Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

V.0B AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD

A.7B PREVIOUSLY IDENTIFIED AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN ST. GEORGES HUNDRED

Eleven archaeological sites associated with African American settlement have been identified in St. Georges Hundred (Figure 60). All 11 sites are either farms or rural dwellings dating from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries (Table 49). No African American archaeological sites dating to before 1800 have yet been definitively identified in the Hundred. Seven of the sites have been studied at the Phase I level. The remaining four sites, the Wilson Farm Tenancy Site, the Holton/Cann Site, the Dale Historic Site, and the Bird-Houston Site, were investigated more intensively through either a Phase II evaluation study or a full Phase III data recovery.

Of the seven Phase I sites, the Segar Site was an African American owner-occupied farm. Two sites, the Philips Agricultural Complex and the Cann Tenant-Amos Bell Historic Site, were occupied by tenants and owners during different periods of their history. The Philips Agricultural Complex was originally an owner-occupied farmhouse in the early nineteenth century and transitioned to tenant occupation several decades later. Conversely, the Cann Tenant-Amos Bell Historic Site began as a small tenant dwelling when it was built around 1816. By 1838 the house had become the primary residence of its new African American owner. The remaining four archaeological sites were small house and garden properties occupied by African American tenant laborers or property owners.

TABLE 49

IDENTIFIED ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES ASSOCIATED WITH AFRICAN AMERICANS IN ST. GEORGES HUNDRED

LEVEL OF SITE NAME (NO.) DATES PROPERTY TYPE OCCUPANT INVESTIGATION REFERENCE Holton/Cann Site 1751-1886 House and Garden Tenant Phase II Liebeknecht and Burrow 2012 (7NC-F-129) Cann Tenant – Amos Bell 1812-1836/ House and Garden/ Tenant/ Phase I Liebeknecht and Burrow 2011 Historic Site (7NC-F-160) 1838-1865 Farm Owner J. Armstrong 3 Site 1820-1900 House and Garden Tenant Phase I Schumer et al. 2011 (7NC-F-159) Samuel Segar Site 1857-1874 Farm Owner Phase I Clark 1993 (7NC-G-118) Dale Historic Site 1830-1837/ House and Garden/ Tenant/ Phase II Bedell and Shellenhamer 2013b (7NC-F-134) 1854-1915 Farm Owner Thomas Bayard Site 1835-1864/ Farm/ Owner/ Phase I Heite 1990 (7NC-G-1-6) 1864-1887 House and Garden Tenant Shallcross & Williams Tenant 1866-1890 House and Garden Tenant Phase I Heite 1990 House (7NC-G-107) Locus 13 Historic Findspot 1866-1890 House and Garden Tenant Phase I Heite 1990 (7NC-G-110) Bird-Houston Site, Locus A 1825-1849/ Farm/ Tenant Phase III Bedell et al. 2016 (7NC-F-138) 1850-1920 House and Garden Robert Grose House 1860-1923 House and Garden Owner Phase I A.D. Marble 2003 (7NC-G-166) Wilson Farm Tenancy Site 1880-1950 Farm Tenant Phase III Affleck et al. 2011 (7NC-F-94)

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FIGURE 60: Location of Known African American Archaeological Sites within St. Georges Hundred (DEMAC 2012; ESRI World Topo Map 2012) 169 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

1. Holton/Cann Site (Site 7NC-F-129)

Less than a mile northwest of Middletown, Delaware, The Holton/Cann Site (7NC-F-129) was located close to the historically African American community of Armstrong Corner (Figure 61). Excavations at the Holton/Cann Historic Site indicated quite strongly that the site was likely the residence of both enslaved and free African Americans during its long period of occupation from 1751 to 1886 (Liebeknecht and Burrow 2012). Historical research conducted during a Phase II excavation revealed that the site was likely a farm occupied from 1751 until 1789 by indentured servants or men and women enslaved by the Boyce family. The character of occupancy of the farm was less certain from 1789 until 1838, but the description of its buildings as being in bad repair in 1838 suggested that it had not been greatly improved through the efforts of the owners and likely remained a marginal tenant or servant/slave-worked farm (Liebeknecht and Burrow 2012).

The most substantive evidence of the site’s occupation by African American tenants occurred during the mid- to late nineteenth century when the farm was the property of Spencer Holton and his family. Early during the Holton period (1838 to 1865), the site was the residence for a mix of free and enslaved African-American servants and farmhands who worked on the Holton property. Following the Civil War and until the end of the Holton tenure (1865 to 1886), a number of recently freed African Americans continued to live on the farm as tenants of the Holton family.

During Phase II testing a number of features associated with the historic occupation of the site were discovered. They included 30 postholes (Figure 62) as well as a large cellar hole measuring 25x13 feet. The cellar hole was filled with a mix of architectural and domestic objects associated

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with the mid- to late nineteenth-century abandonment of the site. Building materials from the cellar hole included brick fragments, cut nails, and window glass. The fill also contained ceramics such as redware, pearlware, whiteware, ironstone, American Blue and Gray stoneware, and Chinese export porcelain. Other artifacts from the fill included vessel glass, cast iron cauldron fragments, and a number of other unidentifiable ferrous objects. Some notable objects included a wheel-thrown redware flask and whiteware sherds with dipped annular polychrome decorations, a style that reached its zenith in the 1830s and 1840s (Liebeknecht and Burrow 2011).

A large circular shaft feature was also identified during the excavation, just south of the cellar hole (Figure 63). The feature measured approximately 7 feet in diameter and likely represented a well or privy shaft. A quarter of the feature was sampled, and excavation terminated when intact wooden remains were identified. The artifacts recovered from the privy/well feature were similar to those found in the nearby cellar fill. The materials dated to the mid- to late nineteenth century and consisted of vessel glass, oyster shell, and numerous ceramic sherds, including redware, whiteware, and ironstone.

Phase II excavations at the Holton/Cann Historic Site revealed an artifact collection and buried cultural features associated with an African American occupation of the farm during the nineteenth century. The historical research associated with the project suggested that the site may serve as an important case study regarding the complex social dynamics associated with white landowners and their transition from enslaved to free African American labor in the decades both before and after the Civil War.

2. Cann Tenant-Amos Bell Historic Site (7NC-F-160)

The Cann Tenant-Amos Bell Historic Site (7NC-F-160) was first identified in 2010 during the Phase IB archaeological survey of Section 2 of U.S. Route 301, Section 2, in St. Georges Hundred (Liebeknecht and Burrow 2011). Testing at the site included a pedestrian survey, shovel testing,

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and limited test unit excavation. Located on the south side of Armstrong Corner Road, the site consisted of a concentration of historic artifacts dating to the early to late nineteenth century (Figure 64). The site was originally worked by an unnamed tenant of the Cann family in the early nineteenth century. In 1838 the 130-acre property was sold to Amos Bell, a free African American farmer. Amos Bell resided in the former tenant house on the south side of the road for several years before building a new home farther west along Armstrong Corner Road by 1853. Until his death in 1865, Bell was one of the largest African American landholders in St. Georges Hundred.

Over one thousand artifacts were recovered from the Phase IB study. The artifact assemblage consisted of mostly redware, whiteware, pearlware, and creamware, pointing to an occupation dating from the early nineteenth century. Other material recovered during the survey included glassware, white clay tobacco pipe stems, shell, brass buttons, and a gun flint. Architectural material was recovered, including several brick fragments and window glass (Table 50). A number of sub-surface features were identified during the survey. They included two rectangular, flat- bottom pit features and a number of historic postholes (Figure 65).

The assemblage from the Cann Tenant-Amos Bell House Site pointed to an occupation primarily associated with the first half of the nineteenth century, with one or more structures lying near the road. The documentary evidence suggests that the site most likely relates to the occupation by tenants of William Cann from 1816 to 1834 as well as the residence of the African American planter Amos Bell prior to relocating to a new house farther west on Armstrong Corner Road.

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TABLE 50

ARTIFACTS RECOVERED FROM PHASE IB TESTING OF CANN TENANT/AMOS BELL SITE

ARTIFACT CLASS/TYPE COUNT ARTIFACT CLASS/TYPE COUNT Faunal Historic Ceramic Bone, mammal 1 Creamware (1762-1820) 58 Bone, unidentified 4 Creamware, overglaze-painted (1765-1810) 1 Tooth enamel 1 Ironstone (1840-2000) 10 Glass Jackfield-type (1740-1790) 1 Bottle, amber 22 Pearlware (1775-1840) 58 Bottle, aqua Coca Cola (1915+) 1 Pearlware, annular (1790-1830) 6 Bottle, colorless 26 Pearlware, hand-painted (1795-1830) 16 Bottle, light green 6 Pearlware, shell-edged (1785-1840) 13 Bottle, olive green 19 Pearlware, transfer-printed 17 Jar, colorless 5 Porcelain, Chinese 2 Vessel, amethyst solarized (1870-1930) 2 Porcelain, hard-paste 13 Vessel, aqua 3 Red-bodied Slipware (1670-1850) 7 Vessel, blue 1 Redware, black glaze 86 Vessel, colorless 59 Redware, brown glaze 80 Vessel, light blue 7 Redware, clear lead glaze 19 Vessel, lime green 4 Redware, glaze missing 129 Vessel, olive green 5 Redware, refined 1 Vessel, milk glass 1 Staffordshire buff-bodied (1670-1795) 3 Vessel, unidentified 2 Stoneware, brown salt-glazed 1 Small Finds/Architectural Stoneware, gray-bodied 1 Brick, fragments 247 Unidentified ceramic 13 Button, copper alloy 2 Whiteware (1820-2000) 113 Coal, fragments 5 Whiteware, annular (1820-1900) 4

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TABLE 50 (continued) ARTIFACT CLASS/TYPE COUNT ARTIFACT CLASS/TYPE COUNT Cotter pin, iron 1 Whiteware, colored glaze (1820-2000) 3 Gunflint 1 Whiteware, hand-painted (1820-1920) 12 Lime, fragments 1 Whiteware, transfer-printed (1820-1900) 5 Nail, fragments 68 Lithics Plastic, bakelite 1 Debitage, chert 3 Spike, iron 1 Debitage, jasper 8 Staple, iron 1 Debitage, quartz 3 Unidentified iron 8 Debitage, quartzite 2 Window glass 36 Fire-cracked rock 41 Wire, iron 2 Projectile point, jasper 1 Tobacco Pipes Shatter, jasper 2 Bowl fragment, ball clay 6 Shatter, quartz 3 Stem fragment, ball clay, 6/64” bore 5 TOTAL 1,290

FIGURE 65: Historic Postholes Identified at the Cann Tenant-Amos Bell Historic Site (Liebeknecht and Burrow 2011)

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3. J. Armstrong 3 Site (7NC-F-159)

Approximately 2 miles north of Middletown, the J. Armstrong 3 Site was identified on the west side of Summit Bridge Road in Armstrong Corner (Figure 66). The site was identified during a Phase I shovel test survey conducted ahead of the proposed construction of an interchange associated with the construction of U.S. Route 301 in St. Georges Hundred (Schumer et al. 2011).

During the nineteenth century the property containing Site 7NC-F-159 was owned by the prominent Armstrong family, from which this community takes its name. By the 1850s the community had become home to numerous African American farmers and farm laborers. Two prominent African American farmers, Samuel Dale and Amos Bell, established farms on the west side of Armstrong Corner, just south of the J. Armstrong 3 Site. Other African American laborers also resided in the community, renting tenant houses from the handful of white planters who owned land at the crossroads. The Armstrong family was well established in this area during that time and was believed to have employed members of the local African American community in Armstrong Corner (Schumer et al. 2011).

The site covers approximately 30x30 meters (98.4x98.4 feet) of agricultural land along the west side of Summit Bridge Road. Approximately 48 percent of the artifact assemblage is architectural material, including brick, window glass, and nails (Table 51). Numerous kitchen and household wares were also recovered, including transitional pearlware-whiteware sherds, plain and hand- painted whiteware fragments, domestic bottle and container glass, and coal (Schumer et al. 2011). No features were identified during the shovel test survey.

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Historical maps do not show a structure located in this vicinity during the nineteenth century; however, the artifact assemblage suggests that the site may have been associated with a temporary structure or tenant house on Benjamin Armstrong’s farm. The J. Armstrong 3 Site was likely tenant-occupied by a Free Black farm laborer employed and living on Benjamin Armstrong’s land.

TABLE 51

ARTIFACTS RECOVERED FROM PHASE I TESTING OF THE J. ARMSTRONG 3 SITE

ARTIFACT CLASS/TYPE COUNT ARTIFACT CLASS/TYPE COUNT Historic Ceramics Faunal Pearlware, transitional (1820-1830) 1 Bone, mammal 1 Porcelain 3 Whiteware (1820-2000) Small Finds/Architectural plain 7 Brick 38 hand painted, blue 1 Coal 6 hand painted, green 1 Unidentified iron 8 slipped, mocha 1 Nail, machine-cut (1790+) 1 Nail, unidentified 1 Glass Nail, wire-drawn (1859+) 8 Jar lid, mild glass 1 Spike, iron 1 Vessel, amethyst 10 Window glass 30 Vessel, brown 5 Vessel, colorless 45 Vessel, pale blue 4 Vessel, pale green 9 TOTAL 93

4. Samuel Segars Site (7NC-G-118)

The Samuel Segars Site (7NC-G-118) was identified in 1993 by Cherie Clark of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control [DNREC] (Clark 1993). Located on the south side of Vance Neck Road, east of Odessa, the site was once the home of Samuel Segars, a free African American farmer who purchased the property in 1854 (Figure 67). Segars owned the 120-acre farm until his death in 1874. Segars was identified in the Pomeroy & Beers (1868) atlas as owning two houses on the parcel, one house on either side of Silver Run Road.

The Segars Site was recorded with the Delaware Historic Preservation Office following a pedestrian survey along Vance Neck Road by DNREC. The survey was conducted ahead of proposed hedgerow planting by the Division of Fish and Wildlife (Clark 1993). Ruins of the Samuel Segars house, barn, outbuilding, and a well were located during that survey, southwest of the intersection of Vance Neck and Silver Run roads. The house had been demolished and overgrown with multiflora rose. Since the Segars house was located outside the limits of the proposed planting area, no subsurface testing was conducted at the house site (Clark 1993). Since its identification in 1993, no additional testing has taken place at the Segars Site.

5. Samuel Dale Site (7NC-F-134)

The Samuel Dale Site (7NC-F-134) was an early nineteenth- to early twentieth-century site located in Armstrong Corner, approximately 2 miles north of Middletown (Bedell and Shellenhamer 2013b) (Figure 68). Historical research on the property found that the site was first occupied by a

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series of tenant farmers beginning around 1830. At that time the site was owned by Richard Mansfield, a planter residing on the east side of Armstrong Corner. In 1830 Mansfield recorded in his account books that he rented the property to an African American laborer in his employ named Lewis Jones. Jones and his family resided there until 1832. That year Mansfield rented the property to James Golden, another African American employee who labored for Mansfield until 1837 (Bedell and Shellenhamer 2013b).

In 1854 the 20-acre tract was sold to a free African American farmer named Samuel Dale. Dale resided on the property for 19 years until his death in 1873. In addition to farming the 20-acre tract, Dale was instrumental in establishing the first Methodist Episcopal Church for African American residents in and around Middletown. Dale’s Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 1869 and continues to serve the community to this day. According to church records, Samuel Dale served as the first minister of the congregation (Zebley 1947). Following the death of Samuel Dale, the property was divided among his three surviving children: William, Temperance, and Samuel, Jr. Samuel Dale, Jr. died in 1882 and his portion of the estate was divided between William and Temperance. William Dale continued to farm the property into the twentieth century while residing in the frame house his father built. In 1915 the Dale farm was sold to nearby landowner Elizabeth Armstrong.

Three loci were identified during the Phase I and Phase II investigations of the Dale Site (Figure 69). Loci 1 and 2 were identified as being contemporary with the Dale occupation of the site (1854 to 1915). Locus 1 was a 200x160-foot artifact concentration associated with the house Samuel Dale built in 1854 and his son continued to live in until the early twentieth century. The only feature identified during the Phase II investigation was a well located on the south end of Locus 1. The well measured 5 feet in diameter and was filled with trash dating to the early twentieth century, when the site was abandoned by the Dale family. Artifacts recovered from the site were isolated to plowzone deposits, and no analytically significant deposits were identified during the investigation.

During the Phase II testing 1,175 artifacts were recovered from Locus 1 (Bedell and Shellenhamer 2013b). The quantity of architectural material, more than a hundred nails and 207 pieces of window glass, confirms that a house stood here. No foundations were found, and the amount of brick in the test units (3.4 kilograms, or 7.5 pounds) was not enough to represent even a brick chimney. Most likely the house stood on brick piers and was heated by a stove. The most common type of artifact was glass from bottles and jars. This is usually the case on house sites occupied after the Civil War, because glass bottles became so much less expensive and more common after 1850. Glass lid liners for jars are evidence of home canning, and other pieces show that the residents had oil lamps with glass chimneys.

The most common type of ceramic at Locus 1 was undecorated whiteware (1820 to present). Of the 216 sherds of whiteware from Locus 1, only 16 were decorated. Undecorated ceramics were very inexpensive; decorated vessels cost somewhat more. The ceramics at the Dale Site were mostly broken into quite small pieces, so some of the plain sherds may have come from vessels that were decorated somewhere else, such as plates that were decorated around the rim (Figure 70). However, the number of decorated sherds is still very small. The Dales used inexpensive, plain dishes.

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DD 62 61 63 64 61 62 65

DD

66 64

58 DD 65

DD « DD 26 22

67

6

DD 6 41 27 23

DD

7-NC-F-134 66

42 DD

65 Locus 2 28 DD

24 DD DD DD DD

59 43 29 25 DD 1 14 46 44 DD 10 57 32 6 55 DD 2 15

45

DD

DD

11 DD

7 DD 3 DD 16 19 12 8 4 17 20 13 9 5 68 18 21 7-NC-F-134 Locus 1 54 53

50 67

49

48

69 52

47 51

7-NC-F-134 Locus 3

36

38 70

39 35 37

31 34

71 Legend 40 0 40 80 160 Feet Test Unit 30 33 Meters Phase II Site Boundary 0 12.5 25 50 72

FIGURE 69: Plan of Phase II Test Unit Locations at the Dale Site (DelDOT 2010) 179 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

Locus 2 was located northeast of Locus 1 and was the smallest of the three loci, measuring about 160x120 feet. The artifacts from Locus 2 were essentially identical to those from Locus 1 except they were not as numerous (Table 52). The most common objects were sherds of plain whiteware and fragments of clear and aqua bottle glass. Nothing in the collection dated outside the second half of the nineteenth century. This locus was occupied only during the Dale ownership of the tract, between 1854 and 1915. Given the small size of the collection, it might have been occupied only for a decade or two. No features were identified in Locus 2, suggesting that the structure in this location was also likely built on temporary foundations such as brick piers or wood sills.

TABLE 52

ARTIFACTS RECOVERED FROM DALE SITE BY CLASS AND LOCUS

ARTIFACT LOCUS 1 LOCUS 2 LOCUS 3 TOTAL CLASS COUNT PERCENT COUNT PERCENT COUNT PERCENT COUNT PERCENT Faunal 4 0.34 - 0.00 6 1.00 10 0.52 Glassware 484 41.19 81 50.00 80 13.31 645 33.28 Historic Ceramics 301 25.62 52 32.10 324 53.91 677 34.93 Tobacco Pipe 5 0.43 - 0.00 1 0.17 6 0.31 Small Finds 26 2.21 1 0.62 9 1.50 36 1.86 Other 30 2.55 3 1.85 14 2.33 47 2.43 Architectural 325 27.66 25 15.43 167 27.79 517 26.68 Grand Total 1,175 100.00 162 100.00 601 100.00 1,938 100.00

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Locus 3 was located south of both Locus 1 and 2 and appeared to be associated with an occupation that predated the Dale period. The concentration at Locus 3 likely represented the tenant house occupied by Lewis Jones and James Golden during the period when Richard Mansfield owned the property. The artifacts from Locus 3 suggested a small house. The house had glass windows. A very small amount of brick was recovered, so if it was set on brick piers, they were probably thin and flimsy. Or, the house may have been held up by wooden, ground-set posts (Bedell and Shellenhamer 2013b).

6. Thomas Bayard Site (7NC-G-106)

Three archaeological sites associated with three nineteenth-century African American farms and tenancies were identified during Phase I survey of Hendrick’s Hope, a 147-acre proposed subdivision on Vance’s Neck Road, east of Odessa (Heite 1990). The survey included surface collection over the plowed fields as well as several 3x3 foot test units. The sites identified included a farmstead owned by the wealthiest free African American in the Hundred, Site 7NC-G-106, as well as two later tenant occupations: Sites 7NC-G-107 and 7NC-G-110 (Figure 71). Heite (1990:53) concluded that there was insufficient information to determine NRHP eligibility for Locus 8, Site 7NC-G-106, and the DESHPO recommended Phase II testing at Loci 8 (Site 7NC-G-106), 10, and 14 (Site 7NC-G-107). However, the development project did not proceed and Phase II testing was never undertaken.

The Thomas Bayard Site (Site 7NC-G-106) was one of the three African American archaeological sites identified during the survey (see Figure 71). The site, also known as the Philips Agricultural Complex, was an owner- occupied farm purchased by Thomas Bayard, an African

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American farmer, in 1835 (see Chapter IV, Section C.6.b). Bayard built a house, tenant house, corn crib, and stables on his 145-acre farm. The frame house Bayard built still stands today (CRS No. 5174) (Figure 72). Bayard operated his farm from 1835 until his death in 1864. He planted a variety of crops during his almost 30-year occupation. According to the 1850 agricultural census, Bayard grew wheat, corn, and potatoes on 100 acres of cleared land. Bayard also had a number of livestock, including five horses, four milk cows, three oxen, and six pigs. This sort of mixed agriculture was typical of the area.

Following his death, the children of Thomas Bayard sold the farm to two Quaker brothers-in-law, peach farmers Sereck Shallcross and Jonathan K. Williams. The Shallcross and Williams families held the property for over two decades. During that time they leased the former Bayard House to African American tenant farmers.

Testing at Site 7NC-G-106 demonstrated that the Thomas Bayard Site had the potential to provide information regarding the lives of relatively well-off antebellum Free Black farmers. Archaeology at Site 7NC-G-106 included the excavation of one 3x3-foot test unit between the Thomas Bayard house and a modern garage. A historic ground surface dating to the mid- to late nineteenth century was encountered underneath an early twentieth-century gravel driveway. Artifacts included slip- decorated red earthenware, black-glazed earthenware, window glass, and whiteware (Table 53). Brick and other architectural material were also recovered from the test unit. The artifacts recovered from the historic ground surface suggest that mid- to late nineteenth-century occupants disposed of their domestic refuse directly behind the house. Heite (1990) suggests this activity was typical of mid- to late nineteenth-century “back” or service yards.

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TABLE 53

ARTIFACTS RECOVERED DURING PHASE I SURVEY OF HENDRICK’S HOPE

LOCUS 13, 7NC-G-110 LOCUS 14, 7NC-G-106 LOCUS 8, 7NC-G-107 ARTIFACT CLASS/TYPE HISTORIC FINDSPOT BAYARD SITE SHALLCROSS & WILLIAMS Historic ceramics Stoneware, 19th-cent. - - 3 Stoneware, coarse gray - - 3 Creamware - 1 1 Ironstone 2 - 2 Pearlware 6 - 3 Porcelain tableware 2 - - Porcelain toy dish - - 1 Redware, black glazed 1 - 7 Redware, clear lead glaze - - 1 Redware, slip decorated - 5 - Redware, glaze missing - 3 3 Whiteware, banded - - 2 Whiteware, edge decoration - - 4 Whiteware, hand-painted - - 6 Whiteware, mocha 1 - - Whiteware, plain 20 2 63 Whiteware, transfer-print 3 - 4 Glass Fragment, blue tinted - - 1 Bottle, clear - - 3 Bottle, olive green - - 2 Fragment, purple tinted - - 1 Window - 1 - Lithics Fire-cracked rock, quartz 3 - - Shatter, quartz 1 - - Grand Total 39 12 110

7. Shallcross and Williams Tenant House (7NC-G-107)

Located on the north side of Vance Neck Road, the Shallcross and Williams Tenant House (Site 7NC-G-107) was one of the three African American sites identified during the 1990 survey of Hendrick’s Hope (see Figure 71). The Shallcross and Williams Tenant House was once part of a tract owned by African American farmer Thomas Bayard in the mid-nineteenth century. After Bayard’s death in 1864, the property was purchased by the Quaker peach farmers Sereck Shallcross and Jonathan K. Williams (NCC, Deed Book A8:505). The Shallcross and Williams families owned the property until 1887, leasing the land to tenant farmers. The tenant house was likely built during the time Thomas Bayard owned the property. In the 1857 tax assessment of St. Georges Hundred, Bayard is listed as owning a tenancy in addition to his frame dwelling house. Once Shallcross and Williams purchased the tract from Bayard’s heirs in 1864, the two Quaker brothers-in-law began renting both the Bayard house and tenant building to African American farm laborers. The Pomeroy & Beers (1868) atlas lists the site as “Shallcross & Williams” (Figure 73). The 1870 Census shows four African American households living in the vicinity of the house— the families of Jessie Williams, William Loat, John E. Lodine, and Michael Camomile. Although it is unclear which household was in residence, it is likely one of these families was residing in the Shallcross and Williams Tenant House.

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The Shallcross and Williams Tenant House was identified during a controlled surface collection of a recently plowed field along the north side of Vance Neck Road. The pedestrian survey produced a collection that was broadly datable to the mid- to late nineteenth century and includes an assortment of ceramic and glass vessels that were widely available to farm households from that period. Artifacts from the site included beverage and medicine bottle fragments, redware, stoneware, American porcelain, and shell-edge and transfer-printed whiteware. Also recovered was a part of a child’s porcelain doll dish. A number of glazed bricks, window glass, and nails were also identified among the assemblage (see Table 53).

During the course of the survey, archaeologists also identified a charcoal hearth approximately 660 feet north of the artifact assemblage associated with Site 7NC-G-107. The charcoal hearth, identified as Locus 3 during the 1990 study, was located on a small ridge overlooking the Silver Run tributary. The charcoal hearth was approximately 25 to 30 feet in diameter and consisted of a circular flat space surrounded by a ring ditch and earthen curb (Figure 74). The proximity of the charcoal hearth to the site suggests that the residents of Site 7NC-G- 107 were likely involved in softwood coal manufacture intended for sale in Odessa or other markets in the region (Heite 1990).

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8. Locus 13 Historic Findspot (7NC-G-110)

The Locus 13 Historic Findspot (Site 7NC-G-110) was another mid- to late nineteenth-century tenant site located along Vance Neck Road in southeast St. Georges Hundred (Heite 1990) (see Figure 60). The 150-acre property containing Site 7NC-G-110 was purchased by Quaker peach farmers Sereck Shallcross and Jonathan K. Williams in the early 1860s. The tenant house was likely constructed by the Quaker landlords at that time. Although it is not clear who specifically leased the tenant house, it was most likely an African American family. Only four households were enumerated in 1870 as renting properties in his area, all of which were African American (the families of Jessie Williams, William Loat, John E. Lodine, and Michael Camomile).

Site 7NC-G-110 was identified during a pedestrian survey of a plowed agricultural field located on the north side of Vance Neck Road (see Figure 71). A concentration of domestic and architectural material was isolated to a 1-acre agricultural field located between Vance Neck Road and Silver Run. The assemblage included numerous pieces of glazed brick, decorated and undecorated whiteware, porcelain, pearlware, and lead-glazed redware (see Table 53).

