering on my work from afar; for helping with the painstaking task of combing through hundreds of census pages, and loving and supporting me during the unexpected change in circumstances accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you to the professors on my thesis committee, Professors Smith and Billig (Anthropology), Gosse (Africana Studies & History), and Kourelis (Art & Art History), for aiding me during all stages of the research and writing process. My gratitude for your assistance, feedback, and encouragement to pursue my work is impossible to encapsulate with a simple thank you, but I must say it anyway. Thank you for your support Rutherford 5 of my successful application to the Franklin & Marshall Committee on Grants. Without you all, the proposal likely would have been rejected. A special thank you goes to Professor Kourelis for first introducing me to Dr. Hopkins. This whole project blossomed out of that introduction. I would also like to thank F&M Professors Bechtel (Geosciences) and Hart (Anthropology), and Professor Jim Delle (Associate Provost, Millersville University) for their assistance with fieldwork at the site. Professor Bechtel and his students graciously offered to perform magnetometry testing, and Professors Hart and Delle provided cleanup assistance during the December 16th field day. Having Prof. Delle see and survey the site, as a renowned African American historical archaeologist, was a dream-come-true. From the bottom of my heart, I thank my thesis advisor, Professor Mary Ann Levine, for the two years of teaching and mentoring needed to produce this thesis. Thank you for your constant encouragement, great positive energy, and unending words of wisdom and advice during the research process and throughout my college career. Thank you for igniting my love and passion for archaeology as an ANT102 student and changing the overall trajectory of my life. Thank you for helping me find my life’s larger purpose. Finally, I would like to thank Harriet Sweeney, the church founder and powwow doctress whose inspirational story and legacy helped me persist through the many difficulties encountered during the research and writing process. This thesis is dedicated to her, and to the historic black community of Conestoga Township. Rutherford 6 Introduction I have loved cemeteries since I was a young child. My first memory of them comes from a popular collection of children’s horror stories, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz, which I read avidly in elementary school. Several of the tales in this beloved book series involve cemeteries or graveyards as their setting. One example is “The Girl Who Stood on a Grave,” and I think the first few lines of the story summarize Schwartz’s tone on cemeteries quite succinctly: Some boys and girls were at a party one night. There was a graveyard down the street, and they were talking about how scary it was. “Don’t ever stand on a grave after dark,” one of the boys said. “The person inside will grab you. He’ll pull you under” (1981). I found the ending of this story slightly humorous, since the girl who stood on a grave died not from the hands of a zombie or the vengeance of the grave’s ghost, but from accidentally scaring herself to death from a panic attack, after her fears of the cemetery spiraled out of control. In this case, the cemetery and its deceased occupants did not inflict any harm. Rather, it was the clumsiness and irrational fears of the (once) living visitor, who ends up unknowingly punishing herself for desecrating the space. While I clearly recognized cemeteries’ place in popular horror culture, I became fascinated with the historical value embodied in cemeteries as I grew older. During the day I found burial grounds to be peaceful, contemplative spaces, where gravestones and memorials taught me about past people. I liked learning their names, ages, and any monikers they held in life. I enjoyed seeing different stylistic choices for their memorials, and any other mementos left by surviving families. If I came across a person my age, I sympathized with the individual. “How did they die? How did they live?” I wondered. Rutherford 7 I discovered that this type of analytical engagement with sacred spaces are normal occurrences for many historical archaeologists (see Blakey 1998; Rainville 2014; Barnes 2011; Hughes Wright, Hughes & Misiroglu 1996; Scott 1994; Spector 1993). A forgotten cemetery and these two questions, on life and death, ultimately became vital to my independent research. For an entire academic year, I engaged in archaeologically based research that aimed to investigate the changing settlement patterns of African Americans
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