Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 5-2012 Slave Housing: In Search of Endangered Architecture Syra V. Valiente Clemson University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons Recommended Citation Valiente, Syra V., "Slave Housing: In Search of Endangered Architecture" (2012). All Theses. 1398. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/1398 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SLAVE HOUSING: IN SEARCH OF ENDANGERED ARCHITECTURE A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University and the College of Charleston In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science Historic Preservation By: Syra V. Valiente May 2012 Accepted by: Dr. Carter L. Hudgins, Committee Chair Professor Ralph C. Muldrow Professor James L. Ward ii | Slave Housing In Search of Endangered Architecture ABSTRACT Although enslaved Africans constituted a significant majority of the population of Charleston County, South Carolina, from the early eighteenth century until the Civil War, only miniscule number of former slave houses survive. Intense analysis of the surviving slave houses at McLeod Plantation on James Island raises questions about what inherent aspects of their plan and construction constitutes what this study labels “slave architecture.” The emergence, development and decline of slave houses reflects the broader history of slavery in the South Carolina Lowcountry and suggests that improved documentation of these rare buildings can play an important role in conveying the history of Charleston County’s antebellum black majority.