9. Bird-Houston Site (7NC-F-138), Locus A

Located approximately 5 miles north of Middletown, the Bird-Houston Site (7NC-F-138) represented the remains of a small farm occupied from approximately 1780 until 1920 (Bedell and Shellenhamer 2013a) (Figure 75). The site had two separate loci; Locus B, the earlier, was occupied from about 1770 to 1825, and Locus A from about 1825 to 1920 (Figure 76). The earlier

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Locus A

Locus B

Legend

Contour (1 ft) Construction Limits Site Boundary Feature (Phase 3) 0 50 100 200 Feet Excavation Unit (Phase 3) Meters Stripped Area 0 15 30 60

FIGURE 76: Bird-Houston Site Loci (DelDOT 2010; Diamante 2010) 186 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

dwelling at Locus B was likely occupied by tenant from 1770 until 1816. From 1816 until approximately 1825, the site at Locus B was inhabited by the property’s owner, James Houston. After 1825 the house at Locus B was abandoned, and the site’s new owner, Jacob Houston, built a new house at Locus A. Jacob Houston resided in the house at Locus A until a new home he built was finished nearby. By 1849 Jacob’s family had relocated to the new house, and the frame dwelling he inhabited at Locus A was leased out to tenant farmers over the next 70 years. Based on census records from 1850 through 1920, the residents of the Locus A tenancy were likely a series of African American farm laborers employed by the Houston family.

Phase III excavations at Locus A of the Bird-Houston Site revealed a number of features, including a well, shallow pits filled with brick rubble that appeared to be the remains of building foundations, two possible small fence postholes, and several former tree throws filled with debris (Figure 77; Table 54). The fill in the features largely dated to the time when the site was abandoned, around 1920. Although brick structural debris was identified in several pits, none of the features appeared to represent clear building foundations. Most likely, the house in Locus A was built on brick piers and wooden sills. After the abandonment of the site in 1920, the house was dismantled to clear the area for plowing. Based on the location of the remaining brick structural debris, the house was likely located in the northwest section of the site.

TABLE 54

FEATURES IDENTIFIED AT LOCUS A, BIRD-HOUSTON SITE

NUMBER TYPE DIMENSIONS (feet) DEPTH (feet) 1 Well 5x5 10 2 Rodent disturbance 1.0x0.6 0.4 3 Possible foundation remnants 7x3 0.3 4 Rodent disturbance 1.4x1.5 0.7 5 Possible pier 3x6 0.6 6 Small pit 2.1x2.1 1.0 7 Small pit 1.0x0.9 0.4 8 Small pit 0.4x0.6 0.2 9 Possible post hole 1.8x1.6 1.4 10 Rubble-filled tree hole 4.5x5.2 1.1 11 Small pit 0.6x0.7 0.4 12 Natural disturbance 4.5x5.6 1.1 13 Shallow pit 3.7x1.0 0.4 14 Shallow pit 1.2x1.2 0.3 15 Ephemeral stain 1.5x1.5 0.1 16 Ephemeral stain 0.1 17 Shallow pit 3.7x3.2 0.3 18 Fence post hole 1.3x1.0 0.3 19 Fence post hole 1.6x1.1 0.7 20 Ephemeral stain 1.1x0.4 0.05

A well was identified to the south of the house remains. The well measured 5 feet in diameter and extended to 10 feet below ground surface. The base of the well consisted of wooden cribbing with an interior lining of brick sitting on top of a large wooden ring base. Like the other features nearby, the well was filled with debris associated with abandonment of the site in 1920. Artifacts from the well included bottle glass and barbed wire fencing.

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Legend

Contour (1 ft) Construction Limits « Site Boundary Feature (Phase 3) Stripped Area

Feature 19 Feature 3

Feature 14 Feature 18 Feature 16 Feature 13 Feature 11

Feature 20

Feature 1 Feature 5 Feature 10 Feature 17 Feature 8 Feature 9 Feature 15 Feature 12

Feature 7

Feature 6

0 10 20 40 Feet Meters 0 2.5 5 10

FIGURE 77: Plan of Features at the Bird-Houston Site, Locus A(DelDOT 2010) 188 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

Despite the absence of substantive features, Locus A of the Bird-Houston Site produced a significant artifact collection. At present, the artifacts recovered from the Bird-Houston Site have not been fully analyzed. That analysis will be completed as part of a forthcoming Phase III Mitigation Report of the Bird-Houston Site by Louis Berger for DelDOT. Once complete, the Bird- Houston Site will serve as an excellent resource for future comparative studies of Delaware’s rural nineteenth-century African American households and communities in the areas of refuse disposal and tenant socio-economic status.

10. Robert Grose House (Site 7NC-G-166)

The Robert Grose House (CRS No. 13383) is located on the south side of Port Penn Road, approximately 1 mile west of Port Penn (Figure 78). The one-and-one-half-story house is currently listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The house is listed under Criterion A for its association with the changing agricultural practices of central Delaware in the nineteenth century, and the appearance of the house and garden dwelling as a specific building type (Sheppard et al. 2001). The Robert Grose House is also eligible under Criterion C because it is a typical example of a physically identifiable vernacular property type, the house and garden (Figure 79).

The house was occupied by Robert Grose, a Free Black laborer, who purchased the 1-acre property at a sheriff’s sale on December 18, 1860 for $265. Documentary evidence suggests that Grose lived in the area prior to his purchase of the property. Between 1848 and 1860, he likely lived just across the road, renting a house and 6,622 square feet of land from Joseph C1eaver for $3 per year (NCC, Land Records Liber Z5 folio 263). Grose’s house was one of several residences that made up Congo Town. Gross lived in the house until his death in 1895. During his 35 years there, Grose was employed as a painter as well as a general farm laborer. After his death the house and 1-acre property passed to his wife Mary, who continued to live on the property until her own death in 1923. The land then passed to her son, Jefferson Coursey. To this day the house remains the property of the Grose family. The size and layout of the 1-acre parcel exemplifies the house and garden arrangement. The narrow lot on which the Robert Grose House stands runs parallel with the Port Penn Road rather than extending back into the large farm tract behind the dwelling. Because of this arrangement, the family garden would have been located adjacent to the house instead of behind it. Today a garage stands in the location of the former garden.

In 2003 A.D. Marble & Company conducted a Phase I survey of a narrow tract of land just south of the Robert Grose House. The study was conducted ahead of the proposed construction of drainage improvements along Port Penn Road. During the investigation shovel testing identified one new archaeological site, Site 7NC-G-166. The site contained a general sheet midden associated with the occupation of the property by Robert Grose and his family during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (A.D. Marble 2003). The midden included sherds of pearlware, whiteware, and creamware as well as numerous pieces of vitreous china and redware. Numerous pieces of bottle and jar glass, window glass, and fasteners such as nails and bolts were also recovered. Other notable artifacts from the midden included a single undecorated kaolin pipe bowl fragment and a 1917 U.S. penny. A.D. Marble & Company concluded that Site 7NC-G-166 constituted a potentially eligible resource associated with the antebellum owner-occupied residence of Robert Grose and his family (A.D. Marble 2003).

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11. Wilson Farm Tenancy Site (7NC-F-94)

The Wilson Farm Tenancy Site (7NC-F-94) is a multicomponent site located north of Middletown (Figure 80). The historic component includes late nineteenth- through early twentieth-century remains of a house and garden tenancy occupied by a succession of agricultural laborers (Affleck et al. 2011). The site was identified in 2001 by McCormick Taylor during Phase I survey prior to the

proposed widening of Choptank Road/State Route 15 northwest of Middletown. The firm of Kise Straw & Kolodner (KSK) subsequently took over the project and conducted a Phase II site evaluation in 2005, which revealed numerous subsurface features, including portions of a brick foundation. Historical research indicated the possibility that at least some of the site’s occupants had been African American, and a metal “Kentucky Maid” hair-straightening pressing comb had been recovered during Phase II excavations, a product known to be marketed for and used by African American women (Figure 81). Phase I and II excavations included the excavation of 15 shovel tests and five 5x5-foot test units, which produced a combined total of 6,046 historic artifacts. A minor prehistoric component was also identified but did not contribute to the site’s significance. The historic artifact assemblage recovered during the Phase I and II included a large quantity of architectural debris, including brick, window glass, and both machine-cut and wire-drawn nails, and a wide range of domestic artifacts, including large amounts of whiteware and White Granite ceramics, mold-blown and machine-made bottle glass, chimney lamp glass, and buttons. The site had been plowed following abandonment, although portions of a largely intact 16x26-foot brick foundation were exposed in the Phase II test units (Figure 82). The site was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 2006 under Criterion D because of its high degree of

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FIGURE 81: Kentucky Maid Comb Recovered from the Wilson Farm Tenancy Site (Affleck et al. 2011)

FIGURE 82: View of Foundation Remains at the Wilson Farm Tenancy Site (Affeck et al. 2011) 192

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integrity and the potential for the site to contain information on subsistence and consumer practices of turn of the century tenant farmers (Affleck et al. 2011).

KSK began Phase III data recovery in 2007, and the project was completed by URS Corporation. The data recovery excavations included investigation of the plowzone in and around the structure via 31 5x5-foot test units. A total of 27,122 artifacts were recovered from plowzone test units. Then the remaining plowzone was stripped, revealing a total of 104 features. Investigations of the 85 features judged to be cultural resulted in the recovery of an additional 6,166 artifacts. Only 16 additional prehistoric artifacts were recovered during the Phase III excavations. The majority (50.03 percent) of the large historic assemblage at the Wilson Farm Tenancy Site is architectural remains, including large quantities of window glass, nails, and masonry fragments (Table 55). Domestic artifacts are dominated by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century container glass fragments and refined earthenwares. A sizable faunal assemblage and personal adornment artifacts, such as buttons, beads, and combs, are also well represented in the collection. The analysts posit that the large number of clothing-related artifacts could be evidence of laundry, possibly done as side work to supplement the occupant’s income. A large quantity of canning jar and lid-liner fragments also indicates production of preserved food goods, possibly for sale or exchange. Artifact distributions suggest that the north and west yards outside the house were areas of TABLE 55 trash deposition while the south and east yards were kept cleaner. Affleck et al. (2011) even posit that the front HISTORIC ARTIFACTS RECOVERED (south) yard may have been swept, a landscape practice AT THE WILSON FARM typically associated with African Americans in the TENANCY BY FUNCTIONAL GROUP American south and the Caribbean (Fesler 2010; Heath ARTIFACT GROUP COUNT PERCENT and Bennett 2000; Pulsipher 1994). Architectural 21158 50.03 Household 13620 32.21 One of the most unusual aspects of the Wilson Farm Unknown 3143 7.43 Furniture 1082 2.56 Tenancy is Feature 26, a pit located beneath the house Fauna-Bone 1058 2.50 floor next to the foundation containing a complete Hardware 691 1.63 horseshoe, iron axe head, mirror glass, bones, and Personal 429 1.01 ceramics (Figure 83). The authors suggest that the Fauna-Shell 348 0.82 placement of brick and iron artifacts appeared Arms 219 0.52 purposeful and resembled caches found at Fuel 161 0.38 Transportation 85 0.20 archaeological sites in nearby Maryland and Virginia Activities 82 0.19 attributed to West African and later African American Toy 58 0.14 spiritual practices (Fennell 2007; Leone and Fry 2001). Medical 55 0.13 Given the several pieces of independent evidence that at Electrical 26 0.06 least some of the tenancy occupants were African Tack 20 0.05 American, if the Feature 26 and its fill do represent a Tool 18 0.04 Other 16 0.04 purposefully placed cache for either spiritual effects or Commercial 12 0.03 even just as tradition, it would be one of the latest dated Flora 7 0.02 examples of such a find. TOTAL 42288 100 8B

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B. EVALUATED AND EXCAVATED AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

To provide a broader archaeological context for the interpretation of African American sites in St. Georges Hundred, this document reaches beyond the Hundred’s borders to include all the African American archaeological sites in Delaware that have received Phase II or III investigations. Throughout Delaware, Phase II or Phase III investigations have been completed at 11 African American archaeological sites to determine their eligibility for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (Table 56). Four of these are in St. Georges Hundred and were discussed above. One of the sites, located in Cedar Creek Hundred in Sussex County, was identified as a possible slave quarter dating from the mid-eighteenth century. The six remaining sites were identified as African American farm or rural dwelling sites. Four were in New Castle County. The Cazier Tenancy and the Thomas Williams sites are located near Glasgow in Pencader Hundred, and the Heisler Tenancy and the William Dickson sites were investigated in Christiana Hundred. The Nathan Williams and the Garrison Energy sites are located just outside Dover in Kent County (Figure 84).

The oldest site in this group is the Cedar Creek Road Site, dating to the mid-1700s. Occupation of the other African American farm or rural dwelling sites dated from the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. The occupation of two sites, the Heisler Tenancy and the Thomas Williams Site, began in the late nineteenth century, and African American occupation of the five remaining sites all began during the antebellum period. Each of the sites provided significant data regarding African American life in rural Delaware and will serve as important resources for future comparative studies.

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William Dickson Site

Thomas Williams Site

Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy Site #2

Bird Houston

Wilson Farm Tenancy Site

Samuel Dale Site

Holton/Cann Site

Nathan Williams House Site

Garrison Energy Site

Cedar Creek Road Site

0 4 8 16 Legend Miles Kilometers Archaeological Site 0 6 12 24

FIGURE 84: Location of NRHP Evaluated African American Sites in Delaware (ESRI World Topo Map 2012) 195 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

TABLE 56

DELAWARE AFRICAN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES EVALUATED FOR LISTING IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

SITE NAME (NO.) DATES TYPE OCCUPANT LOCATION REFERENCE Cedar Creek Road 1740-1780 Quarter Slave Cedar Creek, Sussex County Liebeknecht et al. (7S-C-100) 2014 Garrison Energy 1770-1820 House & Garden Tenant West Dover, Kent County Gall and Modina (7K-C-455B) 2013 Holton/Cann 1751-1886 House & Garden Tenant St. Georges, New Castle Liebeknecht and (7NC-F-129) County Burrow 2012 Nathan Williams 1825-1840 House & Garden Tenant West Dover, Kent County Heite 2001 (7K-C-389) Dale Historic 1830-1837/ House & Garden/ Tenant/ St. Georges, New Castle Bedell and (7NC-F-134) 1854-1915 Farm Owner County Shellenhamer 2013b William Dickson II 1850-1919 House & Garden Tenant Christiana, New Castle Catts et al. 1989 (7NC-E-82) County Bird-Houston, Locus A 1825-1849/ Farm/ Owner/ St. Georges, New Castle Bedell et al. 2016 (7NC-F-138) 1850-1920 House & Garden Tenant County Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy 1844-1934 House & Garden Tenant Pencader, New Castle Hoseth et al. 1994 No. 2 (7NC-F-64) County Thomas Williams II 1875-1922 Farm Owner Pencader, New Castle Catts and Custer (7NC-D-130) County 1990 Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 House & Garden Tenant Christiana, New Castle Catts et al. 1989 (7NC-E-83) County Wilson Farm Tenancy 1880-1950 House & Garden Tenant St. Georges, New Castle Affleck et al. 2011 (7NC-F-94) County

1. Cedar Creek Road Site (7S-C-100)

Located in Sussex County, the Cedar Creek Road Site is strongly suspected to be a slave quarter associated with the mid-eighteenth-century plantation known as Farmer’s Delight (Figure 85). The site was recommended as eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D. During the mid-eighteenth century the 250-acre plantation was purchased by James Fisher, a blacksmith and son of the Secretary of the Governor of the Lower Counties in the time of William Penn (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). Fisher owned the property for only a few years, between 1747 and 1749. After his death around 1749, the 100-acre parcel of the plantation that includes the Cedar Creek Road Site was sold to Samuel Davis. A review of existing historical records from the period do not indicate that Samuel Davis possessed any slaves of his own, but his brother Nehemiah was recorded as a slaveowner in Cedar Creek Hundred.

The site complex consisted of three loci dating to the mid-eighteenth century. These consisted of a brick production area (Area C), an isolated building probably of log or frame construction (Area B), and a compact grouping of at least three post-in-ground structures, the remains of an iron bloomery furnace, and a range of features, including sub-floor pits, relating to domestic and industrial activities (Area A) (Figure 86) (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). The compact grouping of post- in-ground structures in Area A was the suspected location of a slave quarter.

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Three of the post-in-ground structures (Structures 1, 2, and 4) had small sub-floor pits of the type recognized as typical of slave sites in the Virginia Tidewater (Figure 86). Structure 3 had a much larger cellar pit that had been filled with a mass of oyster and other shell. No direct evidence was recovered that these buildings were heated, but the presence of daub and charcoal in the backfill of the possible “hearthfront” pit in Structure 4 was suggestive (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). Structures 1, 2 and 3 also had associated fence lines that may have defined a courtyard or work area open to the road. On the western side of this area was a pit containing large amounts of slag, charcoal, and iron blooms and bloom fragments, as well as finished metal tools and iron bar stock. Based on these recovered materials, the pit likely represented an abandoned iron bloomer furnace (Liebeknecht et al. 2014).

Phase III excavations at the Cedar Creek Road Site produced over 9,000 historic artifacts from the possible slave quarter (Table 57). The majority of the historic artifacts were recovered from two features, a bloomery pit (2,632 artifacts) and a shell deposit (5,718 artifacts). Excluding these two features from the total count along with the artifacts recovered from the general provenience leaves only 637 artifacts recovered during the archaeological data recovery investigations from the remaining subsurface features. The relatively low number of artifacts may hint at the limited economic means of those who occupied the site (Liebeknecht et al. 2014).

Faunal remains dominate the assemblage with 4,632 pieces. Seventy-five percent of the material was marine shells, of which the majority was recovered from a cellar hole underlying one of the

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FIGURE 86: Cedar Creek Road Site, Area A (Liebeknecht et al. 2014)

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TABLE 57 Building materials consist mainly of locally produced red brickbats, daub, wrought iron nails and hardware, and CEDAR CREEK ROAD ARTIFACT window glass. The three small brick clamps were located TOTALS BY TYPE just over 500 feet northeast of slave quarter and were the

TYPE TOTAL likely source of the bricks. The presence of several hundred Agriculture/Equestrian 9 wrought nails normally suggests building related activities Arms and Armor 5 but in this case it may partially reflect manufacturing Building Materials 3204 associated with a bloomery pit and a presumed smithing Ceramic Vessel Sherds 785 Coarse Earthenware 507 operation located within the complex (Liebeknecht et al. Earthenware 124 2014). Numerous pieces of small blown-glass window light Porcelain 5 fragments were also recovered, strongly suggesting that at Refined Earthenware 106 least some of the slave cabins had windows. Stoneware 43 Indeterminate 3 Clothing Related 11 Red-bodied earthenwares dominated the ceramics, with Fauna 4632 lesser amounts of tin-enameled earthenware, buff-bodied Flora 45 Staffordshire slipware, cream-colored and creamware, Furnishing 5 Glass Vessel Fragments 214 white salt-glazed stoneware, and gray-bodied Westerwald Kitchen 3 stoneware (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). A few sherds of Manufacturing 591 agateware, Buckley ware, Astbury-type ware, Chinese Personal Items 6 porcelain, Midlands mottled earthenware, buff- and brown- Recreation/Activities 84 Tools/Hardware 18 mottled stoneware, and pearlware were also recovered. The Unidentified 21 ceramic wares have a date range from the early to late Grand Total 9636 eighteenth century; the proposed end date is based on the presence of a few pearlware sherds that were first manufactured around 1775 (Liebeknecht et al. 2014).

The diminutive size of the ceramic sherds recovered from the Cedar Creek Road Site made the identification of their exact form (bowl, dish plate, storage jar, etc.) nearly impossible. As a precaution to guard against subjective identification of forms, only those positively identified were so named during analysis. These forms consisted of bowls, bowls/dishes, basins, hollowwares, plates, plates/dishes, saucers, tablewares and a teapot. Forms not identified in the catalog but suggested by the analysis consisted of mugs, tankards, porringers and jars. The presence of porringers may reflect the consumptions of soups and stews or even suggest the absence of tables in the dwellings (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). Few refined ceramics were recovered from the site and they represented a limited number of forms and a mix of patterns, suggesting they were not used by the occupants as formal complete sets but likely acquired secondhand (Liebeknecht et al. 2014).

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Personal items recovered from the site included tobacco pipes, eating utensils, cast iron and brass cooking vessels, sleeve links, and gaming pieces or charms. Eating utensils recovered during the investigations were composite cutlery pieces, consisting of steel working ends with handles (now missing) made from a less expensive material such as bone or wood. Two utensils were recovered from the Slave Quarter, a common socketed iron knife with a dorsal ridge and a two-tined iron fork, which would have had two bone or wood scales riveted to either side. Given the number of domestic structures present at the slave quarter, the number of utensils was considered extremely low (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). No spoons were found. This suggested that the residents used wooden spoons, so the porringer sherds were re-examined and they did not show the typical marks left behind by stirring or scooping with a metal spoon. Other artifacts associated with food preparation recovered from the site included cast iron cauldron fragments and kettle and brass kettle fragments.

A copper alloy sleeve link or sleeve button was recovered from the slave quarter. This artifact was a period replica of a Spanish real; similar artifacts have been found on sites from New England to Florida. Such artifacts have been found in contexts related to enslaved Africans (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). A similar button was recovered from Birely Tannery site in Frederick, Maryland, where slaves were known to have been used as laborers. Similar links have also been recovered from slave quarter sites in Maryland (Cofield 2012).

Whether or not Farmer’s Delight was a site where slaves worked and lived in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, this study has highlighted the issue of the archaeology of slavery in Delaware (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). Prior to the excavation of the Cedar Creek Road Site, no other slave quarter sites had ever been identified or investigated in any of Delaware’s three counties. In addition, there were no specific historic context studies for it, and the present contextual structure, while placing the site within the general framework for comparison with other sites, does not accommodate the slavery issue other than within the general historic theme of Settlement Patterns and Demographic Change (Liebeknecht et al. 2014).

The historic context for farm and rural dwelling sites in New Castle and Kent Counties, 1730 to 1770 and 1770 to 1830 (Bedell 2002), addresses the slavery issue in rather more detail. The Slave Quarter is identified as a property type in that context as well as in this context. It is considered that such site elements “will generally have to be identified through documentary research” rather than showing distinctive archaeological features or patterning. Although the presence of documentary evidence would be ideal in identifying sites associated with enslave African Americans in Delaware, the Cedar Creek Road Site illustrates how the absence of such records should not eliminate a possible slave quarter site from consideration. There is no doubt that the identification of enslaved Africans and African Americans in the archaeological record is a highly challenging task, especially in the absence of supporting documentary evidence. The authors of the Cedar Creek Road Site report (Liebeknecht et al. 2014) argue that such identification currently depends largely on the assumption that group identities are expressed in recognizable ways in archaeological patterning. Research and analysis at Farmer’s Delight have sought to show how this might work in practice, using several different types of data.

It should be noted that the situation identified at the Cedar Creek Road Site may not apply to sites farther north in Delaware (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). There is ample documentary evidence to

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indicate that plantation owners in Sussex County were more strongly connected to those on the adjacent Eastern Shore of Maryland than with the slaveowning neighbors in Delaware’s northern counties of Kent and New Castle. It is probable that Sussex County had more than twice as many slaves as either Kent or New Castle in the eighteenth century. The posited archaeological identification of slavery at Farmer’s Delight may therefore be a factor of a larger number of enslaved people living in a distinctive quarter-like setting. This contrasts with the generally lower numbers of slaves on plantations farther north in jurisdictions like St. Georges Hundred, where Euro-American owners and their overseers shared spaces and lived close to the slaves (Liebeknecht et al. 2014).

2. Garrison Energy Site (7K-C-455B)

The Garrison Energy Site (7K-C-455B) was the tenant residence of the free African American Cooper family, who resided in West Dover Hundred, Kent County (Gall and Modina 2013). The Coopers were Quakers. Today the site occupies the southeast edge of a slight upland at the headwaters of Little Creek. The site lies approximately 0.5 mile northwest of White Oak Road and 1.44 miles northeast of State Route 13 (Figure 87).

Site 7K-C-455B is associated with the single occupation of Richard and Nanny Cooper. Officially freed by Thomas Hanson in 1778, both Richard and Nanny were at liberty away from their owner at the time of the manumission. It is likely that both Richard and Nanny received their liberty shortly following the birth of their son Aaron in 1771 (Gall and Modina 2013). At that point the couple took up residence at the site on Hansons’ 360-acre White Oak Swamp Farm. The home the

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couple resided in was either constructed by Richard and Nanny themselves or Hanson elected to build one for his new tenants on a slightly upland patch of marginal, poorly drained land within the larger 360-acre farm tract. The family lived on the parcel until the death of Richard in 1820. Census records suggest that a free African American community formed in the vicinity of the Cooper family home at the White Oak Swamp Farm during the 1790s. In addition to Richard and his family, the community consisted of non-property owning African Americans as well as a number of Euro-American tenant farmers.

A Phase II archaeological survey of the site was conducted by Richard Grubb & Associates in the fall of 2012. As a result of the excavation, they determined that the core boundary of the Cooper family occupation measured approximately 175x242 feet, encompassing 0.62 acre. Eleven historic cultural features were identified during the survey: four historic sub-floor pits and seven postholes (Figure 88). In addition, eight soil anomalies were identified through the use of magnetometer and

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Recovered historic artifacts from the site were relatively low (n=946) given the approximately 50- year occupation by the Cooper family (Figure 89). The paucity of materials from the site might reflect the great care taken by the Cooper family in curating its household wares because they had

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little money to spend (Gall and Modina 2013). Another explanation for the low artifact quantities around the site core might suggest that the Coopers swept their yard, a custom historically practiced by African Americans (De Cunzo 2004). Evidence of yard sweeping and maintenance at the site was illustrated through data provided by phosphorus distribution patterns, which appeared to be notably lower in areas surrounding the site of the Coopers’ log cabin. The highest levels of phosphorus were located 30 feet west of the suspected house location. This concentration manifested as a 90-foot-long linear concentration that likely represented organic refuse disposal along a former fence line, historic gardening activity such as field fertilization, or the result of drainage excavation.

Examination of the artifacts recovered from the site provided some information on the consumer behavior and social customs observed by the Cooper family. Redware ceramic vessel fragments were the most common among the collection, though there were also several examples of porcelain, black basalt, creamware, and pearlware. All of the porcelain, black basalt, engine-turned redwares, and pearlware recovered from Site 7K-C-455B constituted decorative tea wares, suggesting the Cooper family adhered to at least some social customs widely practiced by Euro- American community members. Tablewares were primarily undecorated creamware and small redware bowls. The family cooked some of their food in an iron kettle, fragments of which were found in the central portion of the site (Gall and Modina 2013). Further, a large quantity of vessel glass strongly suggests that the family engaged in alcohol consumption, although vessel glass was also used to contain an assortment of non-alcoholic liquids. Collectively, the domestic assemblage indicated that the Cooper family participated fully in the contemporary consumer culture of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Dover, thus blurring the ability to identify ethnic nuances that may be present in the archaeological assemblage alone.

Archaeological evidence from the 2012 survey also produced evidence that the Cooper family engaged in both animal husbandry and agricultural production. A 1797 tax assessment of the Cooper residence indicated that the family owned a variety of livestock, including a mare, a colt, two cows, two calves, a yoke of oxen, three heifers, 20 pigs, and six sheep. Despite the notable quantity of animals raised on the Cooper farm, faunal material was almost entirely absent from the site assemblage (Gall and Modina 2013). A variety of reasons could explain this, including poor preservation, scavenging by animals, yard maintenance and sweeping, and off-site community butchering, preparation, and consumption activities (Tuma 2006). Some oyster shell was also found at the site, suggesting an alternative food source for the family. The oysters may have been purchased at a local market or traded for or collected by the Coopers themselves, since the Delaware Bay is only 6 miles east of the site.

The Phase II survey at Site 7K-C-455B identified significant archaeological deposits associated with the site’s single occupation by the free African American Cooper family from the 1770s to the 1820s. The site contained intact, sub-plowzone cultural features that provided information on the site use and spatial changes over time. The site also provided important data on the lifeways of previously unknown or understudied late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century free African American Quakers in eastern Dover (Gall and Modina 2013). Recovered household goods have provided researchers with the ability to enhance the understanding of how free African Americans in Dover acculturated into the free, Euro-American-dominated community after manumission. Furthermore, the low quantity of previously identified free African American sites in Delaware

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3. Nathan Williams House Site (7K-C-389)

The Nathan Williams Site (7K-C-389) was the residence and small tenant farm of Nathan Williams, a literate free man of mixed race who resided in West Dover Hundred, Kent County (Heite 2001). Nathan William resided on the 15-acre property from 1825 until 1840. The same property was occupied by other tenants later in the nineteenth century, although their identity remains unknown.

The Nathan Williams farm was located northwest of Dover (Figure 90), near the center of a mixed- race community called Moorton where the majority of residents were of Native American ancestry (Scharf 1888). It is unclear as to the exact nature of Nathan’s racial identity. Census, tax assessments, and land records from the period refer to him as “negro”; suggesting, at least to the white record keepers, that he appeared African American. However, many of the Nanticoke Indians who adopted European names chose Williams as a surname, suggesting a possibility that Nathan had some Native American ancestry (Heite 2001).

Excavation of the Nathan Williams Site was conducted in connection with the proposed expansion of Scarborough Road in 1992 (Heite and Blume 1995). The Phase III data recovery included a controlled surface collection and plowzone stripping of a 1,000x40-foot area along McKee Road. No structural or primary artifact deposits associated with the Nathan William occupation were

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Artifacts recovered from the investigation were found during a controlled surface collection of a plowed field. None of the artifacts recovered could definitively be attributed to the occupation of the site by Nathan Williams. Domestic artifacts recovered from the site included some pearlware, stoneware, and redware that might have been associated with Nathan Williams. Several pieces of glass were also found, but those mostly dated to the late nineteenth century, several years after Williams left the property. The only personal items recovered from the investigation were a single clay tobacco pipe fragment and a single white ceramic button.

The only promising discovery during the subsequent data recovery was a concentration of brick located at the north end of the site. The bricks isolated to the plowzone and were mostly pulverized but appeared to be local hand-made varieties common to eighteenth-century sites in Delaware. The brick concentration was interpreted as the possible pulverized remains of chimney for the Nathan Williams house (Heite 2001). Although it was far from conclusive, if true, the Nathan Williams house was certainly destroyed by the construction and later widening of McKee Road.

Following the 1992 identification of the Nathan Williams Site (7K-C-389), the Delaware SHPO listed the site as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D. As a rare example of a documented African American residence in antebellum Delaware, the site was seen as having the potential for containing significant research value. Although the wealth of information present in the documentary record regarding the former resident is indeed rare for the antebellum South, the subsequent Phase III excavation of Nathan Williams’s residence revealed that none of the site remained intact. The core of the site was likely destroyed by the construction and expansion of McKee Road in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The excavation of the Nathan Williams Site is a prime example of how documentary research serves as a necessary accompaniment for any cultural resource project. Particularly it shows how even a small amount of information from primary and other sources can enrich our understanding of archaeological resources associated with African Americans and other minority groups. However, the lack of integrity identified during the archaeological investigation makes the Nathan Williams Site a poor candidate for future comparative studies of African American settlement in Delaware.

4. William Dickson Site (7NC-E-82)

The William Dickson Site (7NC-E-82) was located just outside Christiana (Catts et al. 1989). Prior occupation of the site by white store owners lasted from 1780 to 1845, referred to as Dickson I. A small house was built around 1850 and occupied until 1919, referred to as Dickson II (Figure 91). From 1870 to 1887, the Dickson II Site was the home of African American tenants, David Walmsley and his family.

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Although the names of the other Dickson II tenants are not known, they were probably also African American. The Walmsleys’ house was probably built around 1845 and measured about 18x22 feet. The structure rested on stone piers with wooden sills extended between the supports. Figure 92 shows the house foundation and a reconstruction of what it might have looked like. The house was likely a one-and-one-half-story frame structure with a brick chimney and hearth located along the east wall. The hearth wall was constructed on dry laid stone, one course in depth. Based on the distribution of bricks, the height of the chimney was estimated at approximately 10 to 12 feet (Catts et al. 1989). A narrow porch extended from the south elevation of the house. The high concentration of window glass recovered from the excavation suggests the Walmsley house had at least three windows, located on the north, south, and west elevations of the structure. The house likely contained two doors, opposite each other, located on the south and north elevations (Catts et al. 1989).

The artifacts from the Walmsley occupation included a wide variety of decorated ceramics, such as hand-painted teacups, transfer-printed bowls, shell-edged plates, and more (Figure 93). Such artifacts are commonly found at the homes of other African American tenants. A total of 54 ceramic vessels were identified from the artifacts recovered from the Walmsley occupation. Of these, all but nine of the vessels were kitchen-related. Ten of the vessels were either whiteware or ironstone, six of which were hollowware forms such as bowls and cups (Catts et al. 1989). Twenty- two of the Walmsley vessels were pearlware and included underglazed polychrome decorated, mocha, blue and green shell edge, undecorated, transfer-printed, and underglazed decorative forms. Over half of the pearlware vessels were hollowware, and the majority of the flatware consisted of blue shell-edged designs. Only eight of the reconstructed vessels were stoneware, all

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of which were classified as American Blue and Gray and included a crock, three storage vessels, a jug, and a bottle. Other vessels forms recovered from the site included redware, milk pans, canisters, and a jug. The majority of the redware vessel forms reconstructed consisted of chamber wares. Several porcelain cups and saucers were also among the collection.

Most of the glass associated with the Walmsley occupation of the site was colorless. Other colors represented in the collection included aqua, dark green, olive green, brown, and amber. At least 32 largely intact patent medicine bottles were found, many of which contained maker’s marks or some other distinguishing characteristics. Several of the bottles were from Wilmington. Others were identified as coming from Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey. Small amounts of table glass were also found, mostly in the form of tumbler and stemmed glass fragments. Lamp glass, milk glass, and Mason jar fragments were also found.

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The collection included a large number of small finds, things like buttons, toys, and jewelry (Figure 94). A total of 877 buttons were found associated with the Walmsley occupation. Other interesting small finds included clock and watch fragments, a brass lighter, penknives, scissors, straight pins, and boot and shoe fragments. Toys were also well represented in the collection. Six clay marbles were found, as well as small toy bowls and cups, a kazoo, several porcelain doll parts, and an ice skate runner.

One especially interesting part of the collection was the animal bone. More than 1,500 fragments of bone were found, a very large collection for such a small site. The bones came from a wide variety of animals. A majority of the meat came from domestic cows, pigs, and sheep, but this was supplemented by wild fish and game: catfish, muskrat, squirrel, opossum, and turtle. This pattern has been observed at other African American rural homes, such as the home of Sidney Stump near Glasgow (Catts and Custer 1990). Fishing and the hunting of small game were common ways of supplementing the diet; however, not everyone did this, and the faunal collections from some African American house sites are almost entirely from domesticated animals. The Walmsley occupation was just a short walk from marshes along the Christina River, which provided easy access to catfish, muskrats, and turtles.

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The Walmsley occupation of the William Dickson II Site was significant in providing substantive data on African American life in the second half of the nineteenth century. The study contributed to the understanding of tenant life by providing valuable information on subsistence, consumption habits, spatial utilization, and material culture of African American laborers and their families during this time period.

5. Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy No.2 (7NC-F-64)

The Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy No. 2 (7NC-F-64) was located south of Glasgow in Pencader Hundred, New Castle County (Hoseth et al. 1994) (Figure 95). The house was one of several tenancies the Cazier family owned on their 571.5-acre estate from the mid-nineteenth until the early twentieth century. This tenancy was situated west of Route 896 (Glasgow to Summit Bridge Road) adjacent to the farm road that led to Mount Vernon Place, the residence of the Cazier family. The site’s location at the junction of Mount Vernon Place Lane and Route 896 suggested that the tenancy served as the gatekeepers’ house, which was built in 1844 by Jacob B. Cazier’s father, Henry Cazier (Hoseth et al. 1994).

Little is known about the original tenants of the Cazier site prior to the 1880s. Census documents, tax assessments, and Cazier family account books made no mention of these first tenants. Records regarding the later occupants of the “gatehouse” indicated that by the 1880s the site was occupied by an African American tenant, Nicholas M. Stevenson, who worked as a horseman for Jacob Cazier until the early 1910s, when he moved to Buck Jersey Road east of Lum’s Pond (Hoseth et

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al. 1994). In the 1920s the house was occupied by Rudolf and Ethel Stevenson, relatives of Nicholas Stevenson. They remained at the “gatehouse” until 1934. The house was demolished in 1935 during the expansion of Route 896.

The entire gatehouse tenant complex measured 100x70 feet (0.16 acre). The dwelling in which the Stevensons resided was a two-story brick house that measured 17.6x17.4 feet (Figure 96). It had a wood-shingle roof with a wooden porch facing Mount Vernon Lane to the south (Hoseth et al. 1994). The house had a full cellar with brick foundation walls and floor. The chimney, also made of brick, was located along the east elevation of the house. During the excavation the remains of a possible post-supported addition were identified on the west side of the house. The addition measured 17x9 feet and was probably built sometime in the 1860s (Hoseth et al. 1994).

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In addition to the house, Nicholas Stevenson and his family had a small outbuilding on the property (Figure 97). The 12x8-foot building was located approximately 30 feet west of the house and likely served as a storage shed. Nicholas Stevenson worked on the Cazier mansion grounds and did not need extensive storage for equipment, and the one outbuilding on the property would have been sufficient storage for gardening tools or a few animals (Hoseth et al. 1994). A privy was also identified, located approximately 50 feet from the house on the northwest corner of the property.

Excavations at the Cazier site were conducted in three stages. Eighty 5x5-foot test units were excavated as part of the plowzone sampling at the site. Following the test unit excavation, the remaining plowzone was removed from a 10,800-square-foot area, revealing 208 cultural and non- cultural features. The features included a house cellar, two privies, several trash pits, and numerous postholes associated with fence lines and several outbuildings. The artifact assemblage recovered during the plowzone sampling and feature excavation indicated that the Cazier Site was continually occupied from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century, first by unnamed tenant farmers and later by the family of Nicholas M. Stevenson (Hoseth et al. 1994).

Ceramics from the Cazier Tenancy site included a wide variety of decorated whiteware, including annular, gild-edged, blue shell-edged, hand-painted, sponge-decorated, flow blue, and blue, black, and green transfer-print. Over half of the reconstructed ceramic vessels were hollowware forms,

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either cups or bowls. Other ceramic types identified during the excavation included redware, ironstone, bone china, porcelain, pearlware, Rockingham, brown stoneware, and yellowware.

A total of 124 ceramic vessels were reconstructed from artifacts found in features across the site. Among the reconstructed vessel forms was a high percentage (16 percent) of specialized serving wares such as platter tureens, teapots, and teacups. One reason for the presence of these specialized table wares might have been the Stevensons’ close association with the Cazier family. The African American tenants at the gatekeeper’s house appeared to have enjoyed a relatively high level of material comfort (Hoseth et al. 1994).

One hundred seventy-six glass vessels were recovered from the features at the Cazier Tenancy (Table 58). Fifty-six of the vessels were unidentifiable, but the remaining were assigned specific functions. The majority of the known types were food container bottles, including condiment and food preservation and storage bottles. Twenty-eight were beverage bottles and 25 were medicinal. Only eight reconstructed artifacts were drinking vessels and six were tableware of one variety or another. The functions of the remaining glass vessels included decorative varieties, lamp glass, an inkwell, and a perfume bottle. The majority of the bottles were manufactured during the late

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nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Analysis of the form and function of the glass collection suggested that the presence of more food and beverage bottles relative to table glass was not related to ethnic or economic factors. Rather, the high quantity of container bottles seemed to reflect the rural nature of the Cazier Tenancy, where bottle reuse was more prevalent than at urban sites.

TABLE 58

VESSEL FUNCTIONS OF MINIMUM GLASS VESSELS IDENTIFIED AT SITE 7NC-F-64

FUNCTION NUMBER PERCENTAGE Alcoholic beverage 18 10.2 Nonalcoholic beverage 10 5.7 Medicinal 23 13.1 Condiments 32 18.2 Chemical 2 1.1 Drinking Tumbler 6 3.4 Stemmed 1 0.6 Mug/other 1 0.6 Other table Dining 1 0.6 Serving 5 2.8 Decorative 3 1.7 Lighting 8 4.5 Personal 2 1.1 Mirror 3 1.7 Preserves/storage 4 2.3 Unidentifiable 57 32.4 TOTAL 176 100.00

The faunal collection from the Cazier Tenancy included 952 bone and teeth fragments, although nearly a third of the collection came from the remains of two cats. Six hundred fifty-four specimens from the faunal assemblage were randomly chosen for analysis. One hundred twenty-three could only be categorized as unidentifiable mammal. Ninety-six were bird, although the exact species was unknown. The domesticated species represented in the collection included cow, pig, sheep, and two cats. A number of wild varieties were also identified, including Canada goose, rabbit, rat, squirrel, turtle, and opossum. One species of fish was also present.

The data recovery and historical research conducted at the Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy Site (7NC-F- 64) revealed at least three separate tenant occupations of the gatehouse site from 1844 through 1934. The majority of the data recovered from the excavation were attributed to the two tenant occupations by members of the Stevenson family during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. The results of the study contributed to the understanding of tenant life in rural Delaware in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The investigation at the Cazier Site provided valuable information regarding the changing consumption habits, spatial utilization, and material culture of African American laborers and their families during this time period.

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6. Thomas Williams Site (7NC-D-130)

The Thomas Williams Site was a multi-component archaeological site excavated in the village of Glasgow, Pencader Hundred in New Castle County (Figure 98). Occupation of the site spanned multiple households over a 130-year period. Historical research on the property found that the site was first occupied by a series of tenant farmers beginning in 1792. Later, the site was the home of the family of Thomas Williams, a stone mason, who resided on the property from 1846 until 1875. In the fall of 1875, the heirs of Thomas Williams sold the 1.5-acre property to Sidney Stump, an African American laborer from Maryland, and his family. The family lived on their small lot until Sidney Stump’s death in 1922. His widow then sold the property. By 1937 the house had burned and its remains were pushed into the house’s former cellar.

Samuel Stump’s house stood on the north edge of the village of Glasgow, just south of Muddy Run, a small tributary of the Christina River. The Stump house stood several hundred feet back from the Summit-Glasgow Road, the main artery that ran through Glasgow and connected the small village to neighboring communities to the south and north. The relative location of the Stump house to the road further marginalized the family by its location out of sight from those passing through the village (De Cunzo 2004).

The Sidney Stump house was originally built by David Ball in 1843. Ball, a carpenter by trade, tore down an earlier log house that had stood on the property since 1803. He replaced the structure with a frame and clapboard house (Figure 99). Excavations at the site determined that the Stumps likely resided in a hall-parlor plan house with sleeping chambers above. The 17x27-foot building

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rested on wooden blocks or piers (De Cunzo 2004). Under the west room of the house was a 10x14- foot stone-lined cellar that was likely an addition made by the later owner, stonemason Thomas Williams. The house stood in the center of a small fenced yard that enclosed about 3,000 square feet (Catts and Custer 1990). To the east of the house, a brick-lined well provided water to a nearby dairy shed and cold cellar. A small garden and a tool shed were located in the fenced yard southeast of the house. The few animals the Stump family had were likely housed in a small earth-fast building located outside the fence.

Opposite the well and located downslope from the house, seven barrel privies were found. The privies were clustered in three groupings approximately 25 feet from the house, a fairly standard distance from the dwelling as found in other nineteenth-century rural sites in Delaware and Maryland (Catts and Custer 1990). When filled, the Stumps removed the barrels from the privies, spreading the contents in the garden, as elevated phosphate levels confirmed (De Cunzo 2004). Once emptied, the barrels were reseated into the privy shed for reuse. During the 47 years at their Glasgow house, the Stumps did little to alter its basic material form and order (De Cunzo 2004). Excavations at the house showed that the Stumps must have performed routine maintenance on

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the property, which may have included cleaning and reseating the privies, replacing fence posts, and repairing the wood-shingled roof.

The Stump family did not own enough property to operate a fully self-sufficient farm. Their lot, which included a house, was situated on a 1.5-acre parcel in the town of Glasgow. Both Sidney and his sons worked for wages on larger, neighboring farms during the agricultural season. At home the family raised vegetables, fruits, and other field crops in their garden and in the small field they owned, surrounding their fenced yard. The family used some of what they grew and exchanged some with neighbors. The rest of the crops they grew were sold to Glasgow shopkeepers or at the Wilmington markets (De Cunzo 2004). In addition to agriculture, the Stump family raised some cattle and pigs. They also hunted, trapped, and fished to supplement their diet and income.

The Thomas Williams Site measured approximately 100x120 feet. Plowzone sampling consisted of the excavation of 32 5x5-foot test units. Following the completion of the sampling strategy, the entire site was stripped of the remaining plowzone, revealing over 200 cultural and non-cultural features. The non-cultural features consisted mainly of root stains, deep plow scars, or rodent burrows. The remaining cultural features included fence posts, structural posts, root cellars, a brick-lined well, privies, and a stone-lined cellar. Over 35,000 historic artifacts were recovered as a result of the study. The assemblage reflected the entire breadth of the site’s occupation from the early nineteenth century to the abandonment of the property in the early twentieth century. Numerous discrete feature deposits were also discovered that related to the specific occupational periods, including the early nineteenth-century tenant period occupation and the late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century owner-occupied Stump family occupation.

Over 300 ceramic vessels were recovered from features associated with the Stump family occupation of the site (Table 59). The majority of those vessels were recovered from one of two features: the house’s stone-lined cellar and the brick-lined well.

TABLE 59

RECONSTRUCTED VESSEL WARES FROM THE STUMP FAMILY HOUSE

VESSEL WARES HOUSE CELLAR WELL TOTAL Pearlware 68 44 112 Whiteware and Ironstone 59 33 92 Redware 45 24 69 Creamware 13 4 17 Porcelain 16 4 20 Yellowware and Rockingham 2 1 3 Stoneware - 4 4 Total 203 114 317

Of the vessels recovered from the features associated with the Stump family, 153 were identified as hollow forms, notably cups, bowls and pitchers. Other hollowware forms included teapots, a chamber pot, and a redware jug. In addition to the hollowware, 91 vessels were identifiable as flatware. They included some decorated forms of whiteware and pearlware plates as well as several undecorated whiteware, ironstone, and creamware varieties. Several porcelain plates and saucers were also found along with redware and lead-glazed and slip-trailed milk pans.

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In addition to the ceramics, 23 complete or nearly whole glass bottles were also found. They included a combination of wine, pharmaceutical, and mineral bottles ranging in color from amber, clear, and aqua to olive green. A number were embossed with the names of companies in Wilmington and Philadelphia. In addition to domestic goods, excavations at the Thomas Williams Site included a large quantity of both architectural and personal artifacts associated with the Stump family occupation of the site. Those items, taken with domestic and faunal collections, have provided a wealth of data regarding lifeways of African Americans in post-Civil War Delaware.

The faunal assemblage associated with the Stump family occupation included a number of wild species, including deer, rabbit, muskrat, raccoon, opossum, fox, and squirrel. Of those species, cut marks were observed on the raccoon, muskrat, and rabbit. The meat cuts from the cow bones represented in the Stump collection included mostly ribs followed by rumps and shanks. The cuts on the pig bones recovered suggested a diet of hams, hocks, joints, ribs, and some shoulder. The low-quality cuts on the cow and pig as well as the abundance of wild game suggest that the Stump family supplemented their diet with those items of low commercial value (Catts and Custer 1990).

Excavations at the Stump house lot allowed archaeologists to reassemble important pieces of the Stump family’s material world. The archaeological record at the Stump family home illustrated the relationships between this African American family and the larger communities in which they interacted. By extension the study illuminated the culture of late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century Delaware agriculture from the perspective of African American wage laborers and their families (De Cunzo 2004). Furthermore, the study illustrated the changing patterns of disposal, consumption, and status for the occupants of the Thomas Williams Site, from white tenant to black laborers.

7. Heisler Tenancy Site (7NC-E-83)

The Heisler Tenancy Site was located on a parcel owned by William Egbert Heisler between 1851 and 1866 (Catts et al. 1989). The 7-acre parcel was located in the Village of Christiana Bridge and was bound by the Wilmington and Christiana Turnpike and by a lane leading from the turnpike to the main farm owned by William E. Heisler (see Figure 91). By 1867 a house had been built on the lot but the parcel had been reduced to the size of a small town lot, measuring only 34.6 square perches (9,420 square feet). The house and small lot changed hands several times during the mid- nineteenth century, with tenants always occupying the premises. In 1887 the house and lot were sold to David Walmsley, the same person who resided at the William Dickson Site (7NC-E-82). According to local residents, the Walmsleys resided at both the Dickson and the Heisler sites (Catts et al. 1989). Following the death of David Walmsley sometime in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, the Heisler Site was given to his son, David Walmsley, Jr.

The Heisler Tenant house measured 15x21 feet and was fronted by a 30-foot yard (Figure 100). The structure was raised over a full stone-lined cellar and featured the local vernacular two-room plan. Although smaller than their former house, the new house contained a full-height second story and a loft under the eaves for storage. During their tenure the family made several improvements to the house. Additions to the north and south elevations of the house expanded the structure’s dimensions to 15x55 feet. Both the north and south additions were built on concrete foundations and did not include a cellar or any other sub-floor storage. The Heisler Tenant Site also included

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a brick-lined well, located adjacent to the east elevation of the house (Figure 101). Excavations at the site also identified a privy located approximately 50 feet east of the house and well.

The artifact assemblage from the Heisler Tenancy site came largely from a trash midden deposit located to the rear (south) of the property. The exact dimensions of the feature were unknown as the study did not fully delineate its size. A total area of 288 square feet was excavated from the midden. The feature sloped sharply down and in some places was nearly 2 feet thick. The feature assemblage contained over 21,800 artifacts, which dated to the Walmsley occupation of the site from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

A total of 6,101 ceramic artifacts were recovered from the Heisler Site, and 285 ceramic vessels were identified. Forty-six percent or 131 vessels were classified as food consumption related, and 28 vessels were identified as storage or serving related. Overall, whiteware dominated the ceramic collection, with numerous decorative forms represented (Figure 102). They included flow blue, polychrome decal, green, blue, and red sponge- decorated, annular and hand-painted, blue shell-edge, and red, blue, and purple transfer-print. Plates, cups, bowls, dishes, and saucers accounted for the majority of the whiteware vessel forms.

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Ironstone vessels accounted for only a small percentage of the ceramic assemblage, and all of these vessels were utilized for food preparation or consumption. The vessel forms consisted of plates, bowls, cup, saucers, and serving and storage bowls. Other ceramic types included redware and stoneware. The majority was hollowware and included forms such as bowls, canisters, jars, storage crocks, bottles, mugs, and chamber pots. Lesser amounts of yellowware, porcelain, pearlware, and Rockingham vessels rounded out the collection of reconstructed vessels.

Two thousand one hundred fragments of glass were recovered from the Heisler Tenancy. The bottle glass included clear, amber, aqua, and olive colors and represented panel bottles, circular bottles, flasks, liquor bottles, and mineral water bottles. In addition to bottle glass, jar, table and milk glass were recovered.

The faunal assemblages from the Heisler Site consisted of 203 total fragments, of which 74 could be identified as to species. The size of the faunal collection was interesting, particularly since the small collection was recovered from a relatively substantial household trash midden.

Very few personal artifacts were recovered from the Heisler trash midden. Only 71 buttons were found, including shell and mother-of-pearl, bone, glass, and brass. Seventeen toy or ornamental fragments were also in the collection. Those items included a brass clasp, doll arms, a toy gun handle, comb fragments, and several clay tobacco pipe fragments.

The Heisler Tenancy (Site 7NC-E-83) provided context on African American lifeways in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study contributed to the understanding of tenant life by providing valuable information on subsistence, consumption habits, spatial utilization, and material culture associated with African American households during this time period.

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C. SYNTHESIS OF EXISTING DATA SETS

From the 18 sites including components with known or likely African American occupants described above, comparisons can begin to elucidate larger trends in St. Georges Hundred and Delaware. In archaeology, identifying commonalities and distinctions among sites in larger datasets can address questions about differences between social groups and economic classes, changes over time, and the effects of context-specific historical factors. Specific to the task of this historic context, synthesis and comparison allows the evaluation of data-gathering techniques and analytical methods used to date, as well as identification of areas that most need additional research and clarification of the most salient research questions for future work.

To assess the possible unique aspects of African American life in Delaware, the sites and their assemblages were also compared with a range of sites and components not occupied by African Americans in similar locations and temporal contexts. These sites (Table 60) consist largely of owner and tenant-occupied farms in New Castle and Kent counties (Figure 103) dating from the late eighteenth through early twentieth centuries excavated during mitigation projects over the last 30 years by the University of Delaware Center for Archaeological Research (UDCAR), Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), and several consulting firms including Thunderbird, Louis Berger, Hunter Research, Inc., and Dovetail Cultural Resource Group.

1. Space and Landscape

Within archaeology, interpretations of space and landscape have moved away from earlier deterministic considerations of landscapes as physical containers and environmental forces shaping human action, toward an understanding of landscapes and places as culturally constructed, complex elements of material culture (David and Thomas 2008). Landscapes as experienced by humans are actively created and negotiated, reflecting cultural norms and outlooks (Deetz 1990). Spaces and landscapes also have social agency; they are active in creating and reinforcing the structures of “social space,” the perceived system of social relations within a culture (Bourdieu 1990). Other scholars have emphasized the contested and multi-vocal aspects of socially constructed spaces, noting that the same space can be experienced in a variety of ways by different audiences (Bender 2001; Tilley 1994). Current thinking about where sites are located, how they are organized, and the spaces created by the structures on them can tell us much about how people in the past dealt with both natural ecology and socio-cultural context.

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H Grant Tenancy « William Hawthorne

William Dickson Site

A. Temple Tenancy

Ferguson-Weber

Whitten Road

Thomas Williams Site

Houston-LeCompt Augustine Creek North and South

Bird Houston

Locust Grove Armstrong-Rogers

Charles Robinson

Rumsey Historic

McKean/Cochran

Benjamin Wynn

Moore-Taylor Wilson-Lewis

0 3 6 12 Legend Miles Kilometers *# Euro-American Archaeological Site 0 5 10 20

FIGURE 103: Location of Comparative Euro-American Sites (ESRI World Topo Map 2012) 222 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

TABLE 60

EURO-AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE SELECTED FOR COMPARISON

PROPERTY SITE (NO.) DATES TYPE OCCUPANT LOCATION REFERENCE Charles Robinson 1762-1781 Farm Owner Odessa, New Castle County Thomas et al. 1996 Plantation (7NC-G-7) Augustine Creek North 1750-1810 Dwelling Tenant St. Georges, New Castle Bedell et al. 2001 (7NC-G-144) County McKean/Cochran 1750-1800/ Farm Tenant/ Odessa, New Castle County Bedell et al. 1999 (7NC-F-13) 1800-1830 Owner Whitten Road 1750-1830 Farm Tenant Glasgow, New Castle Shaffer et al. 1988 (7NC-D-100) County Benjamin Wynn 1765-1820 Farm & Tenant East Dover, Kent County Grettler et al. 1995 (7K-C-362) Workshop Armstrong-Rogers 1740-1824/ Farm yard Owner/ St. Georges, New Castle Barile et al. 2013 (7NC-F-135) 1824-1850 Tenant County Bird-Houston, Locus B 1770-1825 Farm Tenant St. Georges, New Castle Bedell et al. 2016 (7NC-F-138) County Rumsey Historic 1780-1820 Farm Tenant Middletown, New Castle Liebeknecht et al. (7NC-F-121) County 2014 William Dickson I 1780-1845 Store Owner Christiana, New Castle Catts et al. 1989 (7NC-E-82) County Thomas Williams I 1790-1850 Farm Tenant Glasgow, New Castle Catts and Custer (7NC-D-130) County 1990 Houston-LeCompt 1780-1849/ Farm Owner/ St. Georges, New Castle Barile et al. 2013 (7NC-F-139) 1845-1865 Tenant County H. Grant Tenancy 1800-1870 Farm Tenant Christiana, New Castle Taylor et al. 1987 (7NC-B-6) County Locust Grove 1820-1870 Farm Owner Odessa, New Castle County Affleck et al. 1998 (7NC-F-73) William M. Hawthorne 1750-1961 Farm Owner Christiana, New Castle Coleman et al. 1984 (7NC-E-46) County Ferguson-Weber House 1820-1900 Farm Owner Ogletown, New Castle Coleman et al. 1983 County Morre-Taylor 1822-1937 Farm Owner Little Creek, Kent County Grettler et al. 1996 (7K-C-380) A. Temple 1820-1950 Farm Tenant Ogletown, New Castle Hoseth et al. 1990 (7NC-D-68) County Wilson-Lewis 1850-1890 Farm Tenant Little Creek, Kent County Grettler et al. 1996 (7K-C-375)

a. Site Location

In 1995 Bradley Skelcher developed a historic context focused on African American settlement patterns on the upper peninsula zone of Delaware from 1730 to 1940 (Skelcher 1995b). Skelcher’s context outlined a historical narrative of African American settlement in New Castle and Kent Counties between St. Georges and Murderkill hundreds and concluded with a discussion of inherent characteristics of both rural and urban African American settlements. According to Skelcher, rural communities developed in the early nineteenth century from eighteenth-century settlement roots, and to varying degrees persisted into the twentieth century. He defined a Rural

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African American community as a district or circumscribed place containing African American members, distinctly separate from the nearest Euro-American community. These African American settlements were generally located along roads and most often at a crossroads in the countryside. Skelcher defined an African American Urban Community as a more or less definitely circumscribed place inhabited primarily by African Americans located within or near a Euro- American community. These communities were clusters of development segregated from a larger, more densely populated Euro-American community. The urban African American community materialized in the late nineteenth century and eventually predominated over the rural subtype. The number of African American archaeological sites identified in St. Georges Hundred has nearly doubled since 1995, as has the number of sites evaluated for NRHP eligibility in Delaware (see Tables 49 and 56). Therefore a new synthesis of site location data can refine and add to Skelcher’s work.

The locations of the 11 African-American sites from St. Georges Hundred and the seven additional evaluated sites in Delaware described in the preceding section were plotted spatially, and several quantitative measurements and qualitative assessments of those locations were compiled. Natural factors included elevation, percent and direction of slope, distance to a year-round water source, and a qualitative assessment of the landform. Detailed characteristics for the USDA soil series mapped at each site location were also listed, including properties such depth, drainage, erosion and flooding tendencies, and USDA land-capability classifications and hydrologic soil groups, to rate the quality of the sites for dwelling, building, and farming. At the outset, variation in soils in northern Delaware seemed relatively limited. Every series mapped at a site location is prime farmland, some even qualifying as farmland of statewide importance; however, detailed examination of the soil properties can clarify more subtle distinctions.

As shown in Table 61, the 18 African-American sites used in the synthesis vary in elevation. Elevation was associated with longitude, with low-lying sites generally located along the Atlantic coast. These included the Robert Grose House, the Samuel Segars Site, and the sites comprising Hendrick’s Hope (Thomas Bayard, Shallcross and Williams, Locus 13). Sites such as the Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy and Wilson Farm Tenancy lie farther west and occupy a slightly higher elevation. Slopes range from nearly level to 3.3 percent with an average of 1.8 percent, facing in a variety of directions. The sites average about 0.25 mile to perennial water sources, although most of the sites also feature wells. The qualitative landform assessment of landform showed that many of the African-American occupied sites are located closer to the edges of plains, nearer slopes to drainages.

When the African-American sites are divided between sites with tenants and those occupied for some time by property owners, the only apparent difference appears in elevation. Sites owned at some time by African Americans average 36.6 feet above sea level, and those inhabited by tenants only average 51.3 feet. Renters may have been more likely to occupy the central and western portions of the state near larger white land-owners. African Americans purchased land across the state ranging in elevation between 6 and 68 feet, although this small sample could also indicate that they tended to buy nearer the coast.

Using the same set of locational characteristics, the selection of comparative sites not likely occupied by African Americans shows an average elevation of 56 feet above sea level, suggesting

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Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware that more of these sites lie farther inland (Table 62). The slope of the comparative sites ranges from about 0.5 to 5.2 percent with an average of 2 percent, again in a variety of directions. The comparative sites tend to be somewhat closer to perennial water sources than African American occupied sites, ranging from 0.04 to 0.24 mile, with an average of 0.13 mile. White-occupied sites appear to be located more centrally in broad flat landforms, although several white tenant-occupied sites such as Augustine Creek North and the H. Grant Tenancy were placed on or near the edges of flatter areas and more sloping ground near drainages.

Among the non-African American sites, elevations show no appreciable difference between land owners and tenants, although on average tenants tend to be located on slightly greater slope (2.5 percent) than owners (1.3 percent), and owners located farther from water on average (0.18 mile) than tenants (0.l mile). This may suggest that an appreciable difference in natural setting existed between white landowners and tenants, owners getting a slightly better selection of level ground with less dependence on proximity to water, as most of those sites did include wells.

The qualities of the soils at each location for African American occupied sites reveal various compositions of silt loams, sandy loams, and loamy sands, most of which are formed from fluviomarine sediment parent materials (Table 63). Soil information for comparable Euro- American Delaware sites are listed in Table 64. All are considered prime or better farmland by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). However, a more detailed examination of the soil properties reveals some nuanced variation in drainage that would impact agricultural productivity and suitability for constructing dwellings at each site. Land capability classification is a generalized system for grouping soils based primarily on limitations to agricultural productivity over long periods of time. The numerical component corresponds to the general degree of severity to factors limiting choice of plants or requiring specialized management, with Class 1 soils exhibiting only slight limitations that restrict agricultural use and Class 8 soils having limitations that preclude use of commercial agriculture. The lettered sub-class defines specific factors limiting agricultural productivity, such as subclass e, susceptibility to erosion, and subclass w, in which excess water is a limiting factor (USDA 2007). Roughly half of the sites have soils where land capability classes are stated as applying to non-irrigated conditions, so it should be noted that improvements such as drainage and irrigation would have the potential to reduce or overcome many of the issues as these sites.

Hydrological groupings formulated by the USDA (2007) refer largely to runoff potential based on water infiltration rates indicating susceptibility to standing water and overland flow during excessive rains. Group A include soils with high infiltration rates and low runoff potential that include deep and well-drained sediments. Group B soils have moderate infiltration rates and runoff potential. Group C soils have slow infiltration with moderately high runoff potential largely owing to fine sediment texture. Group D soils have very slow infiltration and high runoff potential largely owing to shallow depth of sediments, high clay content, or high water table. These ratings summarize water drainage issues that would have made site locations more or less desirable for dwelling and agriculture.

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TABLE 61

LOCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE, 1770-1940

ELEVATION DISTANCE TO SITE DATES LOCATION TYPE (ft asl) SLOPE WATER (miles) LANDFORM SETTING Cedar Creek Road Site 1740-1780 Cedar Creek, Slave 27 1.06% ESE 0.09 Margin between slope to drainage and broad flat area (7S-C-100) Sussex Co. to north Garrison Energy Site 1770-1820 West Dover, Tenant 20 1.05% SSE 0.17 Middle of smaller open flat terrain, although near (7K-C-445B) Kent Co. small drainage Holton/Cann Site 1751-1886 St. Georges, Tenant 60 < 0.5% 0.39 Middle of flat area between Great Bohemia Creek and (7NC-F-129) New Castle Co. north side of Middletown Nathan Williams House Site 1825-1840 West Dover, Tenant 45 1.96% NW 0.41 Near margin of large flat area between Cahoon (7K-C-389) Kent Co. Branch, Fork Branch, Silver Lake, St. James River Cann Tenant-Amos Bell Site 1812-1836/ St. Georges, Tenant/ 68 0.73% E 0.39 Middle of broad flat upland area, although near head (7NC-F-160) 1838-1865 New Castle Co. Owner of small drainage J. Armstrong 3 Site 1820-1900 St. Georges, Tenant 66 1.38% NE 0.12 Near margin of flat area between unnamed drainages (7NC-F-159) New Castle Co. Thomas Bayard Site 1835-1864/ St. Georges, Owner/ 16 3.05% S 0.18 On southern margin of narrow peninsula of arable (7NC-G-106) 1864-1887 New Castle Co. Tenant land surrounded by tidal marshes Samuel Segars Site 1857-1874 St. Georges, Owner 12 2.25% NW 0.27 On northern margin of narrow peninsula of arable (7NC-G-118) New Castle Co. land surrounded by tidal estuary Dale Historic Site 1830-1837/ St. Georges, Tenant/ 62 0.67% W 0.26 Near east margin of broad flat area between Great (7NC-F-134) 1854-1915 New Castle Co. Owner Bohemia, Drawyer’s, and Back creeks Shallcross & Williams 1866-1890 St. Georges, Tenant 20 1.04% SSW 0.22 Near northern margin of narrow peninsula of arable Tenant House (7NC-G-107) New Castle Co. land surrounded by tidal marshes Locus 13 Historic Findspot 1866-1890 St. Georges, Tenant 22 3.33% SSE 0.31 On northern margin of peninsula bounded by tidal (7NC-G-110) New Castle Co. marsh and estuary William Dickson Site II 1850-1919 Christiana, Tenant 68 2.35% E 0.17 On east margin of upland flat area, top of slope down (7NC-E-82) New Castle Co. to broad drainage gulley Bird-Houston Site, Locus A 1850-1920 St. Georges, Tenant 60 0.84% SW 0.44 Near southern margin of broad flat area between Scott (7NC-F-138) New Castle Co. Run and Drawyer’s Creek Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy No. 1844-1934 Pencader, Tenant 72 2.93% W 0.26 Near eastern margin of large flat area between Lums 2 (7NC-F-64) New Castle Co. Pond and Long Creek Robert Grose House 1860-1923 St. Georges, Owner 6 2.075% S 0.16 Near southern margin of coastal peninsula, at head of (7NC-G-166) New Castle Co. intermittent drainage to south Thomas Williams Site II 1875-1922 Pencader, Owner 56 3.13% WNW 0.12 On northern margin of large flat area north of (7NC-D-13) New Castle Co. Glasgow between Muddy and Belltown runs Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Christiana, Tenant 68 2.35% E 0.17 On east margin of upland flat area, top of slope down (7NC-E-83) New Castle Co. to broad drainage gulley Wilson Farm Tenancy Site 1880-1950 St. Georges, Tenant 64 0.41% W 0.04 miles On western margin of large flat area north of (7NC-F-94) New Castle Co. Middletown near drainage to Great Bohemia Creek

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TABLE 62

LOCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SELECTED COMPARATIVE DELAWARE SITES

ELEVATION DISTANCE TO SITE DATES LOCATION TYPE (ft asl) SLOPE WATER (miles) SETTING Charles Robinson 1762-1781 Odessa, New Castle Co. Owner 45 2.20% ENE 0.26 Centered on narrow opening of peninsula Plantation (7NC-G-7) bounded by two drainages of Appoquinimink River Augustine Creek North 1750-1810 St. Georges, Tenant 30 5.21% SE 0.05 On sloping margin between open flat agricultural (7NC-G-144) New Castle Co. land and swampy bank of Augustine Creek McKean/Cochran 1750-1800/ Odessa, New Castle Co. Tenant/ 12 1.86% SE 0.06 On margin of short peninsula bounded by ravines (7NC-F-13) 1800-1830 Owner Whitten Road 1750-1830 Glasgow, New Castle Tenant 66 2.04% SSE 0.19 Centered on low ridge on wide peninsula (7NC-D-100) Co. between Christina River and Muddy Run Benjamin Wynn 1765-1822 East Dover, Kent Co. Tenant 21 3.82% NW 0.11 Near margin of broad, flat area between Muddy (7K-C-362) and Dyke branches Rumsey Historic 1780-1820 Middletown, Tenant 54 2.56% NNE 0.09 Near margin of smaller plateau bounded by (7NC-F-121) New Castle Co. unnamed drainages to Great Bohemia Creek Armstrong-Rogers 1740-1824/ St. Georges, Owner/ 59 1.95% SSE 0.04 At head of unnamed drainage to Shallcross Lake, (7NC-F-135) 1824-1850 New Castle Co. Tenant central to larger area of flat land Houston-LeCompt 1780-1849/ St. Georges, Owner/ 68 0.62% ENE 0.17 Centered in area of flat arable land between Scott (7NC-F-139) 1845-1865 New Castle Co. Tenant Run and Drawyer Creek William Hawthorne 1750-1961 Christiana, Owner 69 1.49% NE 0.19 Centered in gently sloping flat area between (7NC-E-46) New Castle Co. White Clay Creek and Christina River H. Grant Tenancy 1800-1870 Christiana, Tenant 166 2.91% NW 0.08 On western margin of small ridge between Little (7NC-B-6) New Castle Co. Mill Creek and Chestnut Run Locust Grove 1820-1870 Odessa, New Castle Co. Owner 50 1.76% W 0.24 Near center of flat peninsula between (7NC-F-73) Appoquinimink River and Drawyer Creek Ferguson-Weber 1820-1900 Ogletown, Owner 81 0.67% NW 0.18 Centered in broad flat area of arable land at head House New Castle Co. of Leatherman’s Run A. Temple 1820-1950 Ogletown, Tenant 77 1.78% NW 0.07 Centered in broad flat area of arable land at head (7NC-D-68) New Castle Co. of Leatherman’s Run Morre-Taylor 1822-1937 Little Creek, Kent Co. Owner 21 0.57% SE 0.18 Centered in opening of small finger of flat land (7K-C-380) between tributary drainages of Dyke Branch Wilson-Lewis 1850-1890 Little Creek, Kent Co. Tenant 22 0.56% N 0.17 Centered on small area of flat between heads of (7K-C-375) tributaries to Muddy Branch and Dyke Branch

227 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

TABLE 63

SOIL CHARACTERISTICS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE, 1770 TO 1940

BUILDING SITE DATES TYPE SOIL SERIES LANDFORMS SOIL PROPERTIES USDA CLASSES LIMITATIONS Cedar Creek Road Site 1740-1780 Slave Downer loamy sand, Fluviomarine terrace, Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land-capability: 1 No Basement: Not limited (7S-C-100) 0-2% Slopes (DnA) flats, knolls ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: A Basement: Not limited Garrison Energy Site 1770-1820 Tenant Tent silt loam, Flats, depressions, Very deep, poorly drained, no flooding, Land-capability: 3w No Basement: Very limited (7K-C-445B) 0-2% slopes (TeA) swales rare ponding, 10-20” to water table Hydro Group: C/D Basement: Very limited Holton/Cann Site 1751-1886 Tenant Lenni silt loam, Flats, depressions Very deep, poorly drained, no flooding, Land-capability: 3w* No Basement: Very limited (7NC-F-129) 0-2% slopes (LhA) rare ponding, 10-20” to water table Hydro Group: D Basement: Very limited Nathan Williams House 1825-1840 Tenant Fallsington sandy loam, Swales, depressions, Very deep, poorly drained, no flooding, Land capability: 5w* No Basement: Very limited Site (7K-C-389) 0-2% slopes (FacA) flats occasional ponding, 10-20” to water table Hydro Group: C/D Basement: Very limited Cann Tenant-Amos Bell 1812-1836/ Tenant/ Reybold silt loam, Flats, interfluves Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e* No Basement: Not limited Site (7NC-F-160) 1838-1865 Owner 2-5% slopes (ReB) ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited J. Armstrong 3 Site 1820-1900 Tenant Reybold-Queponco complex, Flats, interfluves, Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 1* No Basement: Not limited (7NC-F-159) 0-2% slopes (RdA) swales ponding, 40-80” to water table Hydro Group: B/C Basement: Not limited Thomas Bayard Site 1835-1864/ Owner/ Leipsic silt loam, Flats, depressions, Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 2e No Basement: Somewhat (7NC-G-106) 1864-1887 Tenant 2-5% slopes (LeB) swales flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: C Basement: Very limited Samuel Segars Site 1857-1874 Owner Leipsic silt loam, Flats, depressions, Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 2e No Basement: Somewhat (7NC-G-118) 2-5% slopes (LeB) swales flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: C Basement: Very limited Dale Historic Site 1830-1837/ Tenant/ Woodstown loam, Flats, depressions Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 3w* No Basement: Somewhat (7NC-F-134) 1854-1915 Owner 0-2% slopes (WoA) flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: D Basement: Very limited Shallcross & Williams 1866-1890 Tenant Leipsic silt loam, Flats, depressions, Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 2e No Basement: Somewhat Tenant (7NC-G-107) 0-2% slopes (LeA) swales flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: C Basement: Very limited Locus 13 Historic 1866-1890 Tenant Leipsic silt loam, Flats, depressions, Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 2e No Basement: Somewhat Findspot (7NC-G-110) 2-5% slopes (LeB) swales flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: C Basement: Very limited William Dickson Site 1850-1919 Tenant Keyport sandy loam, Fluviomarine terraces, Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 3e* No Basement: Somewhat (7NC-E-82) 5-10% slopes (KhC) hillslopes flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: D Basement: Very limited Bird-Houston Site, 1850-1920 Tenant Reybold silt loam, Flats, interfluves Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e* No Basement: Not limited Locus A (7NC-F-138) 2-5% slopes (ReB) ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy 1844-1934 Tenant Ingleside sandy loam, Flats, fluviomarine Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e No Basement: Not limited No. 2 (7NC-F-64) 2-5% slopes (IgB) terraces, depressions ponding, 40-72” to water table Hydro Group: A Basement: Somewhat Robert Grose House 1860-1923 Owner Keyport silt loam, Flats, fluviomarine Very deep, moderately drained, no Land capability: 3e* No Basement: Somewhat (7NC-G-166) 2-5% slopes (KpB) terraces, depressions flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: D Basement: Very limited Thomas Williams Site II 1875-1922 Owner Unicorn loam, Flats, terraces, knolls Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e No Basement: Not limited (7NC-D-13) 2-5% slopes (UlB) ponding, 40-72” to water table Hydro Group: C Basement: Somewhat Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Tenant Keyport sandy loam, Fluviomarine terrace, Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 3e* No Basement: Very limited (7NC-E-83) 5-10% slopes (KhC) hillslopes flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: D Basement: Very limited Wilson Farm Tenancy 1880-1950 Tenant Reybold silt loam, Flats, interfluves Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e* No Basement: Not limited Site (7NC-F-94) 2-5% slopes (ReB) ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited *Note: Land capability class for non-irrigated lands

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TABLE 64

SOIL CHARACTERISTICS OF SELECTED COMPARATIVE DELAWARE SITES

BUILDING SITE DATES TYPE SOIL SERIES LANDFORMS SOIL PROPERTIES USDA CLASSES LIMITATIONS McKean/Cochran 1750-1800/ Tenant/ Reybold silt loam, Flats, interfluves Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e* No Basement: Not limited (7NC-F-13) 1800-1830 Owner 2-5% slopes (ReB) ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited Augustine Creek 1750-1810 Tenant Reybold silt loam, Flats, interfluves Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 3e* No Basement: Not limited North (7NC-G-144) 5-10% slopes (ReC) ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited Whitten Road 1750-1830 Tenant Sassafras sandy loam, Knolls, Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e No Basement: Not limited (7NC-D-100) 2-5% slopes (SaB) fluviomarine ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited terraces, interfluves Charles Robinson 1762-1781 Owner Sassafras sandy loam, Knolls, Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e No Basement: Not limited Plantation (7NC-G-7) 2-5% slopes (SaB) fluviomarine ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited terraces, interfluves Benjamin Wynn 1765-1820 Tenant Unicorn loam, 2-5% slopes Flats, terraces, Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e No Basement: Not limited (7K-C-362) (UlB) knolls ponding, 40-72” to water table Hydro Group: C Basement: Somewhat Rumsey Historic 1780-1820 Tenant Reybold silt loam, Flats, interfluves Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e* No Basement: Not limited (7NC-F-121) 2-5% slopes (ReB) ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited Armstrong-Rogers 1740-1824/ Owner/ Reybold silt loam, Flats, interfluves Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e* No Basement: Not limited (7NC-F-135) 1824-1850 Tenant 2-5% slopes (ReB) ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: B Basement: Not limited Houston-LeCompt 1780-1849/ Owner/ Reybold-Queponco complex Flats, interfluves, Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 1* No Basement: Not limited (7NC-F-139) 1845-1865 Tenant (RdA) swales ponding, 40-80” to water table Hydro Group: B/C Basement: Not limited William Hawthorne 1750-1961 Owner Elsinboro-Delanco-Urban Stream terraces Deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 2ew* No Basement: Not limited (7NC-E-46) land complex, flooding or ponding, variable depth to Hydro Group: B/C Basement: Not limited 0-8% slopes (ErB) water table H. Grant Tenancy 1800-1870 Tenant Glenville silt loam, Drainageways Deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 2e* No Basement: Somewhat (7NC-B-6) 3-8% slopes (GnB) flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: D Basement: Very limited Locust Grove 1820-1870 Owner Matapeake silt loam, Knolls, flats Very deep, well drained, no flooding or Land capability: 2e No Basement: Not limited (7NC-F-73) 2-5% slopes (MkB) ponding, > 80” to water table Hydro Group: C Basement: Not limited Ferguson-Weber 1820-1900 Owner Fallsington-Urban land Flats, depressions, Very deep, poorly drained, no flooding, Land capability: 3w No Basement: Very limited House complex, 0-5% slopes (FzB) swales rare ponding, 10-20” to water table Hydro Group: B/D Basement: Very limited A. Temple 1820-1950 Tenant Ingleside-Hammonton- Flats, fluviomarine Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 2e No Basement: Not limited (7NC-D-68) Fallsington complex, terraces, depressions flooding or ponding, 20-72” to water table Hyrdo Group A/B Basement: Somewhat 0-5% slopes (ImB) Morre-Taylor 1822-1937 Owner Woodstown loam, Depressions, flats, Very deep, moderately well drained, no Land capability: 2w No Basement: Somewhat (7K-C-380) 0-2% slopes (WoA) drainageways flooding or ponding, 20-40” to water table Hydro Group: C Basement: Very limited Wilson-Lewis 1850-1890 Tenant Lenni sandy loam, Depressions, Very deep, poorly drained, no flooding, Land capability: 3w No Basement: Very limited (7K-C-375) 0-2% slopes (LfA) swales, flats occasional ponding, 0-10” to water table Hydro Group: D Basement: Very limited *Note: Land capability class for non-irrigated lands

229 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

Ratings developed by the USDA of limitations for dwellings are based on the soil characteristics that affect the ability of soils to support structural loads as well as cost of excavation and construction. These properties include water table depth, depth to bedrock subsidence, shrink- swell potential, compressibility, slope, and the amount and size of rocks. Ratings range from “Not limited,” indicating very favorable conditions, through “somewhat limited,” indicating that minor alteration of planning or design could overcome the limitation. The lowest rating of “very limited” indicates one or more properties that are unfavorable for building that would require major soil reclamation, special design, or large expense to overcome. These ratings are generated for dwellings, meaning a single-family home of up to three stories, both with and without basements. Dwellings without basements are assumed to include concrete footings built at a depth of up to 2 feet, dwellings with basements include full concrete footings built on soils at a depth of about 7 feet (USDA 2015). Although these specific assumptions may not translate directly to construction practices throughout the periods of occupation of all sites considered, the ratings assess the soil characteristics that would make sites generally more or less favorable for past construction, including those with more substantial sub-grade basements and cellars.

All 18 African American sites are located on soil types that are characterized as very deep, meaning there are more than 80 inches of soil before reaching restrictive features such as bedrock (see Table 63). All are rated as having no or rare risks for frequent surface flooding or ponding. However, water retention and permeability denote some of the greatest identifiable distinctions between the soil types. Seven sites are listed as well drained with more than 40 to 80 inches to the water table, but eight sites are only moderately well drained with water table depths ranging from 20 to 40 inches. The remaining three sites (Garrison Energy, Holton-Cann, and the Nathan Williams House) are poorly drained with shallow water tables only 10 to 20 inches below ground surface.

For all 18 African American sites in consideration, average land capability classification is 2.39, generally indicating moderate limitations reducing plant choice or requiring mitigating activity (see Table 63). The letter codes associated with the sites are “e,” indicating a susceptibility to erosion or the effects of past erosion at 12 sites (66 percent), and “w,” indicating excess water owing to poor drainage, high water table, or overflow as the dominant limitation at four sites (22 percent).

Hydrologic groupings range from A to D, although are most typically C or D, indicating that runoff potential is the likely cause of erosional limitations. Building limitations for dwellings without basements are generally moderate or not present, although four sites have very limited ratings. Limitations for buildings with basements are more severe, with 11 of the 18 sites rated very limited for more substantial constructions. When the African American sites are divided between tenants and owners, only very minor variations exist in the general tendencies of these soil ratings, with slightly better hydrological groupings for tenants and slightly better building limitations for land owners. One sites stands out because of its high ratings for all agricultural and building limitations: the Cedar Creek Road Site, the earliest and only likely slave-occupied site in the group.

The group of selected comparative Euro-American sites in Delaware (see Table 64) has a similar range of land capability, hydrological group, and building limitation ratings to the African American sites, although central tendencies are slightly higher in every respect for Euro-American sites. As a whole these sites have an average capability class of 2.13, indicating moderate limitation

230 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

on agricultural practices, with 11 of the 15 sites (73 percent) classified as subclass “e,” denoting erosion as the limiting factor, and four sites (27 percent) as subclass “w,” indicating excess water conditions. Hydrological groupings for the comparative sites are most commonly B group, indicating slightly less runoff potential than the African American sites. Building limitations for dwellings both with and without basements average between not limited and somewhat limited, with a clear temporal trend: later sites such as those dating to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are less favorable for construction. This trend appears linked with lower hydrological groupings, poorer drainage, and high water tables. When the Euro-American sites are divided between land-owing and tenant occupants, no large variances are apparent. Compared with the African American sites, Euro-American landowners have a slightly better average land capability rating than tenants, although they are slightly more limited for construction than tenants.

It would appear African American sites are located on sites with soils that are rated as slightly less favorable for agriculture and the construction of dwellings largely because of hydrological factors such as slow drainage, high water tables, and erosion from runoff potential. Given the small sample sizes and relatively minor distinctions between groups of sites, basic statistical tests help clarify the degree of certainty of these subtle findings. The Student’s T test is used to evaluate the likelihood that two samples have come from same underlying population using a p-value: the percent chance that the observed difference is caused by the vagaries of sampling. The lower the p-value, the more likely it is that any difference in sample means reflects a genuine difference in the underlying populations. In this case the T-test can be employed to evaluate whether the observed differences in land capability, hydrological grouping, and building limitations among African American, Euro-American, owner, and tenant-occupied sites are statistically significant. For ratings that are categorical, such as hydrological group and building limitation, a simple scale was used with the number 1 equaling the highest rating such as hydrological group A or no building limitation, the number 2 equaling hydrological group B and “somewhat” limited” building limitation, and so on. Different academic fields typically employ a range of p-value thresholds for rejecting the null hypothesis of the T-test, which would mean a significant finding. Social sciences typically have lower thresholds, although most range between 0.05 and 0.15. Taking a p-value of 0.15 as the threshold for significance means that only results that have less than a 15 percent chance of being caused by the vagaries of sampling are considered strong enough to assert that the observed difference is significant.

As seen in Table 65, the slightly lower ratings for hydrological group and building limitations found in African American sites as compared with Euro-American sites are statistically significant at the p<0.15 level, although land capability is just over the threshold for significance. The comparison of tenant- and owner-occupied sites within African American and Euro-American site groups shows no statistically significant difference in any rating at the p<0.15 level. Other comparisons significant at the p<0.15 level exist and all indicate slightly less favorable ratings and classifications for African American sites in relation to Euro-American sites regardless of tenant or landowner status (see Table 65). Interestingly, even sites occupied by landowning African Americans have soils with lower hydrological group assignments and more severe building limitations for dwellings with basements than soils at sites occupied by Euro-American tenants.

231 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

TABLE 65

STUDENT’S T-TEST* COMPARING MEAN USDA SOIL RATINGS BETWEEN SITES IN DELAWARE

LAND HYDROLOGICAL BUILDING LIMITATION SITE GROUPINGS CAPABILITY GROUP NO BASEMENT BASEMENT All African American v. Euro-American 0.16 0.13 0.06 0.02 African American: tenants v. owners 0.41 0.20 0.23 0.29 Euro-American: tenants v. owners 0.19 0.49 0.45 0.36 Tenants: African American v. Euro-American 0.32 0.32 0.08 0.13 Owners: African American v. Euro-American 0.13 0.06 0.24 0.04 African American tenants vs Euro-American 0.14 0.27 0.19 0.08 owners African American owners vs Euro-American 0.38 0.11 0.20 0.07 tenants * Highlighted values are statistically significant at the p < 0.15-level. Note: Student’s T-test parameters include one tail, unequal variance

Taken as a whole, the comparison of soil properties indicates that archaeological sites of African Americans in Delaware, both tenant and landowning, were likely to occupy areas with slightly lower quality conditions for farming and constructing buildings, and those minor differences do appear to be statistically valid. The reasons for these distinctions are undoubtedly found in the history of chattel slavery, racial discrimination, and socio-economic marginalization faced by African Americans in the past. These factors likely resulted in African American tenants of white landowners being placed on less valuable land, as well as African American landowners being less able to purchase higher quality sites because of economic limitations, social pressure to stay among emerging African American communities, and external pressure from Euro-American communities less willing to sell land to African Americans. Almost assuredly, a combination of several such factors led to the trends identified.

Some sites, such as the Cedar Creek Road Site, do not adhere to the general pattern of African American sites’ location on slightly lower quality soils than contemporaneous Euro-American sites. Cedar Creek is the earliest site, the only slave quarter, and the only site located in Sussex County among the assemblage of African-American sites considered in this review. Perhaps Euro- American landowners in southern Delaware located slave quarters close to the most productive agricultural areas, where the slaves worked, whereas African American tenants and landowners farther north and later in time had access only to less desirable parcels. Would the trends identified in the synthesis above eventually come to pass later in Sussex County? As is the case with most synthetic efforts, identifying the cases that do not conform to a trend is often just as informative as finding a pattern and can lead to significant new research questions. One research question identified in this context is the comparison between African American site location in northern Delaware and in other regions. This comparison has also identified the fact that slave contexts remain a critical data gap in the archaeological record of Delaware.

In addition to the natural soil and geographic factors discussed above, the locations of African American sites and comparative Euro-American sites were plotted against historical mapping to assess how elements of the built environment factored into site location, such as proximity to roads, intersections, villages, mills, and other structures. Sites dating primarily to the eighteenth and early

232 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware nineteenth centuries were plotted against a digital geodatabase of eighteenth-century transportation, trade, and other cultural landscape elements synthesized from historical and cartographic research undertaken by Hunter Research, Inc. (Hunter) as part of a historic context alternative mitigation for the Reedy Island Cart Road Site 4 (Burrow and Harshbarger 2016). Sites dating primarily to the second half of nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries were mapped against the georeferenced digital images of the Pomeroy & Beers (1868) atlas (Delaware Geological Survey 2016).

Eighteenth-century sites were defined generally as those with beginning occupation dates prior to 1800. For African American-occupied sites, the Holton-Cann Site is the only site within the study area defined by Hunter’s synthesis, which includes the southern half of New Castle County. Other eighteenth-century African American sites, such as the Cedar Creek Road and Garrison Energy sites, are located in Sussex and Kent counties, respectively, and no detailed synthesis of mapped features is currently available for those areas. Several Euro-American-occupied sites, such as the Whitten Road and Benjamin Wynn sites, were similarly excluded because they are located outside Hunter’s study area. Therefore the Cann Tenant-Amos Bell Site (1812-1865) was included in the eighteenth-century grouping as the majority of its occupation predated the information from Pomeroy & Beers (1868).

Table 66 shows the distances from each of the eighteenth-century sites to the nearest cultural feature included in Hunter’s synthesis (Burrow and Harshbarger 2016). The distances were averaged by African American and Euro-American occupations to assess any possible differences between the two groups. The Student’s T-test was again used to evaluate the statistical significance of the differences between the means. The very limited number of sites available, especially in the African American group, should be stressed, and these initial findings should be taken as tentative.

Many of the differences in proximity to the mapped cultural features between African American and Euro-American sites are quite minimal and have low statistical significance (p>0.15). These potentially non-significant variables include proximity to other known eighteenth-century sites or historic structures, proximity to villages or towns, and proximity to inland creek landings, roads, road intersections, and taverns. African American sites appear slightly closer to villages, roads, and taverns, but farther from known sites and structures. This could suggest concurrence with Skelcher’s (1995b) findings that African American sites tend to cluster among themselves, along transportation routes in the countryside or on the margin of more settled towns, although again the limited sample size and low statistical significance makes this interpretation weak at best.

Proximity to anchorages and fisheries, both coastal features, is a more distinct and statistically significant difference between African American and Euro-American sites in this comparison (see Table 66). Euro-American sites are generally closer to each of these maritime economy features, suggesting an orientation of Euro-American farmers and tenants toward the coast, or perhaps a higher valuation of land nearer these features. Euro-American sites also appear to be located closer to mills, stores, and inns than African American sites. The location of stores and inns coincides so closely in the towns of Port Penn, St. Georges, and Odessa that proximity to these features was consistent for each site and the features were combined to form a single variable. Mills are somewhat more evenly spread throughout the countryside. In both cases, however, the two African American sites are located slightly farther from these important nodes of commerce. On average,

233 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

African American sites are mapped closer to churches (1.16 miles) as compared to Euro-American sites (1.90 miles), suggesting the possibility that congregational ties may have been prominent features in the development of later African American communities, even in more dispersed rural settings.

The nineteenth-century collection of sites is larger, and more inclusive of known African American sites. Coverage of the maps included all of Delaware, so sites located outside southern New Castle County were retained and included in the analysis. The cultural features included on the Pomeroy & Beers (1868) atlas are similar, although not identical to those mapped by Hunter’s eighteenth- century synthesis. The atlas appears to be a relatively reliable record of nearly all structures, although labeling conventions are limited to landowner, with some indication of schools, churches, stores, and factories. In this case, proximity to the nearest mapped structure was recorded, as was distance to the nearest road, intersection, church, and store. New features such as railroads and schools were included in the nineteenth-century groupings, along with proximity to the closest other archaeological site. Given the higher number and more even distribution of sites in the nineteenth-century grouping, these distances should give a relative indication of whether the sites tend to cluster with others in their own racial category. Settlements were also split into two sizes for the nineteenth-century analysis: a village or hamlet was any named but unincorporated cluster of more than 10 structures, whereas towns and cities included municipalities that included their own detailed inset maps. In many cases features such as churches, stores, and schools are located with the nearest town or city.

As shown in Table 67, many of the differences in the average distances between African American and Euro-American sites in the nineteenth-century are statistically significant (p<0.15). African American sites tend to be very slightly more distant from the nearest mapped structure, indicating the possibility of a degree of isolation. African American sites are generally farther from larger towns and cities, but may be closer to smaller outlying hamlets and villages near road intersections, matching well with Skelcher’s (1995b) concept of an African American rural community. Stores, largely outside the larger towns, tend to be located at rural intersections, and African American sites are nearly a half-mile closer to those features also.

Euro-American sites are generally located closer to larger towns and cities in the nineteenth century (see Table 67), as well as to the railroad lines that ran north-south down the state linking those major centers of population and commerce. In an interesting reversal from the eighteenth- century findings, Euro-American sites in the nineteenth century are on average located closer to churches than African American sites. This may be correlated to the location of mainly white churches in larger towns, such as several labeled Presbyterian churches in Middletown and Newark; other denominations, including Baptist and what is indicated by Pomeroy & Beers as “Aff. Church,” are found in more rural settings. There may also be a bias in the recording of African American churches, as they may have been omitted or overlooked owing to social prejudices. Euro-American sites are generally located closer to schoolhouses, although no distinction is made in the labeling of “S.H.” for schoolhouses between those early schools for African Americans and those for whites. As discussed in Chapter IV, the creation of dedicated schools for African American students occurred largely after the Pomeroy & Beers (1868) atlas was printed. Not surprisingly, evidence of segregation of African American communities in the nineteenth century is readily apparent from the large and highly significant difference in proximity

234 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

TABLE 66

DISTANCE (MILES) TO NEAREST MAPPED CULTURAL FEATURES FROM EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SITES

SITES/ VILLAGE/ ANCHO- INTER- STORE/ SITES DATES TYPE BUILDING TOWN RAGE FISHERY LANDING ROAD SECTION CHURCH MILL TAVERN INN African American Holton/Cann Site 1751-1886 Tenant 1.62 1.49 9.31 7.85 2.18 0.18 0.51 1.02 2.65 1.64 3.99 Cann Tenant-Amos 1812-1836/ Tenant/ 0.71 2.08 8.49 7.34 2.99 0.11 0.21 1.29 2.30 2.11 3.63 Bell Site 1838-1865 Owner Average 1.16 1.79 8.90 7.60 2.59 0.15 0.36 1.16 2.48 1.88 3.81 Euro-American Charles Robinson 1762-1781 Owner 0.39 1.47 6.50 3.63 1.17 0.28 0.40 1.56 1.84 3.61 1.47 Plantation Augustine Creek 1750-1810 Tenant 0.89 3.45 4.16 4.51 3.16 0.16 0.46 1.23 2.02 1.07 3.45 North McKean/Cochran 1750-1800/ Tenant/ 0.66 0.63 7.45 4.97 0.32 0.43 0.89 1.42 0.39 2.13 1.44 1800-1830 Owner Armstrong-Rogers 1740-1824/ Owner/ 0.62 2.71 8.05 7.20 3.55 0.01 0.02 1.88 2.44 2.69 3.65 1824-1850 Tenant Rumsey Historic 1780-1820 Tenant 1.57 1.62 10.69 8.78 1.92 0.35 0.43 2.10 3.13 1.88 4.86 Houston-LeCompt 1780-1849/ Owner/ 0.78 3.79 6.70 6.54 4.27 0.05 0.08 3.19 2.03 2.56 3.79 1845-1865 Tenant Average 0.82 2.28 7.26 5.94 2.39 0.21 0.38 1.90 1.97 2.32 3.11 Student’s T-test P-value between groups 0.29 0.22 0.07 0.05 0.39 0.20 0.47 0.03 0.13 0.17 0.14

235 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

TABLE 67

DISTANCE (MILES) TO NEAREST MAPPED CULTURAL FEATURES FROM NINETEENTH-CENTURY SITES

AFRICAN EURO- MAPPED VILLAGE/ TOWN/ INTER- RAIL AMERICAN AMERICAN SITES DATES TYPE STRUCTURE HAMLET CITY ROAD SECTION ROAD CHURCH STORE SCHOOL SITE SITE African American J. Armstrong 3 1820-1900 Tenant 0.17 0.41 2.34 0.03 0.41 0.19 2.57 0.37 1.76 0.19 3.21 Thomas Bayard 1835-1864/ Owner/ 0.17 2.20 2.38 0.28 0.72 5.36 2.55 2.21 1.30 0.36 3.20 1864-1887 Tenant Samuel Segars 1857-1874 Owner 0.14 2.75 3.00 0.06 0.13 5.94 3.12 2.65 1.08 0.43 3.78 Dale Historic 1830-1837/ Tenant/ 0.30 0.45 2.34 0.20 0.45 0.38 2.63 0.41 1.93 0.19 3.38 1854-1915 Owner Shallcross & Williams 1866-1890 Tenant 0.30 2.22 2.73 0.04 0.50 5.50 2.87 2.23 0.93 0.23 3.50 Tenant House Locus 13 Historic 1866-1890 Tenant 0.14 0.92 2.57 0.04 0.73 5.31 3.00 2.00 0.97 0.23 3.34 Findspot William Dickson II 1850-1919 Tenant 0.05 0.10 0.10 0.09 0.10 1.97 0.23 0.23 1.86 0.01 1.53 Bird-Houston, Locus A 1850-1920 Tenant 0.32 1.05 3.54 0.38 0.55 0.84 3.70 1.03 0.75 1.63 3.37 Jacob B. Cazier 1844-1934 Tenant 0.20 0.62 7.53 0.01 0.13 2.15 2.00 1.05 0.68 3.26 8.04 Tenancy No. 2 Robert Grose House 1860-1923 Owner 0.20 0.38 0.58 0.04 0.38 6.19 0.69 0.72 0.64 3.23 6.16 Thomas Williams II 1875-1922 Owner 0.07 0.27 5.00 0.12 0.22 2.13 0.28 0.28 0.20 3.26 4.91 Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Tenant 0.05 0.10 0.10 0.09 0.10 1.97 0.23 0.23 1.86 0.01 1.53 Wilson Farm Tenancy 1880-1950 Tenant 0.08 1.00 2.03 0.01 0.29 1.06 2.93 0.98 2.15 1.16 3.68 Average 0.17 0.96 2.63 0.11 0.36 3.00 2.06 1.11 1.24 1.09 3.82 Euro-American William Hawthorne 1750-1961 Owner 0.14 1.00 1.57 0.35 0.95 0.48 1.98 1.00 1.95 1.53 2.51 H. Grant Tenancy 1800-1870 Tenant 0.16 1.29 1.89 0.12 0.16 1.50 1.22 1.89 0.42 6.95 5.73 Locust Grove 1820-1870 Owner 0.16 2.66 0.60 0.03 0.75 2.55 0.70 0.87 0.74 3.19 N/A Ferguson-Weber House 1820-1900 Owner 0.05 0.81 1.88 0.03 0.37 0.67 1.78 2.47 0.81 2.69 0.14 A. Temple 1820-1950 Tenant 0.06 0.58 1.96 0.01 0.42 0.68 2.02 2.32 0.70 2.55 0.14 Morre-Taylor 1822-1937 Owner 0.20 1.08 2.15 0.01 0.08 1.06 1.26 1.13 0.33 N/A 0.39 Wilson-Lewis 1850-1890 Tenant 0.15 1.00 2.28 0.05 0.47 1.00 1.36 1.19 0.66 N/A 0.39 Average 0.13 1.20 1.76 0.09 0.46 1.13 1.47 1.55 0.80 3.38 1.55 Student’s T-test P-value between groups 0.14 0.25 0.08 0.36 0.24 0.01 0.08 0.11 0.06 0.03 0.03

236 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

between sites based on race. African American sites are on average located within about a mile of each other, but generally 3 miles from the nearest Euro-American-occupied sites.

This locational analysis, although far from comprehensive, does lend support to some of the earlier attempts to characterize African American settlement patterns in northern Delaware. African American sites appear to be located on slightly more marginal settings, nearer slopes, and on soils slightly less favorable for agriculture and building structures than their white counterparts. They tend to cluster among other locations of African Americans occupations on the outskirts of smaller villages near road intersections, and one of the earliest features defining these rural African American communities is likely the locations of churches. By contrast Euro-American farms and tenancies are more likely to be located nearer larger towns and other important economic locations such as mills, anchorages, railroads, and stores.

b. Site Layout

The layout of rural eighteenth-century farms has been described as rather random and not conforming either to modern conceptions of traditional farmhouses or to the late eighteenth- century Georgian style of symmetry and order in landscape design (Bedell 2001:90, 2002:61). However, research associated with the mitigation of the Noxon Tenancy Site (7NC-F-133) suggested that a subtle progression did occur during the eighteenth century with later farms exhibiting more formally organized spatial plans with more defined separation of activity areas and roughly rectilinear arrangements. Earlier tenant farms with less organized spatial arrangements were interpreted as being more focused on agricultural production and household subsistence, whereas sites with more differentiated space and formal areas were associated with more specialized economic activities (Wilkins et al. 2015:203). These interpretations were limited to largely to Euro-American sites in northern Delaware from the mid-eighteenth century through the early nineteenth century.

A similar assessment of the 18 African American-occupied sites is less straightforward. Seven of the sites in consideration were investigated only at the Phase I level, uncovering very little of the larger site layout. Five sites were investigated at the Phase II level, revealing perhaps some general indication of structure locations or activity areas. The most complete understanding of site layouts comes from the six sites that have undergone Phase III data recovery excavations.

The Cedar Creek Road Site, as the only slave occupation and only site from Sussex County, is somewhat of an outlier in the collection of sites. As discussed in other studies of slave site layout in the Upper South, the layout at the site was mostly directed by the slaveowner to create an economically efficient space (Epperson 1999; Upton 1985). The site appears to be a formally laid out compound of at least three quarter structures defining three sides of a square open to the west facing a road and a possible overseer’s house (Figure 104). The quarter area, Area A, includes numerous exterior yard activity areas — garden, smoking pits, an iron bloomer — suggesting that the open yard in the center of the area was more of productive work yard than formal space. Other industrial activities were located farther east in Area C, including a large borrow pit and brick clamps. Supervision was present from the overseer’s house, and movement within as well as to and from the site could be observed by plantation management. The activities in the yards included

237 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

production for the households of the enslaved, such as the garden, as well as producing agricultural and industrial goods for the owner.

The Garrison Energy Site, while only excavated at the Phase II level, included an extensive geophysical and geochemistry survey, which provided suggestions of several discrete activity areas, including a cleaner area in what is interpreted as the front yard. Gall and Modina (2013:5- 90) suggest the likely influence of traditional African American practices such as yard sweeping and a dichotomous division of work and social areas. This kind of yard maintenance has been an active theme in the archaeology of slavery in Virginia. Following Heath and Bennett’s (2000) call for more contextualized and methodologically rigorous treatment of yard spaces, Fesler’s (2010) recent work at the Utopia quarters and Lawrence’s (2007) study of the Bridgeway Site have suggested specific practices of quarter arrangement and yard sweeping as possible African American practices with West African antecedents. More recent work highlighting artifact size distributions as particularly indicative of clean or swept spaces (Bon-Harper 2010) has shown evidence of the practice in both African American and Native American cultures (Bon-Harper and McReynolds 2011). The assertion that areas around African American dwellings that are relatively free of artifact or soil chemical concentrations are evidence of sweeping is tentative, but the continued development of rigorous spatial analysis could potentially add to the growing body of research that suggests the use of outdoor space was an important component in African American material culture.

Several mid- to late nineteenth-century African American tenant sites appear to have more active and refuse-rich rear and side yards, with cleaner and perhaps formal front yards. These include the Thomas Bayard House Site, where small test units between the extant house and garage identified a transition from an artifact-rich back or service yard in the mid- to late nineteenth century to a cleaner space coinciding with architectural evidence of changes in the door used as a primary

238 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware entrance (Heite 1990:43). Other sites, including Locus A of the Bird-Houston Site, the Robert Grose Site, the Heisler Tenancy, and Wilson Farm Tenancy, have similar indications of cleaner front yards with more evidence of household activities and refuse disposal to the side or rear of the dwellings (A.D. Marble 2003; Affleck et al. 2011:9.7; Bedell et al. 2015:108; Catts et al. 1989:324).

The Thomas Williams and Jacob B. Cazier sites, both excavated at the Phase III level by the University of Delaware’s Center for Archaeological Research, yielded the most complete picture of site layouts for late nineteenth to early twentieth century sites. The later component of the Thomas Williams site included the remains of African American owner-occupied farm from 1846 to 1922. Outbuildings, the well, and a possible garden are located around the eastern and southern portions of the yard, with multiple privy pits located to the west and further from the house (Figure 105). The structure is interpreted as facing south, with the highest artifact and soils chemistry concentrations in the northeastern quadrant of the site. The excavators (Catts and Custer 1990:218- 233) interpreted architectural remains, artifact, and soil chemistry distributions of the site in terms of the farmstead proxemics model developed by Moir (1987) during investigations of similar dating farm sites in Texas. The space surrounding the Williams-Stump house within the fence lines was termed the inner active yard, and the outer active yard was located outside the fence and contained the privies.

The Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy No. 2 site was also interpreted in terms of Moir’s (1987) farmstead proxemics. The majority of landscape features at the site related to occupation of African American tenants Nicholas Stevenson and his descendants. These included two privies, several trash pits,

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and numerous postholes associated with fence lines and several outbuildings. In the late nineteenth century, the outbuildings and privy were separated from the inner active yard and dwelling by a central fence line (Figure 106). The fence continued along the north and south sides of the house, creating a total inner yard of 600 square feet (Hoseth et al. 1994). The only improvement located inside the inner yard was a well that was situated on the east side of the property, between the house and Route 896. The Stevenson family maintained a small garden just north of the privy, at the northwest corner of the lot. By the early twentieth century, the residents were no longer working on-site and were fewer in number, leading to reduction in the size of both the house and yard.

While Moir’s (1987) classification scheme is a useful organizational model for comparisons, some of his conclusions about the Texas sites are noticeably distinct from findings in Delaware. While the location of outbuildings and fence lines do tend to delineate the boundary between inner and outer active yard spaces, Moir’s findings that outer active yards were less maintained and more heavily used than inner yards spaces in Texas is not apparent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century African American yards in Delaware. Instead the inner yards appear to surround the house and have areas of both heavy use and more maintained spaces, defined in relation to the dwelling with the ‘front’ yard being a more formal clean space and heavily utilized areas for activities and refuse around the sides and front. Perhaps the smaller-scale house and garden plots characteristic of tenant farmers and laborers influenced the way in which residents could define outdoor space. The proxemics model is a very interesting mode of organization that allows for intersite comparison, and could potentially be extended into earlier time periods, though more complete investigations of the areas surrounding dwellings are needed for African American sites of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century in Delaware.

A comparative synthesis of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Euro American site layouts in Delaware was done by Grettler et al. (1996) in their report on excavations at the Moore-Taylor, Benjamin Wynn, and Wilson-Lewis sites near Dover in Kent County. They found that by the end

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of the eighteenth-century many farms included hollow square arrangement of dwelling and major outbuildings around a central work area. Through the nineteenth century, the hollow square was less frequent, and replaced by an increased separation between domestic and agricultural activity areas. The agricultural areas were located behind the house and included a high number of specialized outbuildings. Tenant sites were observed to have fewer outbuildings, which Grettler et al. (1996:215) link to the relative degree of economic specialization at each farm, and poorer tenant farmers had fewer numbers of specialized outbuildings. Several of the later farms also had clearly defined front yards, which were more formal, cleaner, and oriented towards the nearest road. This seems somewhat similar to the African American sites discussed above, though they do not indications of highly segregated agricultural complexes with numerous specialized outbuildings.

c. Architecture

Herman’s (1987) study of rural architecture in northern Delaware remains a seminal work on the subject, and he provides a rich description of house forms, construction, and styles as they transform through the eighteenth to early twentieth-centuries. His research has suggested that tenant structures were generally of built of less expensive materials and of smaller sizes than owner-occupied homes, and that tenants generally have fewer outbuildings. As both Herman (1987) and Bedell (2002) have noted, the study of historic architecture tends to be dominated by standing structures, which are generally not representative for the full range of housing stock in the past. Bedell’s synthesis of eighteenth-century sites indicated a wide variety of domestic architecture including post-in-ground, sill-laid frame and log houses, the use of piers, as well as full foundations of stone and brick. Many of the sites contained only partial post patterns and shallow cellar features. Interestingly, tenant structures described in Orphan’s Court proceedings of the late eighteenth-century include a variety of sizes and qualities (Bedell 2002:17). Bedell (2002:57) recommended that further research could contribute to the understanding of housing simply through the accumulation of more data to assess whether variations in house forms and sizes corresponded with certain regions, ethnicities, or households. This constitutes the principle goal of the following synthesis of housing on African American sites in Delaware and their comparison with Euro American architecture.

Of the African American sites excavated at a level sufficient to give fuller impressions of domestic architecture, only the Cedar Creek Road Site dates from the late-eighteenth century and includes indications of at least three post-in-ground structures with sub-floor pit features (Table 68), which is very similar to slave quarters found in eighteenth-century Chesapeake plantations (Heath 2010b). Interestingly, the principle use of earthfast architecture also coincides with earlier Euro American housing stock such as the John Powell and William Strickland sites dating to the late seventeenth through mid-eighteenth centuries (Bedell 2002).

Evidence for the architecture of the dwellings on many of the early nineteenth-century African American sites is simply unknown, such as at the Cann Tenant-Amos Bell, J. Armstrong 3, Samuel Segar, Shall & Williams, and Locus 13 Findspot sites. This is largely because of the Phase I level of investigation of these sites. Artifacts recovered in most of these investigations did contain brick, nail, and window glass fragments indicating at least some kind of wood frame structure with brick chimneys or piers, and at least one glazed window. Several more intensively investigated sites, including the Garrison Energy, Samuel Dale and Nathan Williams sites left very little in the way

241 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

of structural features, leading excavators to only tentative conjectures about the presence of log or frame constructions laid directly on the ground or small brick piers, fitting well with Herman’s (1987) concepts of housing typical for tenants of the time period.

TABLE 68

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SELECTED SITES IN DELAWARE

OCCU- DWELLING SITE NAME DATE PANT DIMENSIONS STORIES SIZE (SQ FT) ARCHITECTURE OUTBUILDINGS African American Sites Cedar Creek Road 1740-1780 Slave 36x24’ 1 864 post-in-ground with sub- smoking pits, iron (Structure 1) floor pits bloomer, garden Thomas Bayard 1835-1864/ Owner/ Unknown 2 unknown extant wood frame hall- corn crib, barn, 1864-1887 Tenant parlor stables Thomas Williams II 1846-1922 Owner 27x17’ 1.5 689 frame hall-parlor with well, dairy, garden, stone-lined cellar tool shed William Dickson II 1850-1919 Tenant 20x24’ 1.5 720 frame on stone unknown foundations Jacob B. Cazier No. 2 1844-1934 Tenant 17x17’ + 17x9’ 2 731 brick, full cellar and well, privy, garden, wooden porch shed Robert Grose House 1860-1923 Owner 26.5x16.5’ + 1.5 968 frame hall, addition on unknown 21x26’ brick piers Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Tenant 12x21’ 2 630 frame on stone foundation privy, well Wilson Farm 1880-1950 Tenant 16x24’ 1.5 624 frame on brick foundation well Tenancy

Euro American Sites Charles Robinson 1762-1781 Owner 23x17’ 1 621 stone foundations in full 2 post-in-ground basement structures McKean/Cochran I 1750-1800 Tenant 15x18’ 1.5? 405 stone foundations in full 2 barns basement Whitten Road 1750-1830 Tenant 24x28’ 1.5? 924 post-in-ground 2 barns Benjamin Wynn 1765-1820 Tenant 24x30’ + 8x24’ 1? 912 partial post-in-ground blacksmith shop with cellar McKean/Cochran II 1800-1830 Owner 18x28’ 2? 1,008 stone foundations in full dairy basement Thomas Williams I 1790-1850 Tenant 22x16’ 1.5 528 stone-lined cellar with unknown posts Houston-LeCompt 1780-1849/ Owner/ 15x26 ’ + 8x6’ 2 738 weather-boarded log, kitchen, stable, well 1845-1865 Tenant brick and stone cellar H. Grant Tenancy 1800-1870 Tenant 16x15.5’ + 6x16.5’ 2 595 stone foundations in full 1 unknown structure basement Locust Grove 1820-1870 Owner 18x37’ + 18x11’ 2 1,332 Greek revival-style frame 2 sheds, pole barn, pool house William Hawthorn 1750-1961 Owner 29x21’ + 12x21’ 2 1,470 log on stone foundations unknown Ferguson-Weber 1820-1900 Owner 16x24’ + 18x15’ 2 1,173 2-bay frame on stone chicken house, barn House foundation, full basement Moore-Taylor 1822-1937 Owner 24x12’ + 20x12’ 1.5 738 frame on brick piers and 3 outbuildings, 5 wooden posts wells A. Temple 1820-1950 Tenant 16x24’ + 16x20’ 2 1,248 frame with stone-lined 6 outbuildings, 2 cellar privies, well Wilson-Lewis 1850-1890 Tenant 20x20’ + 8x12’ + 1 556 sill-laid frame, post-in- stable 6x10’ ground additions

242 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

African American sites excavated more fully or containing extant structures tend to date to the mid-nineteenth through early-twentieth centuries, and mostly include one and one half to two- story wood frame hall-parlor plans built on stone foundations or cellars (see Table 68). The Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy No. 2 is a notable exception, as it is the only house built of brick masonry, though this may be largely due to the dual role of the structure as both gatehouse and tenants lodging for the land-owning Cazier family. None of the structures appear to have overly decorative or high-style elements, and appear to conform to vernacular building traditions.

By contrast, most of the structures at the comparative Euro American sites feature full stone foundations in basements, though notable exceptions include the earliest phase of post-in-ground structures the Whitten Road site and the log constructions at the Houston-LeCompt and William Hawthorn sites. Less substantial footings including brick piers, wooden posts, and ground-laid sills were also observed for the Moore-Taylor site and Wilson-Lewis site in Kent County. Most of the structures would be considered vernacular in style, though the original portion of extant structure at the Locust Grove site was built in the Greek-revival style (see Table 68).

One of the principal distinctions between domestic architecture of social groups observed in Delaware has been house size, with tenant houses appearing to conform to smaller first floor areas than owner-occupied houses. Several studies have suggested that the boundary between the groups appears to be around 450 to 500 square feet (Herman 1987; Catts et al. 1989). These studies typically only account for first floor dimensions, though Grettler et al. (1996) incorporate upper stories. Table 68 includes upper stories and additions in order to account for the garret or second story typically included in house and garden structures as well as the tendency for additions to be added at sites with longer occupations.

Several of the African American occupied sites in Table 68 have first floor dimensions under 500 square feet, however when the half and full upper stories are added the likely living space for structures averages around 727 square feet, with tenants occupying slightly smaller houses than land owners. The houses from comparative Euro American sites average around 875 square feet, slightly larger than most African American homes. However, there is a broad range of house sizes among the Euro American structures that includes very small tenancies around 400 to 500 square feet such as the first McKean/Cochran structure, Thomas Williams I house, and Wilson-Lewis house. Euro American tenant houses average around 740 square feet, whereas land owners average around 1,000 square feet. Clearly, both race and economic class factor in the distinction of house sizes. As has regularly been the case, the Cedar Creek Road site is a rare context of slavery in Delaware. At least one of the post-in-ground structures at Cedar Creek measures larger than several later African American tenant and land owner structures, though the tendency of slave-owners of house numerous individuals in a single structure makes the comparison of these buildings to later tenant and land owner structures likely housing single families problematic.

2. Artifacts

The artifacts recovered from archaeological sites have the potential to reconstruct the daily life of people in the past. The materials people used to build their homes, cook, eat, perform chores, play, socialize, and work can all be found on sites. Beyond these functional reconstructions artifacts also speak to the ways in which people experience their personal and social lives through material culture. Artifacts from historic sites are also largely the product of consumerism, and can represent

243 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

individuals’ choices about what they need, what they can afford, and how they choose styles and patterns based on aesthetics. Objects can take on value and express personal significance for the past user. Do ceramic sherds represent traditional ways of cooking and serving, handed down from parents? Could that embody nostalgia or family values to the user? Perhaps the buttons, snaps, and jewelry items show how new ways of dress and style that were valued for public presentation? Would the glass bottles, tumblers, and tobacco pipes bring back fond memories of social time with neighbors? Using historical contexts, archaeologists can access these more social and ideological aspects of things that make up past lives. By comparing artifact assemblages across time, space, and social groups, we can move past individual sites and begin to address questions about how the use and meaning of such materials changed over the decades and centuries, how regional traditions developed, and how communities defined themselves and others.

None of the sites in St. Georges Hundred investigated at the Phase I level of identification yielded sufficient quantities of artifacts for more in-depth analysis, and of the 11 excavated at the Phase II and III level throughout Delaware, varying levels of analysis are included the site reports (Table 69). Sites excavated by UDCAR, such as the William Dickson, Thomas Williams, Jacob B. Cazier, and Heisler Tenancy sites, include ceramic minimum vessel (MNV) estimates, faunal analysis, and soil distributions. Glass minimum vessel estimates is the rarest analytical method used among the sites; soil chemistry and faunal identifications are more common. Botanical analyses appear to be more prevalent at more recently excavated sites.

TABLE 69

TYPES OF ANALYSES PERFORMED AT AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

LEVEL OF INVESTI- CERAMIC GLASS SOIL BOTA- SITE NAME DATES OCCUPANT GATION MNV* MNV* FAUNAL CHEM. NICAL Cedar Creek Road 1740-1780 Slave Phase III x x Garrison Energy 1770-1820 Tenant Phase II x Holton/Cann 1751-1886 Tenant Phase II Nathan Williams House 1825-1840 Tenant Phase III x Dale Historic 1830-1837/1854-1915 Tenant/Owner Phase II William Dickson II 1850-1919 Tenant Phase II x x Bird-Houston, Locus A 1850-1920 Tenant Phase III x x x Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy 1844-1934 Tenant Phase III x x x x x Thomas Williams II 1875-1922 Owner Phase III x x x Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Tenant Phase II x x Wilson Farm Tenancy 1880-1950 Tenant Phase III x x * Minimum number of vessels

It should be stressed that this not an endorsement or criticism of any particular research team’s efforts. Each project and site presents unique circumstances to the investigators, and decisions must be made given the time and funding available, goals of the project, and the condition of the site and its contents. Many of the sites excavated at the Phase II level analyze the ceramic assemblages, although the effort to cross-mend and compile vessel estimates is simply beyond the typical level of effort for a Phase II evaluation. Several sites excavated at the Phase III level simply did not have sufficiently large and well-preserved faunal assemblages to warrant detailed analysis. Thus the following sections synthesize findings from artifact studies employing data from as many

244 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

sites as possible for a given artifact type, although which sites are included for each particular analytical method will vary considerably. As possible, comparisons with the collection of the Euro- American site assemblages will be made to evaluate how the African American sites adhere or vary from previously identified trends. This synthesis seeks to examine potentially fruitful avenues for future research as well as limitations in the current datasets.

a. Ceramics

One of the most common, informative, and often-analyzed groups of material culture on archaeological sites in the historic period are ceramic vessel sherds. Ceramics are one of the most important classes of dating evidence available from the archaeological record, and also provide information on foodways, economic class, and consumer behavior. As opposed to eighteenth- century sites that include high proportions of coarse red earthenware (Bedell 2002:70), nineteenth- century sites reflect a marked increase in the amount of refined earthenwares, mainly less expensive British-produced white-bodied wares such as creamware, pearlware, whiteware, and ironstone. Broadly speaking, this transition was related to advances in industrial ceramic production technology as well as global political and economic factors. For example, a significant drop in British ceramic prices, including those for creamware and pearlware from 1809 to 1848, was the result of geopolitical events such as the Napoleonic Wars, the Embargo Act, the War of 1812, and the Panic of 1837 (Miller 1991). Few British ceramics were imported to the United States between 1793 and 1815, resulting in a profusion of cheap and by then outdated pearlware flooding American markets in the years after 1815 (Adams 2003:47,53).

Proportions of ceramic types at both the sherd and vessel level of analysis indicate that from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries, the amount of coarse earthenwares at African American sites in Delaware decreased steadily over time (Table 70). In late eighteenth-century

TABLE 70

CERAMIC WARE TYPE PROPORTIONS FROM AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

COARSE- STONE- REFINED PORCE- TOTAL SITE DATES TYPE WARES WARES WARES LAIN SHERDS* Cedar Creek Road 1740-1780 Slave Quarter 87.3 4.5 7.5 0.6 1,609 Garrison Energy 1770-1820 Tenant 43.2 5.8 46.2 2.1 329 Holton-Cann 1751-1886 Tenant 42.4 3.3 53.8 0.6 906 Nathan Williams 1825-1840 Tenant 30.9 3.6 60.9 4.6 110 Dale Locus 3 1830-1837 Tenant 21.8 2.5 73.9 1.8 326 Cann Tenant/Amos Bell 1812-1836/1838-1865 Tenant/Owner 48.7 0.3 48.7 2.2 673 Dale Loci 1 and 2 1854-1915 Owner 22.4 4.7 70.8 2.1 513 Shallcross & Williams 1866-1890 Tenant 10.8 5.8 83.3 - 102 William Dickson II 1850-1919 Tenant 12.6 4.2 77.7 5.5 2,764 Bird-Houston Locus A 1825-1849/1850-1920 Owner/Tenant 15.4 1.4 81.8 1.4 2,069 Thomas Williams II* 1845-1922 Owner 21.8 1.3 70.7 6.3 317 Jacob B. Cazier* 1844-1934 Tenant 15.1 1.7 74.8 8.4 119 Heisler Tenancy* 1887-1940 Tenant 9.1 8.1 80.4 2.5 285 Wilson Farm 1880-1950 Tenant 1.9 3.0 90.7 4.4 2,849 Note: *Sites in italics are taken from minimum vessel counts, all others from sherd counts.

245 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware contexts like the Cedar Creek Road Site, coarse earthenwares form a majority of the ceramic assemblages. Sites that stretch into the first half of the nineteenth century, like the Garrison Energy and Cann Tenant-Amos Bell sites, range from 20 to 50 percent coarse earthenwares, with a marked increase in refined wares, which range from 40 to 70 percent. This trend continues through the second half of the nineteenth century and into sites with early twentieth-century occupations like the Heisler Tenancy and Wilson Farm Tenancy. At those sites refined earthenwares comprise 80 to 90 percent and coarse wares decrease to less than 10 percent of the ceramic assemblage. There is little apparent difference between tenants and landowners of similar time periods in terms of these ceramic ware proportions.

The comparative Euro-American sites show a similar but less clear trend (Table 71). Early sites with significant eighteenth-century components contain a range of coarse ware proportions between about 25 and 85 percent, averaging around 60 percent. Refined ware proportions in those earlier sites make up a similarly wide range, between about 10 and 75 percent, averaging around 35 percent of ceramic assemblages. Those sites with a majority of their occupation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries include similar ranges of variation, but the average proportions of coarse and refined wares are reversed from those of earlier sites, with about one- third coarse wares and two-thirds refined. This is a potentially significant finding, as it appears that Euro-Americans in the nineteenth century were slower to adopt the most recent refined white earthenwares than were African Americans of the same time period.

TABLE 71

CERAMIC WARE TYPE PROPORPTIONS FROM SELECTED EURO-AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

COARSE- STONE- REFINED PORCE- TOTAL SITE DATE TYPE WARES WARES WARES LAIN SHERDS* Charles Robinson* 1762-1781 Owner 57.2 2.1 35.8 4.9 528 William Hawthorn 1750-1961 Owner 52.8 1.8 44.5 0.9 10,838 Bird Houston Locus B* 1770-1816/1816-1825 Tenant/Owner 24.7 - 73.3 2.0 101 McKean/Cochran II* 1790-1830 Owner 30.8 1.2 51.8 16.2 517 William Dickson I* 1780-1845 Store 15.5 5.4 69.9 7.1 239 Locust Grove* 1820-1870 Owner 40.9 1.8 54.8 2.4 981 Ferguson-Weber 1820-1900 Owner 45.2 1.6 49.6 3.7 2,364 Moore-Taylor 1822-1937 Owner 23.3 3.1 70.3 3.3 15,266 Average Owner 36.3 2.4 56.3 5.1 McKean/Cochran I* 1750-1790 Tenant 52.2 - 36.8 10.9 201 Augustine Creek N.* 1750-1810 Tenant 68.0 2.0 30.0 - 50 Armstrong-Rogers 1740-1824/1824-1850 Owner/Tenant 86.1 2.3 11.2 0.4 827 Whitten Road* 1750-1830 Tenant 61.5 1.6 33.3 3.6 384 Benjamin Wynn* 1765-1820 Tenant 45.4 0.5 53.7 0.5 218 Rumsey Historic 1780-1820 Tenant 80.4 0.7 18.1 0.2 2,347 Houston-LeCompt 1780-1849/1849-1865 Owner/Tenant 61.6 2.3 33.3 2.8 753 Thomas Williams I* 1795-1845 Tenant 24.1 - 67.2 8.7 174 H. Grant Tenancy 1800-1870 Tenant 35.2 0.4 63.3 1.0 27,562 A. Temple 1820-1950 Tenant 39.7 1.8 55.8 2.7 14,317 Wilson-Lewis* 1850-1890 Tenant 15.7 5.9 76.5 1.9 55 Average Tenant 51.8 1.9 43.6 3.3 Note: *Sites in italics are taken from minimum vessel counts, all others from sherd counts.

246 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

Euro-American sites occupied by landowners have on average about 36 percent coarse wares and 56 percent refined wares, with coarse wares generally decreasing throughout the entire range of occupations. Tenant-occupied sites average around 52 percent coarse wares and 44 percent refined, again with the general decrease of coarse wares through time. Interestingly, at sites with both owner and tenant occupations, the most recent component appears to have the most influence on the nature of the ceramic assemblage. The Armstrong-Rogers and Houston-LeCompt sites each followed a progression of owner followed by tenant, and each has higher proportions of coarse wares more similar to solely tenant-occupied sites. Locus B of the Bird Houston Site had a tenant occupation followed by an owner and a more owner-like low proportion of coarse wares. The store component of the William Dickson Site also has a very low proportion of coarse wares, more typical of owner-occupied sites (see Table 71).

Bedell et al. (1999:83-85) have shown that the quantity and types of ceramic wares found in Delaware differed significantly over the course of the eighteenth century from those found on Chesapeake sites. Farms, tenant or landowning, in Delaware persisted in utilizing a high proportion of coarse earthenwares, largely locally and regionally produced redwares, into the nineteenth century. By contrast, many Virginia farm, plantation house, and plantation quarter sites after 1750 exhibit a marked reduction in the amount of coarse earthenwares present and an increase of coarse stonewares, refined wares, and porcelain. Thus, the African American sites of Delaware in the nineteenth century appear more similar in ceramic ware type proportions to Chesapeake sites of the enslaved than they do other contemporary Delaware farms occupied by Euro-Americans.

Bedell et al. (1999) interpret this regional distinction of Delaware farms in the eighteenth century as a retention of more traditional foodways, utilizing locally and regionally made coarse redwares in more traditional vessel forms. It would appear from this synthesis that African Americans in Delaware, both tenant and landowning farmers, did not participate in this regional tradition and instead purchased mainly British-produced refined white earthenwares. The economic markets of northern Delaware were most closely tied with Philadelphia, and a more diversified agricultural economy paired with several close and well-connected towns allowed the growth of local and regional manufacturing, including pottery (Bedell 2002:7). It is possible that the economic ties of local farmers and merchants with Philadelphia potters and merchants slowed the tide of British- produced refined white earthenwares among Euro-Americans in Delaware and allowed a regional tradition to persist. African Americans in Delaware were less likely to have formed such business relationships with Philadelphia merchants, nor to find any socio-cultural value in more traditional British foodways.

Moreover, landowning Euro-American farmers appear to have purchased more refined white earthenwares over the nineteenth century as opposed to Euro-American tenant farmers, who retained higher proportions of traditional coarse redwares longer into the nineteenth century. As the century progressed, more affluent Euro-Americans in Delaware may have been more able to finally change with ceramic fashions, whereas less affluent tenant farmers held on to more traditional vessels. These are only a few of several interpretive possibilities, and clearly future research is needed to explore the variation in ceramic assemblages, not just between the Chesapeake and Delaware, but among various races and classes of people within Delaware during the nineteenth century.

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To get a more detailed idea of the ceramic objects people used in the past, an assessment of vessel forms is beneficial. The functions of the vessels provide important information on the kinds of activities carried out on-site, such as cooking, food service, beverage or tea consumption, storage, and so on. Inferences about vessel forms are possible from single sherds based on the presence of certain diagnostic elements such as bases, rims, handles, and spouts, but MNV estimates based on cross-mended vessels provide the most accurate picture. The effort of analysis for constructing MNVs is rarely available except at the Phase III data recovery level of investigations, however, and of the 18 sites occupied by African Americans in Delaware considered in this context, only four sites have MNV estimates available, all from UDCAR excavations.

For those sites that have not supplied MNV estimates, researchers at several have still attempted to identity vessel forms from individual sherds (Table 72). In most cases the vast majority of sherds are unidentifiable to specific vessel forms, but some sites do give a more robust picture of the range of the vessels present, such as the Garrison Energy and Wilson Farm Tenancy sites, where archaeologists identified numerous teapots, saucers, dishes, bowls, tureens, bottles, pans, jars, and chamber pots. However, identifications of this sort depend on the nature of the artifacts, e.g., highly fragmented from plowzone contexts or more complete sherds from features. How liberal or conservative the analysts are in assigning a single sherd to larger grouping such as flatware, hollowware or tableware versus more definite forms may also contribute to the disparity of findings between sites.

The MNV estimates provided by UDCAR reports for the William Dickson, Thomas Williams, Jacob B. Cazier, and Heisler Tenancy sites include comparisons of various classifications of vessel form categories related to function originating from studies of enslaved contexts in Virginia (Kelso 1984) and Georgia (1975) that attempted to interpret differences in socioeconomic status. These analyses included comparison of proportions of vessels such as flatwares versus hollowwares, preparation and storage vessels versus serving vessels, and cups versus mugs and jugs. Dietary and food preparation behavior was inferred from hollow versus flatware comparisons, with hollowware linked to the preparation of stews and porridges as contrasted to flatware linked to the consumption of higher quality meats. Thus a higher proportion of flatwares should suggest higher socioeconomic class. Similarly, higher proportions of serving vessels as compared to cooking vessels, as well as cup compared to mugs and jugs, supposedly represents higher class foodways (Catts et al. 1989:291). In their analyses Catts et al. (1989:305) found similarities among only some of the African American sites excavated at the time, and suggested that the hollow and flatware proportions may be linked more with common dietary traditions rather than economic affluence. Food service and preparation vessels presented few clear indications of either class or social group, although cup and mug comparisons appeared to correlate well with economic status.

The comparisons of ceramic vessel forms from the UDCAR reports associated with both African American and Euro-American sites involved in this synthesis are presented in Table 73. African American sites appear to have a slightly higher relative proportion of hollow to flat vessel forms, although the other categories show no clear pattern between social groups. Originally, research employed these sets of comparisons to assess economic status (Catts et al. 1989; Catts and Custer 1990; Hoseth et al. 1994); however, the suggestion that the higher use of hollow vessels is associated with stews, porridges, and other one-pot meals, and that this dietary behavior is prevalent among African Americans in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Delaware, is

248 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware another promising avenue of future research, as it appears to be independent of purely economic factors and may represent a foodways tradition meriting further investigation.

TABLE 72

VESSEL FORMS INFERRED FROM SHERDS AT AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

CANN BIRD/ VESSEL FUNCTION/ GARRISON HOLTON/ DALE TENANT/ DALE HOUSTON WILSON FORM ENERGY CANN LOCUS 3 AMOS BELL LOCI 1&2 LOCUS A FARM Tea Saucer 7 1 - - - - 45 Cup, tea - 1 1 - - - 10 Pot, tea 14 1 - - - - 15 Serving Bowl 3 14 - - 1 1 7 Bowl/drinking vessel 15 3 - - - - - Dish 1 - - - - - 3 Flatware 25 - - - 32 - 233 Pitcher - 1 - - - - - Plate 2 50 - 13 - - 115 Plate/platter - - - 1 - - 3 Plate/saucer 1 ------Platter - 2 - - - - - Salt cellar ------2 Tureen ------2 Misc. Tableware - - 244 - - 204 37 Beverage Cup/Mug - 1 - - - - - Drinking vessel 2 ------Flask - 1 - - - - - Cup, coffee ------1 Pot, tea/coffee 3 ------Prep/Storage Basin - 5 - - - - - Bottle - - - - 1 1 5 Crock - 1 - - - - - Jar ------3 Jar/Jug ------7 Milk pan 9 ------Pan 1 - - - - - 1 Pot/jar 1 ------Pan/pot 3 ------Sanitary Chamber pot 3 ------Other Flower pot - - - - 2 2 - Toy ------2 Unidentified Misc. Flatware - - 4 - - 21 - Misc. Hollowware 68 423 77 159 34 69 419 Unidentified 171 402 2 500 288 3 1939 Grand Total 329 906 328 673 358 301 2849

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TABLE 73

COMPARISONS OF CERAMIC VESSEL FORMS FROM SELECTED DELAWARE SITES

FLAT- HOLLOW- PREP/ MUGS/ SITE DATES TYPE WARE WARE STORAGE SERVING CUPS JUGS African American William Dickson II 1850-1919 Tenant 14 (29.2%) 34 (70.8%) 13 (28.9%) 32 (71.1%) 10 (100.0%) - Thomas Williams II 1845-1922 Owner 91 (37.3%) 153 (62.7%) 88 (36.1%) 156 (63.9%) 13 (86.7%) 2 (13.3%) Jacob B. Cazier 1844-1934 Tenant 33 (27.9%) 85 (72.1%) 13 (65.0%) 7 (35.0%) 10 (76.9%) 3 (23.1%) Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Tenant 108 (38.4%) 173 (61.6%) 28 (17.5%) 132 (82.5%) 60 (96.8%) 2 (3.2%) Euro-American Whitten Road 1750-1830 Tenant 118 (41.3%) 168 (58.7%) 104 (52.3%) 95 (47.7%) 37 (71.2%) 15 (28.8%) William Dickson I 1780-1845 Store 79 (41.8%) 110 (58.2%) 24 (12.8%) 163 (87.2%) 61 (92.4%) 5 (7.6%) Thomas Williams I 1790-1850 Tenant 70 (41.4%) 99 (58.6%) 118 (72.4%) 45 (27.6%) 13 (65.0%) 7 (35.0%) A. Temple 1820-1950 Tenant 13 (30.9%) 29 (69.1%) 12 (21.4%) 44 (78.6%) 3 (100.0%) -

Another comparison of vessel forms prevalent among the UDCAR analyses is a comparison of vessel functional group categories. These categories include vessels for dining, drinking, food preparation and storage, medicinal purposes, and a miscellaneous other category. These categories were more generally used to rank similar sites together rather than assert any particular social interpretation to the presence of more dining or medicinal vessels. The compilation of a more complete comparative picture of the assemblages from both African American and Euro-American sites (Table 74) shows several interesting trends not immediately addressed in the UDCAR reports. The African American site ceramic assemblages include between 45 and 65 percent dining vessels, notably higher than the Euro-American sites that contain between 15 to 40 percent dining vessels. African American site ceramic assemblages also contain relatively fewer drinking, food preparation, and storage vessels than do the Euro-American sites. Medicinal vessels make up

TABLE 74

PROPORTIONS OF CERAMIC VESSEL FUNCTIONS FROM SELECTED DELAWARE SITES

PREP/ TOTAL SITE DATES TYPE DINING DRINKING STORAGE MEDICINAL OTHER VESSELS African American William Dickson II 1850-1919 Tenant 22 (45%) 10 (20%) 13 (27%) 2 (4%) 2 (4%) 49 Jacob B. Cazier 1844-1934 Tenant 52 (55%) 24 (26%) 13 (14%) 4 (4%) 1 (1%) 94 Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Tenant 108 (65%) 24 (14%) 28 (17%) 7 (4%) - 167 Euro-American Whitten Road 1750-1830 Tenant 85 (27%) 71 (23%) 145 (47%) 9 (3%) - 310 Benjamin Wynn 1765-1820 Tenant 49 (22%) 85 (39%) 77 (35%) 1 (0.5%) 6 (3%) 218 William Dickson I 1780-1845 Store 107 (57%) 56 (30%) 24 (12.5%) - 1 (0.5%) 188 Locust Grove 1820-1870 Owner 238 (41%) 157 (27%) 154 (27%) 6 (1%) 21 (4%) 576 Wilson-Lewis 1850-1890 Tenant 8 (15%) 26 (47%) 19 (35%) 2 (4%) - 55 Moore-Taylor 1822-1937 Owner 52 (22%) 111 (46%) 69 (29%) 4 (2%) 3 (1%) 239

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relatively small proportions of all assemblages but appear to be slightly more prevalent at African American sites.

The total number of vessels is clearly larger at Euro-American sites (see Table 74). Did ceramics play a lesser role in African American households? Were they simply discarded less frequently? Adjusting the total number of vessels estimated at each site for the span of occupation, Table 75 shows that Euro-American sites include approximately two and half times as many ceramics vessels even though they are occupied for roughly similar lengths of time. The three African American sites for which data are available show an average ceramic vessel discard rate of 1.6 vessels per year, whereas the six Euro-American sites show an average of 3.9 vessels per year.

TABLE 75

CERAMIC DISCARD RATES AT SELECTED DELAWARE SITES

YEARS TOTAL VESSELS SITE OCCUPIED VESSELS PER YEAR African American William Dickson II 69 49 0.71 Jacob B. Cazier 90 94 1.04 Heisler Tenancy 53 167 3.15 Average 70.6 103.3 1.64 Euro-American Whitten Road 180 310 1.72 Benjamin Wynn 55 218 3.96 William Dickson I 65 188 2.89 Locust Grove 50 576 11.52 Wilson-Lewis 40 55 1.38 Moore-Taylor 115 239 2.08 Average 84.2 264.3 3.93 Student’s T-Test 0.30 0.04* 0.12* *Note: difference in means significant at the p < 0.15 level.

Why African American sites apparently have more ceramics for food service and medicinal purposes and Euro-Americans more drinking and food preparation is not immediately apparent. Given what we know about ceramic ware types, the increased amount of imported refined white earthenwares found on African American sites may be largely in the form of plates and other dining vessels, whereas the higher coarse earthenwares among Euro-American sites may relate more to traditional food preparation and storage activities. Why do African American sites have fewer ceramic vessels in total? Potential factors include lower economic affluence or market access to purchase these goods, or even increased curation and care of the vessels they did have, resulting in fewer discarded vessels. The influence of increased mechanization and pervasiveness of glass vessels in the nineteenth century may also be a factor in the changing roles of ceramics in the households of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Delaware. These questions clearly show the need for more detailed ceramic vessel studies, as well as more comprehensive analyses of glass and ceramic vessel assemblages as they relate to changing functions over time.

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b. Glass

Glass artifacts are relatively more common on later nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sites than they are on eighteenth-century sites. Analysis of the vessels these glass sherds represent is presently less common in standard archaeological reporting as compared to analysis of ceramics and other materials. Glass MNV estimates have been calculated for several sites in Delaware, although only one assemblage of the 18 African American-occupied sites in this study, the Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy No. 2, has produced glass vessel reconstruction and MNV estimates. Like ceramics, inferring glass vessel form and function from sherd-level identification, although problematic, can give an impression of broad trends in the presence and frequencies of various objects.

Table 76 lists the glass artifacts counts from Delaware sites with at least 100 glass artifacts. The total number of sherds can vary greatly, but bottle and jar forms are consistently the most common finds among both African American and Euro American sites and both landowner and tenant sites. These containers make up between about 60 and 90 percent of the glass assemblages and likely held a diverse array of beverages, medicines, condiments, hygiene products, and other household products. Tableware vessels such as stemmed wine glasses, tumblers, casters, and other food and beverage serving objects typically make up less than 5 percent of glass artifacts across all types of sites. Glass lamp chimney fragments are common after the introduction of oil and gas wick-style lamps at the close of the eighteenth century.

TABLE 76

GLASS SHERD COUNTS BY OBJECT TYPE FROM SELECTED DELAWARE SITES

BOTTLE/JAR TABLEWARE LAMP MILK OTHER/UNID. SITE DATE TYPE N % N % N % N % N % TOTAL African American Dale Locus 1&2 1854-1915 Owner 630 93.2 22 3.3 - - - - 24 3.6 676 Dickson II 1850-1919 Tenant 4,402 81.7 278 5.2 280 5.2 73 1.4 352 6.5 5,385 Bird-Houston Locus A 1850-1920 Tenant 1,666 82.7 42 2.1 89 4.4 44 2.2 174 8.6 2,015 Thomas Williams II 1875-1922 Owner 844 63.7 17 1.3 328 24.8 26 2.0 109 8.2 1,324 Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Tenant 2,571 52.0 247 5.0 820 16.6 73 1.4 1,240 25.0 4,951 Wilson Farm 1880-1950 Tenant 9,935 93.5 496 4.7 - - 1 0.01 191 1.8 10,623 Euro-American Benjamin Wynn 1765-1820 Tenant 592 85.9 4 0.6 46 6.7 - - 47 6.8 689 Whitten Road 1750-1830 Tenant 922 62.8 161 11.0 686 4.6 8 0.5 310 21.1 1,469 H. Grant Tenancy 1800-1870 Tenant 2,142 89.3 34 1.4 - - 3 0.1 219 9.1 2,398 William Hawthorne 1750-1961 Owner 5,032 85.8 108 1.8 - - 51 0.9 674 11.5 5,865 Ferguson-Weber 1820-1900 Owner 1,621 80.9 48 2.4 29 1.4 306 15.3 - - 2,004 A. Temple 1820-1950 Tenant 9,278 84.4 789 7.2 362 3.3 136 1.2 430 3.9 10,995 Wilson-Lewis 1850-1920 Tenant 601 86.0 2 0.3 57 8.2 - - 39 5.6 699

Comparisons of glass vessel estimates at the Jacob B. Cazier Tenancy Site and Euro-American sites (Table 77) with glass MNV analyses show that bottles still constitute a majority of glass assemblages, although medicinal, condiment, and non-alcoholic beverage bottles make up a greater proportion of the Jacob B. Cazier assemblage. The overall number of glass vessels also appears to increase greatly in the second half of the nineteenth century, as evidenced by the total

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vessels of the Locust Grove and Jacob B. Cazier assemblages compared with other sites dating more to the late eighteenth through early nineteenth centuries.

TABLE 77

GLASS VESSEL ESTIMATES BY FORM FROM SELECTED DELAWARE SITES

McKEAN/ McKEAN/ WHITTEN BENJAMIN LOCUST JACOB B. COCHRAN I COCHRAN II ROAD WYNN GROVE CAZIER FORM N % N % N % N % N % N % Bottle Wine/liquor 7 24.1 14 26.9 21 80.8 18 81.8 3 1.6 18 10.2 Pharmaceutical - - 1 1.9 2 7.7 - - 11 5.9 23 13.1 Miscellaneous 7 24.1 11 21.2 - - - - 1 0.5 44 25.0 Indeterminate 3 10.3 10 19.2 - - - - 109 58.6 - - Tableware Tumbler 7 24.1 4 7.7 - - - - 26 14.0 6 3.4 Stemware 3 10.3 3 5.8 2 7.7 - - 3 1.6 1 0.6 Indeterminate 2 6.9 5 9.6 - - 2 9.1 11 5.9 7 4.0 Lighting Lamp chimney ------2 9.1 3 1.6 8 4.5 Other Miscellaneous ------12 6.8 Unidentified - - 4 7.7 1 3.8 - - 19 10.2 57 32.4 TOTAL MNV 29 52 26 22 186 176

At both African American and Euro-American sites, glass artifacts increase in relative proportion to ceramic artifacts through the course of the nineteenth century, as shown by a comparison of the relative proportions of total ceramic versus total glass artifacts at the sites (Figure 107). At African American sites primarily occupied before the mid-nineteenth century (Garrison Energy, Cann Tenant/Amos Bell), glass constitutes between 10 and 20 percent of the total combined ceramic and glass artifacts per site. Sites dating primarily to the second half of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century include between 50 and 80 percent glass artifacts. Euro-American sites show a similar trend, although the relative proportion of glass to ceramic artifacts starts lower, typically below 10 percent, and the following increase of glass in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries does not exceed 50 percent. Glass appears to play a slightly greater role in African American households than Euro-American households throughout the period in question, although both social groups experience a marked increase in glass containers in the second half of the nineteenth century as ceramics lose their primacy in food and beverage storage roles.

c. Small Finds

Artifacts related to clothing, appearance, recreation, work, and other activities that do not fit easily into the classifications of ceramic or glass are typically grouped together as small finds. This wide array of materials can include copper buttons, clay tobacco pipes, metal eyeglass rims, rubber combs, brass cartridge casings, silver coins, porcelain dolls, and even steel stonemason’s tools. Comparing these items across numerous sites in an attempt to synthesize the nature of the archaeological record can be problematic. Ceramics, glass, and architectural assemblages are generally considered representative of larger collections of objects either purposefully discarded or demolished on-site, but how do small finds make their way into assemblages? Certain objects

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Euro American Sites

Glass Sherds Ceramic Sherds

1822-1937 Moore-Taylor

1820-1950 A. Temple

1820-1900 Ferguson-Weber

1750-1961 William Hawthorne

1820-1870 Locust Grove*

1800-1870 H. Grant Tenancy

1790-1830 McKean/Cochran II*

1765-1820 Benjamin Wynn*

1750-1830 Whitten Road*

1750-1790 McKean/Cochran I*

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% * by vessel count

African American Sites

Glass Sherds Ceramic Sherds

1880-1950 Wilson Farm

1844-1934 Jacob B. Cazier*

1850-1920 Bird-Houston Locus A

1850-1919 Dickson II

1854-1915 Dale Locus 1&2

1812-1865 Cann Tenant/Amos Bell

1830-1837 Dale Locus 3

1825-1840 Nathan Williams

1751-1886 Holton/Cann

1770-1820 Garrison Energy

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% * by vessel count

FIGURE 107: Proportions of Glass and Ceramic Artifacts at Selected Delaware Sites 254 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

like clay tobacco pipes may have a relatively frequent rate of breakage and discard over occupation spans, but items such as coins or jewelry are more likely cared for, curated, and likely find their way in to archaeological deposits accidently. The occupants of nearly all sites in the historic period likely handled money, used tools, and wore jewelry pieces that are only occasionally recovered by archaeologists. Many small finds are physically small and may not be recovered using standard quarter-inch screening. Phase I and II investigations are less likely to recover rare small finds because of the relatively small areas of sites excavated compared to larger scale Phase III data recoveries. How should such diverse materials and objects be interpreted? Should they be considered individually? Is comparing groupings of such artifacts an accurate reflection of their presence and frequency on sites?

In comparing larger groups of sites, the frequency with which even rarer materials are present on sites may relate at least to some degree to their usage in the past. Researchers should also not read too much into the presence or absence of one particular object or artifact group at one site given the factors discussed above. Table 78 shows the counts and frequencies of small finds grouped in functional categories at several of the African American and Euro-American sites under consideration in this synthesis. Several of the categories are relatively straightforward, including tools and tobacco pipes. Others are larger collections of more diverse materials. Clothing items include buttons of all types, fasteners, sewing items, and even textiles from sites where preserved leather or cloth was recovered from well contexts. Ornaments and toys include both objects of play associated with children, such as doll parts and marbles, as well as small figurine or “bric-a-brac” home decorations. Arms artifacts include ammunition, casings, and any gun parts. The activities group includes household items such as pencils, cutlery, kitchen utensils, tacks, and scissors. The personal/appearance grouping includes a wide variety of items likely owned and used by a single individual generally associated with hygiene or personal adornment, such as eyeglasses, watch parts, jewelry, cobs, toothbrushes, and mirror glass.

The average frequencies and Student’s T-test p-values indicate that the presence and abundance of several groups of small finds may relate to the occupant’s social group. Overall, African American-occupied sites appear to have higher numbers of small finds in total as compared to Euro-American sites, although there are clear outliers to this trend. On average African American sites have larger numbers of clothing-related small finds, which also make up an average of approximately half of all small finds on such sites. Euro-American sites typically exhibit fewer such artifacts, which constitute only about one-quarter of their small find assemblages. Toys and small household ornaments show a similar pattern. Other artifact groups have differences that are more complicated, such as the arms-related artifacts averaging approximately 14 objects per site in both African American and Euro-American contexts, although this average is clearly skewed for African American sites by the 80 arms-related finds at the William Dickson II component. On average arms-related artifacts comprised a greater proportion of the total on Euro-American sites.

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TABLE 78

SMALL FINDS ARTIFACTS BY FUNCTIONAL GROUP AT SELECTED DELAWARE SITES

TOY/ PERSONAL/ CLOTHING COINS ORNAMENT ARMS TOOLS ACTIVITIES APPEARANCE PIPES SITE N % N % N % N % N % N % N % N % TOTAL African American Cedar Creek Road 18 6.7 - - - - 5 1.9 21 7.8 11 4.1 10 3.7 205 75.9 270 William Dickson II 897 70.4 19 1.5 101 7.9 80 6.3 4 0.3 57 4.5 8 0.6 109 8.5 1,275 Bird-Houston Locus A 47 47.0 3 3.0 4 4.0 4 4.0 3 3.0 10 10.0 5 5.0 24 24.0 100 Thomas Williams II 282 77.0 1 0.3 15 4.1 4 1.1 6 1.6 20 5.5 - - 38 10.4 366 Jacob B. Cazier 193 49.2 14 3.6 72 18.4 1 0.3 - - 27 6.9 6 1.5 79 20.2 392 Heisler Tenancy 150 67.6 - - 17 7.7 4 1.8 ------51 23.0 222 Wilson Farm Tenancy 213 41.8 - - 41 8.1 - - - - 24 4.7 112 24.2 38 7.5 428 Average 257.1 51.4 5.3 1.2 35.7 7.2 14.0 2.2 4.9 1.8 21.3 5.1 28.2 5.3 77.7 24.2 436.1 Euro American Bird-Houston Locus B 7 16.3 - - - - 1 2.3 1 2.3 9 20.9 - - 25 58.1 43 William Dickson I 144 39.7 11 3.0 6 1.7 1 0.3 - - 12 3.3 8 2.2 181 49.9 363 Thomas Williams I 13 52.0 - - - - 1 4.0 3 12.0 1 4.0 - - 7 28.0 25 H. Grant Tenancy 132 13.8 - - 2 0.2 3 0.3 4 0.4 - - - - 816 85.3 957 Locust Grove - - 5 15.2 - - - - 3 9.1 2 6.1 9 27.3 14 42.1 33 William Hawthorn 46 35.1 - - - - 35 26.7 20 15.3 - - - - 30 22.9 131 Ferguson-Weber 22 17.9 - - 5 4.1 30 24.4 11 8.9 - - - - 55 44.7 123 Moore-Taylor 113 40.2 7 2.5 45 16.0 25 8.9 18 6.4 - - - - 73 26.0 281 A. Temple 105 39.0 12 4.5 16 5.9 48 17.8 16 5.9 - - 9 3.3 63 23.4 269 Wilson-Lewis 5 18.5 - - 1 3.7 1 3.7 ------20 74.1 27 Average 58.7 27.3 3.5 2.5 7.5 3.2 14.5 8.8 7.6 6.0 2.4 3.4 8.7 3.3 128.4 45.5 225.2 Student’s T-test* 0.06 0.02 0.30 0.19 0.05 0.08 0.48 0.03 0.23 0.02 0.02 0.23 0.20 0.33 0.25 0.04 0.12 *Note: T-test p-values for significance of difference based on one-tailed distribution and assumption of unequal variance.

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Similarly, African American sites appear to have fewer tools, although the averages of counts are not statistically distinct from those at Euro-American sites, largely because of the anomalously high number of tool finds at the Cedar Creek Road Site. Tools do compose a higher proportion of the small finds totals at Euro American sites. Activities and personal/appearance artifact groups exhibit the opposite trend, where they appear more numerous at African American sites, but the comparison of the average proportions of these artifacts is not statistically distinct. Tobacco pipes appear more numerous on Euro-American sites, largely because of the 800-plus fragments recovered from the H. Grant Tenancy. However, tobacco pipes clearly make up a larger proportion of small finds assemblages for Euro-American sites, nearly 45 percent compared to 24 percent for African American sites. Even if the anomalously high value for the H. Grant Tenancy is removed, the statistically significant greater proportion of tobacco pipes for Euro-American sites would remain.

Where do these sorts of comparisons leave us? Did African Americans generally spend more time, energy, and resources on clothing, personal appearance, and home decorations than their white neighbors in Delaware? Perhaps the greater inclusion of such items in the archaeological record suggests more frequent discard and therefore less personal attachment to such items. Did Euro- Americans actually own more tools, arms, and smoke tobacco at greater rates than their black neighbors? Perhaps African Americans, many of them tenant laborers at these sites, used tools and arms provided by their employers, and took tobacco via chewing or cigars. This kind of comparison is perhaps most useful for generating research questions rather than answering them. Another interesting way to look at small find assemblages would be to investigate anomalous sites. Why did the occupants of the William Dickson II component leave behind 877 buttons, when other similarly long occupations of Jacob B. Cazier and Wilson Farm tenancies left less than 200? The Dickson II Site also has very high numbers of arms, ammunition, toys, and small finds in total. By contrast, the Cedar Creek Road Site, likely occupied by enslaved African Americans, includes more tools and tobacco pipes than most later, free African American sites. The large number of personal small finds at the Wilson Farm tenancy is largely a result of high numbers of jewelry, including 29 beads, which are relatively rare at other sites. Investigating these site-specific questions, made visible by this comparative context, could be fruitful paths of interpretation utilizing small-scale historic contexts.

Individual small finds or groups of artifacts also have interpretive value. The Kentucky Maid comb (see Figure 81) from the Wilson Farm Tenancy elicits questions of how such race-specific commodities functioned in society. Three possible gaming pieces, one of shaped siltstone and the others of coarse earthenware, were recovered from the Cedar Creek Road Site (Figure 108). Improvised gaming pieces have been interpreted on sites of the enslaved both in the Caribbean and the United States, and the games played could be of African heritage (Bedell 2006; Singleton 2001). However, recently some scholars have questioned the gaming function of worn glass and ceramic fragments, suggesting that fowl kept at sites may have consumed them as gizzard stones (Goode 2009).

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3. Specialized Analyses

a. Faunal

Animal bones recovered from archaeological sites can provide insight on the relationships between people and their environment via interpretations of past foodways, agricultural practices, hunting, and fishing activities, as well as animals kept for work and as pets. Many avenues of analysis are possible in faunal studies — identification of species, skeletal elements, butchery patterns, and various quantifications of the bone, including estimates of the number of individual animals and even estimates of meat weight. One key factor in the ability of faunal studies to contribute to archaeological analyses is preservation, and as Bedell (2002:64) notes, the acidic soils of Delaware are largely not suitable for bone preservation. The best preservation is typically found in feature deposits such as wells and cellars below topsoils and plowzones, where other materials in the deposit alter the soil and depth protects the bone from physical breakage.

Some of the most common faunal identifications at the Delaware sites were tabulated simply as counts, sometimes referred to as total number of fragments (TNF). Other analysts utilized estimates of the number of skeletal elements represented by the total bone fragments, which is referred to as the number identifiable specimen (NISP) or minimum number of units (MNU). Table 79 lists the counts of bone identified at several of the African American sites, showing a range of

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TABLE 79

FAUNAL REMAINS* FROM AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

THOMAS WILLIAM BD.-HOUSTON JACOB B. HEISLER WILSON SPECIES WILLIAMS II DICKSON II LOC. A CAZIER TENANCY FARM Mammal Cow 97 125 6 16 17 64 Pig 237 159 15 87 19 279 Sheep 21 42 - 2 3 1 Cat 69 2 1 306 - 1 Dog - - - - - 1 Horse - - - - - 3 Deer 1 1 - - 1 - Fox 1 - - - - - Mouse 1 - - - - 5 Muskrat - 119 2 - - 33 Opossum 10 10 - 1 - 9 Rabbit 29 5 5 3 - 46 Raccoon - - 3 - - 5 Rat 41 12 - 11 - 15 Skunk - 5 - - - - Squirrel 5 2 5 1 - 7 Woodchuck - - - - - 7 Unidentified small mammal - - 13 - - 61 Unidentified medium mammal - - 13 - - 316 Unidentified large mammal - - 3 - - 37 Unidentified mammal 1123 867 29 123 128 - Bird Chicken - - 9 - - 9 Crow - - 2 - - - Duck - - - - - 8 Goose 7 - - 1 - 1 Mourning Dove - - - - - 1 Turkey 6 - - - - - Unidentified bird/rodent - - 33 - - - Unidentified bird 363 147 61 96 1 129 Fish Catfish 5 73 - - - 6 Unidentified fish 77 34 3 1 - 6 Reptile/Amphibian Frog 4 - 2 - - - Toad - - - - - 1 Box turtle - 12 - - - - Mud/Musk turtle - 14 - - - - Painted turtle - 16 - - - - Snapping turtle - 1 - - - 3 Unidentified turtle 22 69 2 6 34 74 Turtle eggshell - 250 - - - - Unidentified bone - 18 48 - - - TOTAL 2119 1983 255 654 203 1128 *Note: all counts listed from Number of Identified Specimen (NISP)

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both wild and domesticated animals. Food provided by domestic mammals including pig, cow, sheep are augmented at each site by other potential domesticates including rabbit, chicken, duck, and goose. Wild species that were caught or hunted, such as deer, fox, muskrat, opossum, raccoon, squirrel, and woodchuck, also appear at every site. Fish and reptiles are most frequent at the Thomas Williams II and William Dickson II sites, likely because the site is close to creeks as well as the intensive recovery methods employed. The Heisler Tenancy was located near Eagle Run, just as the Dickson II Site was, although very few bones were recovered that indicate any serious role of aquatic species in those contexts. Cats appear to be more prominent than dogs in the commensal group, and the only horse remains recovered are three specimens from the Wilson Farm Tenancy.

Interpretations of the species represented at these sites by the excavators indicate a common theme of emphasizing the diversity and abundance of wild species present at African American sites (Bedell et al. 2016:121; Catts et al. 1989:179; Catts and Custer 1990:185). The Heisler Tenancy is an interesting exception to this pattern. There are also cases of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Euro-American sites, such as the McKean-Cochran Farm, that exhibit a large amount and high diversity of wild species in their assemblages, although many Euro-American sites include very few wild species and indicate a reliance on domesticated mammals (Table 80). Site-specific contexts, such as the ability to raise stock, availability of butchered meats, personal tastes, and activities of hunting and fishing, likely play a prime role in determining the kinds and amount of wild game found on sites in addition to socio-economic status and post-depositional preservation.

The use of minimum number of individuals (MNI) estimates attempts to approximate the number of animals represented by bones recovered from archaeological sites. Although these estimates can provide greater insight into the proportion of animals kept as livestock, they also tend to overestimate rarer species represented by only a few identifiable specimens, and these estimates also do not account for the contribution different sized animals may make to the overall diet of humans. For example, a single cow represents vastly more protein than a dozen small fish. MNI estimates for several African American-occupied sites in Delaware show that pig appears to be the most numerous domesticated mammal, with sheep and cattle present in slightly lower numbers (Table 81). However, both sheep and cow are kept as livestock for numerous purposes in addition to meat, such as dairying, wool, and draft work; whereas pigs represent only potential food. Wild species make up a large proportion of the estimated individuals at all sites except the Heisler Tenancy, suggesting that many of the occupants engaged in hunting, trapping, and fishing.

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TABLE 80

FAUNAL REMAINS FROM SELECTED EURO-AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

McK./ AUG. BENJ. B.-HOUS. McK./ DICK- WILL- L. A. CLASS/ SITE: COCH. I CREEK N. WYNN LOCUS B COCH. II SON I IAMS I GROVE TEMPLE SPECIES METHOD: MNU MNU TNF NISP MNU NISP NISP NISP NISP Mammal Cattle 133 39 156 17 208 28 13 27 15 Pig 135 42 120 39 452 32 22 94 24 Sheep/Goat 86 23 26 - 95 16 2 4 5 Dog 4 - 23 - 5 - - - - Cat 6 1 - - 27 - - - - Horse 9 1 99 9 9 - - - - Deer 1 - - - 1 - - - - Mink - - - - 2 - - - - Muskrat - - - - 43 2 - - - Opossum 4 - - - 5 - - - - Rabbit 12 2 - - 29 - - - - Raccoon 3 - 2 - 2 - - - - Rat 16 - - - 96 1 - - - Rodent 18 - - - 24 - - - - Squirrel 1 - - - 19 - 1 - - Woodchuck - - - - 2 - - - - Small mammal 21 5 - - 77 - - 4 - Medium mammal 53 - - 78 128 - - 190 - Large mammal 10 25 - 3 21 - - 23 - Unidentified mammal - - - 102 - - 138 171 104 Bird Chicken 64 5 - - 129 - - 4 - Duck 5 - - - 22 - - - - Goose 17 2 - - 50 - - - - Turkey 3 - - - 8 - - - - Blue Jay - - - - 8 - - - - Pigeon 15 1 - - 19 - - - - Woodpecker - - - - 2 - - - - Unidentified bird 35 7 17 6 120 54 22 11 17 Fish Catfish 17 - - - 69 - 6 - - Cod 1 ------Drum - - - - 1 - - - - Shad 9 - - - 53 - - - - Striped bass - - - - 15 - - - - Unidentified fish 238 65 1 - 129 1 54 - - Reptile/Amphibian Box turtle - - - - 6 - - - - Blanding’s turtle 1 1 - - 4 - - - - Pond turtle - - - - 2 - - - - Snapping turtle 1 - 228 - 12 - - - - Soft-Shell turtle - - - - 1 - - - - Unidentified turtle 6 - - - 10 1 - - - Unidentified bone 1 - 317 54 2 194 - 2 - TOTAL 925 219 989 308 1907 329 258 530 165

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TABLE 81

MINIMUM NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL ESTIMATES BY SPECIES FROM AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

THOMAS WILLIAM JACOB B. HEISLER WILSON CLASS/SPECIES WILLIAMS II DICKSON II CAZIER TENANCY FARM Mammal Cow 5 2 2 2 6 Pig 8 7 2 4 14 Sheep 1 3 1 2 1 Cat 2 1 2 - 1 Dog - - - - 1 Horse - - - - 1 Deer 1 1 - 1 - Fox 1 - - - - Mouse 1 - - - 3 Muskrat - 13 - - 6 Opossum 2 2 1 - 1 Rabbit 7 2 1 - 4 Raccoon - - - - 1 Rat 5 5 3 - 2 Skunk - 1 - - - Squirrel 2 1 1 - 2 Woodchuck - - - - 1 Bird Chicken - - - - 4 Duck - - - - 2 Goose 2 - 1 - 1 Mourning dove - - - - 1 Turkey 2 - - - - Unidentified bird - 5 - 1 3 Fish Catfish - 18 - - 2 Unidentified fish - - 1 - 2 Reptile/Amphibian Box turtle - 3 - - - Mud turtle - 8 - - - Painted turtle - 4 - - - Snapping turtle - 1 - - 2 Unidentified turtle 3 2 2 1 5 TOTAL 42 79 17 11 66

Table 82 shows a synthesis of the number of wild species identified and the proportion of wild species NISP and MNI identified at the African American and comparative Euro-American sites where such data were available. The oft-cited supposition that African American sites in Delaware tend to have utilized a greater amount and diversity of wild species is supported by this admitted small sample of sites. One of the key questions identified in the comparison is why this is the case. Researchers have pointed to lower socio-economic status in general. Are tenants more likely to hunt, fish, and trap to supplement their diets? Were they not able to keep livestock herds of their own to provide the same abundance of meat from domesticated mammals as is seen on Euro-

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American tenant sites? It should be noted that small sample sizes, both for bone counts and MNI estimates, have proved problematic for interpreting dietary patterns (Rietz and Scarry 1985:21), which provides both a caveat to these comparisons and a clear indication that future excavation of sites in Delaware with large, well-preserved faunal assemblages would be a valuable contribution to research in this vein.

TABLE 82

WILD SPECIES IN FAUNAL ASSEMBLAGES FROM SELECTED DELAWARE SITES

OCCU- No. WILD % WILD % WILD SITE DATE PANT SPECIES NISP MNI African American Thomas Williams II 1846-1922 Owner 13 33 61.9 William Dickson II 1850-1919 Tenant 15 65.5 83.5 Bird-Houston Locus A 1850-1920 Tenant 8 43.6 N/A Jacob B. Cazier No. 2 1844-1934 Tenant 7 5.5 58.8 Heisler Tenancy 1887-1940 Tenant 2 47.3 27.3 Wilson Farm 1880-1950 Tenant 16 38.8 57.6 Average 10.2 38.95 57.82 Euro American Benjamin Wynn 1765-1820 Tenant 3 35.3 18.8 McKean-Cochran I 1750-1800 Tenant 15 45.7 N/A Augustine Creek N. 1750-1810 Tenant 5 39 N/A Bird-Houston Locus B 1770-1825 Tenant 0 0 0 McKean-Cochran II 1800-1830 Owner 25 40.7 William Dickson II 1780-1845 Owner 4 6.2 50 Thomas Williams I 1790-1850 Tenant 3 62.2 27.3 Locust Grove 1820-1870 Owner 0 0 0 A. Temple 1820-1950 Tenant 0 0 0 Average 6.1 25.46 16.02 Students T-Test P-Values 0.139 0.128 0.003

The most nuanced information on foodways and livestock practices is often yielded from detailed examination of skeletal portions, meat cuts, and age profiles. In the faunal analysis of the Wilson Farm Tenancy, pig and cattle remains were the most common species recovered, but the identification of skeletal elements for these species included mainly processed meat cuts such as hams, hocks, and processing waste from heads. The absence of more complete skeletal representation in combination with the lack of juvenile individuals indicated that the cuts of pork and beef were likely butchered off-site and purchased by the residents, rather than raised on-site. Moreover, the identification of specific meat cuts allowed the interpretation of generally lower socio-economic dietary traditions, such as the use of larger joints of meat prepared as hams, roasts, and stews as well as head portions that likely provided organ meat and sausages (Affleck et al. 2011:7.43-44). The excavators of the Jacob B. Cazier site drew similar conclusions about the skeletal portions representing specific cuts of meat butchered off-site, likely at the landowner’s farm (Hoseth et al. 1994:67). The degree to which tenants may have been supplied by or purchased meat from their landlords as opposed to raising their own livestock is likely a key question in addressing foodways of African Americans in Delaware.

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b. Botanical

Archaeological data on plant remains is most typically obtained via macrobotanical analysis of seeds and charcoal recovered from flotation of soil samples. More specialized pollen and phytolith analyses have yet been undertaken for the sites included in this synthesis. A rather limited range of plant species has been identified at African American sites via macrobotanical analysis (Table 83). Like faunal remains, botanical assemblages are often small because of poor preservation. Interestingly, the only grain represented is corn. Corn was an important staple in southern Delaware, and its presence at the Cedar Creek Road Site in Sussex County is not surprising. Wheat and dairy production dominated the northern portion of the state in the early nineteenth century, after mid-century agricultural diversification increased in the north, including market gardening of fruits such as berries and peaches (De Cunzo and Catts 1990:21-22). Peach, grape, and raspberry are all present, although only at one site each, and as carbonized remains recovered from house sites, it seems most likely that they represent food remains rather than commercial agricultural production on-site. Other plants identified include walnut shell fragments and 39 charred coffee beans recovered from a pit at the Jacob B. Cazier No. 2 Tenancy. Several varieties of weedy annuals have also been identified and likely represent naturally occurring grasses and weeds that grew in the areas surrounding domestic structures.

TABLE 83

BOTANICAL REMAINS IDENTIFIED AT AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

BIRD/ TYPE/ CEDAR HOUSTON JACOB B. WILSON SPECIES CREEK LOCUS A CAZIER FARM Grains Corn x x - - Fruit seeds Peach x - - - Grape - - x - Raspberry - - x - Nut shell Walnut - x - x “Weeds” Pigweed - - x - Dock - - x - Grass x - x - Coffee - - x -

By contrast, several more plant species have been identified at Euro-American sites of the same period, include a wider variety of grains, fruits, vegetables, and nut shell (Table 84). This is potentially a result of better physical and chemical preservation conditions, although the consistent recovery of corn and peach remains across several sites is an intriguing contrast to more uneven representation of species among African American sites. Were white farmers and tenants in Delaware more active in diverse market gardening activities than their black neighbors? At present, the limited amount of data precludes a detailed comparison over social group, space, or time. As noted by Bedell (2002:69-70), archaeology has struggled to add knowledge about

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gardening and plant foods in Delaware. This is a significant area of potential given the key role of the garden in both the market and domestic economies of Delaware.

TABLE 84

BOTANICAL REMAINS IDENTIFIED AT SELECTED EURO-AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

BIRD/ TYPE/ MCKEAN/ BENJ. HOUSTON MCKEAN/ H. GRANT LOCUST SPECIES COCHRAN I WYNN LOCUS B COCHRAN II TENANCY GROVE Grains Corn x - x x - - Wheat - - - x - - Bean - - - - - x Fruit Seeds Chokeberry - - - - - x Peach x x x x x - Grape - x - - - x Blackberry - - - - - x Nannyberry - - - - - x Raspberry x x - - - - Cherry - - - - x - Elderberry - - - x - - Vegetable Seeds Tomato - x - - - - Squash - x - - - - Nut Shell Hickory - x - - - - Walnut x x x - - - Pecan - x - - - - “Weeds” Pokeweed - x - - - x Purslane x x - x - x Dock - - - - x Sources: Affleck et al. 1998:97; Bedell 2002:69

c. Soil Chemistry

Anthropogenic soil chemical signatures can indicate the deposition of human and animal tissue and waste found in occupation sites and burials, as well as organic residues deposited during food preparation, the use of fire, food consumption, agricultural fertilization, livestock husbandry, metallurgy, and refuse disposal (Cook and Heizer 1965; Holliday and Gartner 2007). Phosphorus has been the most studied element in archaeological soil chemistry owing to its wide range of anthropogenic sources and general stability in soils (Holliday and Gartner 2007). Compounds including phosphorus constitute a significant component of human and animal waste and are present in all living organisms as carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids (Cook and Heizer 1965; Stevenson and Cole 1999). Other elements such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium are regularly studied at historic sites in North America, and all three are components of wood and ash (Braadbaart et al 2012). Calcium has been associated with deposition of bone, shell, and architectural materials such as mortar and plaster (Pogue 1988). Potassium has been associated primarily with wood ash but also plant residue in general, and magnesium has been more

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tentatively associated with ash and “burning,” although some researchers have questioned the strength of this interpretation (Pogue 1988). Experimental studies have largely supported these interpretative connections between chemicals and inputs (Braadbaart et al. 2012; Custer et al. 1986; Wilson et al. 2007). Aside from the four commonly studied elements of phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and magnesium, concentrations of metals such as iron, copper, and zinc within hearth sediment deposits have been used to interpret presence and specific location of metallurgy on sites in both Britain and Israel (Cook et al. 2005; 2010; Eliyahu-Behar et al. 2008). Additional soil characteristics such as pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), organic matter (OM), and elements including aluminum, boron, manganese, and sulfur have also been employed in geochemical analyses of archaeological sites (Gall 2012).

Projects in the state of Delaware, and for DelDOT in particular, have made consistent use of geochemical surveys during excavations of plowed sites, primarily using extraction and measurement for a suite of elements common to agronomic soil testing (Bedell 2002:80; Gall 2012:2). The UDCAR excavations of African American sites such as the Thomas Williams II and Jacob B. Cazier No. 2 Tenancy used the University of Delaware’s College of Agriculture Soils Laboratory for the measurement of elemental concentrations and interpretations focused on a limited range of elements, including phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and magnesium, and pH (Table 85). These distributions, when combined with artifact distributions, primarily contributed to the delineation of yard activity areas and discussion of proxemics relationships. At the Williams II occupation, soil chemistry signatures indicated the garden and a likely third outbuilding, and discriminated between a more active yet maintained inner yard and less densely used and less maintained outer yard. A similar organization of space was interpreted in earlier phases of occupation at the Jacob B. Cazier No. 2 Tenancy.

TABLE 85

SOIL CHEMISTRY ANALYSES AT AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES IN DELAWARE

STRATA ELEMENTS STUDIED SITES SAMPLED SAMPLING INTERVAL pH OM P K Ca Mg Mn Zn Cu Fe B S Al Cedar Creek Road features N/A x x x x x x x x x x x x x Garrison Energy plowzone 10 feet x x x x x x x x x x x x Nathan Williams topsoil/subsoil 1 meter x x x x x Bird/Houston Locus A subsoil 25 feet + below features x x Jacob B. Cazier No. 2 plowzone/subsoil 10 feet x x x x x Thomas Williams II plowzone/subsoil 10 feet x x x x x

At the Bird/Houston Site soils were also analyzed at the University of Delaware’s Soil Testing Laboratory, although only phosphorus and calcium distributions were included in the report’s discussion (Bedell et al. 2016:110-113). The limited range of elements and particularly large sampling interval of 25 feet lessened the scope and resolution of soil chemistry interpretations possible. Concentrations of both elements were identified around known structures and one other location that did not share accompanying artifact concentrations, interpreted as the likely location of animal penning or gardening. As Bedell (2002:80) has noted, soil chemical surveys do add usable spatial data to many excavations but often serve to confirm or refine existing interpretations. Analyses at the Williams II, Jacob B. Cazier, and Bird-Houston sites, although adding an effective line of evidence to interpretations of spatial layouts, all fall into this more conservative use of soil chemistry.

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Soil chemistry analyses involved at the Phase II level of investigation can be used in their own right as tools for prospection and site boundary definition (Gall 2012). In Delaware this application was used at the Nathan Williams site and played a key role in site boundary delineation of the highly ephemeral remains of the occupation, as the structural remains of the site appeared to have been destroyed by road construction. Soil acidity (pH), phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium were measured in samples taken from both topsoil and plowzone along a single linear transect at 1-meter intervals. The occupation areas and boundaries established by definable peaks of these anthropogenic chemical signatures contributed to the arguments of NRHP eligibility for the site (Hoseth et al. 1994:73).

Similarly at the Garrison Energy Site, soil chemistry was used in combination with magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar geophysical survey as a prospecting tool for identifying target areas for Phase II evaluation test units. By identifying intact deposits in the areas targeted by geochemical and geophysical survey, as well as making preliminary interpretations of spatial use practices prior to the identification of structural features, the excavators (Gall and Modina 2013) were able to evaluate and recommend the site as eligible for NRHP listing. The Garrison Energy Site Phase II project included one of the most rigorous analyses of horizontal soil chemical variation on any African American site in Delaware. Nearly 300 samples were collected from the base of plowzone at 10-foot intervals and analyzed via the University of Delaware’s Soil Testing Laboratory. These included off-site samples taken as controls against which to evaluate the potential chemical enrichment of on-site samples. Gall and Modina (2013:5-9) utilized the full suite of 11 soil elements and pH measurements provided by the laboratory in a multi-element analysis that considered not just single elements and their interpretative correlates but also cross- element correlations and areas of multi-element enrichment. This thorough analysis allowed researchers to assess the impact of more modern agricultural practices and identify 15 areas of geochemical anomalies representing possible cultural features and activity areas. When combined with surface collection, shovel test, and test unit excavation results, the chemical distributions had targeted several discrete features and activity areas and also indicated a likely swept or maintained clean yard area (Figure 109).

All of the soil chemistry studies discussed above include analysis of the horizontal distribution of elements across a site from samples taken at intervals across a targeted stratum. Another variety of soil chemistry study was undertaken at the Cedar Creek Road Site in Sussex County, where samples collected from feature contexts were analyzed to address specific questions about the nature of fills and functions of the features. Eleven samples from six features were analyzed, in addition to four control samples. The full suite of 11 elements, as well as pH and OM, was compared statistically and revealed unique chemical signatures within each feature type, such as the iron bloomery, root cellar, grave, a pit of unknown function, and an animal wallow. The pit produced a signature very distinct from the root cellars, suggesting that it did not function as a cellar but perhaps more likely a filled-in borrow pit. The contexts of the possible grave feature included elevated phosphorus, potassium, and numerous other elements suggesting decomposed organic materials, although no positive identification of human remains was possible (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). Similar studies have been carried out on other DelDOT projects on Euro-American sites, and a recent synthesis has shown that this kind of feature analysis is a reliable way to discriminate between broad feature functions (Gall 2016).

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1B

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VI. ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROPERTY TYPES

A.10B PREVIOUSLY IDENTIFIED PROPERTY TYPES

In the state of Delaware, the first definitions of historic contexts were given in the state historic preservation plan (Ames et al. 1989). The document was completed for two major purposes. The first was to meet a federal requirement set by the SOI Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation that all states complete a historic preservation plan. The second and more important reason for this plan, however, was to provide the means of protecting and enhancing Delaware’s historic resources for Delawareans, by Delawareans (Ames et al. 1989).

The Delaware Comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan stipulated and laid out a uniform method for evaluating historic resources as they relate to patterns in history. The evaluation of resources through their historic context made it possible to determine their significance and integrity on both an individual and comparative basis. Through such evaluation, resources could be nominated and listed in the NRHP as a means to ensure successful long-term historic preservation planning.

The plan is based on a simple grid with axes for time period, geographic region, and historical theme. Delaware history is divided into five time periods: 1630 to 1730, 1730 to 1770, 1770 to 1830, 1830 to 1880, and 1880 to 1940, which correspond roughly to important stages in the history of the state. Five geographic regions are identified: Piedmont, Upper Peninsula, Lower Peninsula/Cypress Swamp, Coastal, and Urban (Wilmington). Eighteen historical themes were identified, 10 of which are economic (such as agriculture and manufacturing) and eight of which are cultural (such as settlement patterns, religion, and major families). The plan also lists the major property types likely to be associated with each theme. Property types link the ideas incorporated in the theoretical historic context with actual historic properties that illustrate those ideas. To function as a classification system, the authors stipulated that the property types must be general but also particular enough to provide meaningful evaluation of integrity and significance reflected in individual historic resources. Furthermore, the property types can be broken down into functionally and stylistically specific subcategories, or sub-property types, based primarily on shared physical characteristics. This gird approach provides a neat way to classify sites, but there are also 450 possible contexts, and the plan does not develop the individual contexts in detail.

In 1990 the University of Delaware in conjunction with the Delaware Department of State authored one such context: Management Plan for Delaware’s Historical Archaeological Resources (De Cunzo and Catts 1990). This document provides an overview of the research domains within historical archaeology and applied the previously defined property types to the known historical archaeological sites in Delaware. The authors then identify 32 property types that can be applied to existing archaeological resources (Table 86).

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TABLE 86

ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROPERTY TYPES DEFINED IN MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR DELAWARE’S HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES

Dwelling Complex Residential Tenant Schoolhouse Dwelling Artisan Tavern Urban House Burial Barn Brick yard Agricultural Complex Underwater Remains Tenancy Site Unknown Worker Houses Ice House – government Mill Complex Historic Trash Smith Shop Graveyard Dwelling Graveyard – demographic Store Millrace - Industrial Field Scatter Maritime – Architectural Trash Dump Maritime – Shipwreck Wheelwright Shop Maritime – Lighthouse Unfinished Millstone Agricultural Complex – Frontier Source: De Cunzo and Catts 1990

As with the 1989 planning document, the authors of this management plan understood that their list of property types would also continue to evolve. As new historic contexts are developed and new archaeological sites discovered, it is clear that new property types may be needed to better evaluate a given site for the NRHP.

1. Agricultural Tenancy in Central Delaware, 1770 to 1900: A Historic Context

One of the first historic contexts for the area that includes St. Georges Hundred was developed by the Center for Historic Architecture and Engineering at the University of Delaware in 1991. Agricultural Tenancy in Central Delaware, 1770-1900: A Historic Context (Siders et al. 1991) is a comprehensive discussion of agricultural landscape preservation in the context of rural tenancy. In addition to providing a narrative history of agricultural tenancy in rural Delaware, the authors propose criteria for evaluation of agricultural tenant property types for inclusion in the NRHP. Those property types include the following.

 Tenant Farms. The authors propose that the physical evaluation criteria for tenant farms should follow the criteria established for agricultural property types, specifically farm complexes, as well as the NRHP criteria for significance and integrity. They further propose two overall evaluation criteria that are specific to the inclusion of a farm property in the historic context for agricultural tenancy: association with a tenant, and farm size (Siders et al. 1991). To be eligible for inclusion in the agricultural tenancy context, some or all of the existing farm buildings should date to the period of tenant occupation. Farm size is one of the few physical criteria that qualifies a farm for inclusion in the agricultural tenancy historic context. During the period of tenant occupation, the farm must have contained at least 10 acres of agricultural land (Siders et al 1991). This land did not all have to be arable; in fact, a portion of the property was usually unimproved woodland or cripple.

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Nor is there an upper limit on the number of acres that the farm could possess — the average tenant farm contained between 140 and 170 acres, but farms ranged in size from 10 to 750 acres. It is preferable that a tenant farm be nominated with the same amount of land that it contained during the period of significance, but it is not required.

 Tenant Farm Buildings. Whereas the Tenant Farm property type includes the entire complex, dwelling and outbuildings, associated with the tenant farm, in some cases only one element of the former tenant farm may survive. In those situations the authors propose that the individual elements may also qualify for NRHP eligibility under the property type Tenant Farm Buildings. This property type includes two sub-property types: Farm Dwellings and Agricultural Outbuildings.

o Farm Dwelling. To be eligible for inclusion in the agricultural tenancy historic context, a farm dwelling must have housed a tenant at some point between 1770 and 1900. The dwelling could have been built any time prior to 1900, but through historical documentation and field examination it must be proven to have been in use on the site during the period of significance. In addition, there are no specific patterns of physical characteristics for a farm dwelling because they ran the gamut of architectural styles.

o Agricultural Outbuildings. Agricultural outbuildings exhibit the same level of variety in number, type, size, form, material, architectural style, and function as Farm Dwellings. Although some tenant farms contained only a dwelling, others possessed the minimum configuration of a stable and log corncrib, and still others had extensive complexes of agricultural outbuildings, including barns, granaries, and corncribs. The only physical requirement is that the buildings included in the historic context must be proven through historical documentation and field examination to have been on the site at the time of tenant occupation.

 House and Garden. The evaluation criteria for the property type house and garden are similar to those of Tenant Farms and Farm Buildings in that there should be some documentation that the property was occupied by a tenant during its period of significance. The documentation should also include some reference of the property with the term “house and garden,” “garden tenement,” or “cottage,” or there should be documentary evidence of a setting and location that matches that of a typical house and garden. The property history should also include information about the occupations of the owners and/or tenants and their connections to local farms and rural village communities. These connections appear to be linked to the motivation of certain people for building or occupying a house and garden (Sheppard et al. 2001).

2. Historic Context: The Archaeology of Agriculture and Rural Life, New Castle and Kent Counties, Delaware, 1830 to 1940

In 1992 Lu Ann De Cunzo and Ann Marie Garcia of the University of Delaware developed a historic context for the archaeology of agriculture and rural life in New Castle and Kent counties from 1830

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to 1940 (De Cunzo and Garcia 1992). The context focuses on agricultural production and cultural aspects of farm life. Components of their context include the following.

 Identification of the temporal period, geographical limits, and theme

 Synthesis of assembled existing historical, architectural, geographical, and archaeological information, including a description of the significant broad patterns of development associated with the context

 Definition of archaeological property types associated with the context

 Definition of research questions that archaeological property types associated with the context may be expected to address

 Evaluation of identified/inventoried historical archaeological resources associated with the context

 Development of goals, priorities, and information needs related to the identification, evaluation, registration, and treatment of historical archaeological property types associated with the context

Prior to developing the historic context, De Cunzo and Garcia reviewed the previous property types defined by the DESHPO and reviewed how they related to sites potentially associated with farming, farmers, and farm laborers. Following their analysis, they found that five previously identified archaeological property types encompassed the inventoried agriculture-related archaeological sites in New Castle and Kent counties. They included Agricultural Complexes, Tenancies, Dwellings, Residential Tenancies, and “Unknown.”

Following their review of the DESHPO previously defined property types, the authors propose expanding and redefining the five selected property types associated with agriculture and rural life to seven: Agricultural Complex, Agricultural Dwelling, Agricultural Outbuilding, Agricultural Quarter, Agricultural Transport Facility, Agricultural Structure, and Agricultural Commercial/Industrial Outbuilding.

 Agricultural Complex. These comprise a farmstead, residence, and other domestic and agricultural outbuildings and the yards, gardens, and activity areas associated with them.

 Agricultural Dwelling. The Agricultural Dwelling type closely resembles the Agricultural complex type and appears to be interchangeable. According to De Cunzo and Garcia (1992), this property type comprises a residence of a farm owner-operator, a tenant farmer, farm manager, or other free agricultural laborer and his or her family household. The Agricultural Dwelling property type includes at least one dwelling along with any domestic and agricultural outbuildings and the yards, gardens, and activity areas associated with them.

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 Agricultural Outbuilding. This property type consists of one or more outbuildings of agricultural function located on farms but isolated from the farmstead or agricultural complex. In addition to the outbuilding(s), this property type includes associated work and storage yards.

 Agricultural Quarter. This property type is composed of a residence or residential complex housing a number of agricultural laborers, including slaves or migrant workers. It encompasses at least one dwelling, along with domestic outbuildings, if present, and the yards, gardens, and activity areas associated with them (De Cunzo and Garcia 1992).

 Agricultural Transport Facility. This property type is divided into two sub-categories, Agricultural Landing Complexes and Railroad and Road Transportation Facilities. An Agricultural Landing Complex consists of one or more wharves and outbuildings along with outdoor work spaces, storage areas, yards. These properties were located on farms but at the same time were isolated from the farmstead or agricultural complex. Agricultural Transport Facilities (Railroad/Road) are composed of one or more outbuildings, land with work spaces, storage areas, loading and unloading areas and structures, as well as the yards associated with the land-based transportation facilities on farms. Like the Agricultural Landing Complexes, the Agricultural Transport Facilities (Railroad/Road) are isolated from the farmstead or Agricultural Complex.

 Agricultural Structure. This property type consists of one or more structures not designed for human occupation or human activity. They were isolated from the farmstead or Agricultural Complex and included outdoor work spaces and yards associated with them.

 Agricultural Commercial/Industrial Outbuilding. This property type consists of one or more outbuildings of the same or different use but associated with commercial or industrial activity. They are isolated from the farmstead or Agricultural Complex and include work and storage yards. Some examples of these structures include blacksmith shops, canneries, stores, and roadside produce stands.

The above seven property types were developed to apply to any agricultural sites associated with either the 1830 to 1880 or 1880 to 1940 time periods. In addition, the authors state that any agricultural archaeological sites must be attributed to one of the seven defined property types at the completion of a Phase II investigation, although attribution on the basis of a Phase I survey is highly desirable (De Cunzo and Garcia 1992).

3. African American Settlement Patterns on the Upper Peninsula Zone of Delaware, 1730 to 1940: Historic Context

In 1995 Bradley Skelcher developed two historic contexts that include St. Georges Hundred and concentrate on the African American experience in Delaware. The first context focuses on African American settlement patterns on the upper peninsula zone of Delaware from 1730 to 1940 (Skelcher 1995b). Skelcher’s context outlines a historical narrative of African American settlement in New Castle and Kent counties between St. Georges and Murderkill hundreds. The narrative focuses on the institutionalization of slavery in Delaware, the decline of the practice, and the rise

273 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware and evolution of African American settlement and community development during the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Skelcher’s contexts conclude with a discussion of inherent characteristics of both rural and urban African American settlements as well as the definition of two new property types: African American Rural Communities and African American Urban Communities.

According to Skelcher (1995b), the rural community subtype developed in the early nineteenth century from eighteenth-century settlement roots, and to varying degrees persisted into the twentieth century. He further defines a Rural African American community as a district or circumscribed place containing African American members and located remotely from the nearest Euro-American community. These African American settlements were generally located along major transportation route, specifically around crossroads in the countryside. The Rural African American community possessed a core or nucleus that contained a concentration of dwellings and various outbuildings as well as institutions such as churches and schools (Skelcher 1995b). To fit the Rural African American Community sub-type, Skelcher outlines a series of necessary contributing elements, including residential buildings, a church, and a school. Other resources from the period of significance that would contribute to this property type but are not minimally required to be present include a mill pond for baptisms, agricultural outbuildings, a cemetery, an agricultural landscape, and buildings that served a commercial function.

Skelcher (1995b) defined an African American Urban Community as a district or a more or less definitely circumscribed place inhabited primarily by African Americans located within or near a Euro-American community. These communities were clusters of development segregated from a larger, more densely populated Euro-American community. Like the African American Rural Community subtype, the African American Urban Community had a core or nucleus that contained a concentration of African American populations as well as concentration of similar contributing elements. Unlike their rural counterpart, however, this core usually shifted as the community expanded geographically. The urban African American community materialized in the late nineteenth century and eventually predominated over the rural subtype (Skelcher 1995b).

According to the context, an African American Urban Community contributing elements would mirror those expected in Rural African American Communities and include residential buildings, a school, and a church. Unlike the rural communities, Skelcher includes buildings that served a commercial function as part of the mandatory requirements for defining African American Urban Communities. Other resources that would contribute to this context but are not minimally required include cemeteries, residential outbuildings, buildings that housed a source of employment, and community organization affiliated buildings.

Whereas the context developed by De Cunzo and Garcia (1992) outlines and defines specific archaeological resources, Skelcher’s document generally outlines two types of historic districts in which specific archaeological resources may serve as contributing elements. Skelcher recommends that further research be conducted on contributing elements to Rural and Urban African American Communities, including schools, churches, and cemeteries. The author further explains that many of those contributing elements may be the only surviving aspects of these former African American communities. They would not alone fit the criteria of significance as outlined by the historic

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context, but those elements could have cultural importance and be designated as individual resources eligible for the NRHP.

4. African American Education Statewide in Delaware, 1770 to 1940

Following his own recommendations, Bradley Skelcher developed a historic context specifically detailing one of the contributing elements to African American communities, the school. The context, also published in 1995, is titled African American Education Statewide in Delaware, 1770-1940 (Skelcher 1995a). Skelcher’s previous historic context of African American settlement patterns identifies schools as contributing elements to the settlement or community property type. The intent of this study was to focus on the history and development of African American education in Delaware as well as define and set criteria for the evaluation of these schools as a property sub-type.

Skelcher defines the African American school as the physical property or building used for the education of African American children. Under the school property type, Skelcher (1995a) further subdivides schools into four sub-property types.

 Parochial Schools, 1770 to 1865. These schools were likely created by the Society of Friends, the Methodist Church, or other religious organization located near African American communities. Historical records do not indicate whether buildings were created specifically for the purpose of education for African Americans, and therefore it must be documented that there was an association between a particular property and African American education.

 Delaware Association Schools, 1865 to 1919. The Delaware Association with the support of African Americans from local communities and the Freedmen’s Bureau erected the majority of these schools during the late nineteenth century. The state of Delaware eventually took over the schools in the 1890s, making them public schools.

 African American Schools, 1919 to 1940. The period was one of rebuilding of the infrastructure of the entire educational system across Delaware. Pierre S. du Pont funded a school rebuilding program that began with schools for African American children. Although certain designs were more prevalent in schools for African Americans, they were not used exclusively for that purpose. Therefore, to identify a building in this context, documentary evidence must show that these were schools constructed under the du Pont rebuilding program and the building was used for the education of African Americans.

 Other Schools, 1865 to 1940. Skelcher identifies schools associated with African Americans that overlap the previously mentioned chronological periods but do not fall within the other three sub-property types. They include institutions of higher learning, parochial or boarding schools after 1865, and specialized schools such as kindergartens. Like the previously mentioned sub-property types, institutions that fall under this sub- property type should have some documented linkage with the education of African American children.

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5. The Archaeology of Farm and Rural Dwelling Sites in New Castle and Kent Counties, Delaware, 1730 to 1770 and 1770 to 1830

The purpose of this document was to provide an up-to-date summary of farm and rural dwelling sites in Delaware and to provide a statement of how that research ought to influence future archaeological research in the state (Bedell 2002). The document covers two of the state-defined time periods: 1730 to 1770, designated “Intensification and Durable Occupation,” and 1770 to 1830, called “Early Industrialization.” In addition, the historic context defines a series of pertinent property types as well as recommendation regarding the degree of integrity necessary for such property types in ordered to be considered eligible for listing in the NRHP. The four property types outlined in the document are the following.

 European-American Farm and Rural Dwelling Sites, 1730 to 1770. This property type is defined as a farm or rural dwelling site dating to this period and occupied by European Americans. For this site type to be considered eligible, the site must possess a moderate degree of integrity by including identified house foundations or other substantial architectural information as well as large, well-preserved artifact deposits.

 European-American Farm and Rural Dwelling Site, 1770 to 1830. The definition of this property type is identical to the above type with the exception of the difference in the period of significance. Since sites from this period are more common, the historic context recommends that application of the eligibility criteria should be stricter with such sites, only being considered eligible for the NRHP if they possess a high degree of integrity. As a general principle, an eligible site of this type and period should have integrity in three key areas: house foundations or other substantial architectural features, good evidence of site landscape, and well-preserved artifact deposits.

 African American, Native American, or Widow-Occupied Farm and Rural Dwelling Sites, 1770 to 1830. As of the writing of the 2002 context, few sites occupied by minority households had been identified in Delaware during this period. These sites were therefore considered to have high priority and could be considered eligible with a lower degree of integrity. Bedell (2002) further instructs that for such sites to be useful in future research, this site type should contain substantial information regarding the minority household, including integrity in at least one of the three key areas: house foundations or other substantial architectural features, good evidence of site landscape, and well-preserved artifact deposits.

 Slave Quarter Sites, 1730 to 1830. As of the writing of the 2002 context, no slave quarter sites had been archaeologically identified in Delaware (Bedell 2002). The identification of a slave quarter would therefore be a high priority and could be considered for eligibility with a lower degree of integrity. Still, such sites would have to contain a substantial amount of information, including integrity in at least one of the three defined key areas: house foundations or other substantial architectural features, good evidence of site landscape, and well-preserved artifact deposits.

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B. PROPOSED ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROPERTY TYPES

Drawing on this large body of previous work, this document defines property types that are effectively modifications or adjustments to existing types, focused on the African American sites of St. Georges Hundred.

1. African American Agricultural Complex

Although the farm is one of the most common rural property types for archaeologists, it is actually a rare property type within the African American context in St. Georges Hundred. According to the 1837 St. Georges Hundred tax assessment, only two of the 27 listed free African American property holders were farm owners. By 1857 the number of farm owners in the African American population of the hundred increased to seven of 53 listed property holders. Even though the number of African American farm owners increased over the 20-year period, they were still only a small part of the free African American population. This remained true in the twentieth century; in 1901 only four of the listed 64 African American property holders owned farms in the Hundred.

A farm, or agricultural complex, consists of a dwelling house and the outbuildings necessary for the operation of a substantial agricultural enterprise (De Cunzo and Catts 1990). Its distinguishing characteristic is that it is both a residence and a center of agricultural production. A farm typically includes a main dwelling house surrounded by a cluster of outbuildings such as kitchens, barns, stables, granaries, dairies, and wells. The usual clustering of buildings is crucial for the archaeological definition of a farm. A farm often implies the land as well as the buildings, but archaeological work is often limited to the area in and immediately surrounding the building cluster. This area is often called the inner yard, or toft (Bedell 2002). In addition to buildings, any garden, wells, privies, or trash disposal areas are also typically located in this inner yard. The boundaries of an archaeological site are generally defined by the presence of either the distribution of artifacts in the soil, subsurface cultural features, or structural remains. Often it is the case that other structures also existed on a farm, such as tenant dwellings, that are not located within the inner yard, but these are not normally considered part of the same archaeological site as the main farm cluster (Bedell 2002).

Under some circumstances it may be desirable to expand the definition of “farm” to encompass the whole property under the farmer’s control, including their fields, woodlands, fences, hedges, boundary ditches, drainage ditches, and lanes (Bedell 2002). However, this broader area does not usually enter into archaeological work. Because of the great changes that have taken place in agriculture over the last 200 years, and in our notions of space, very few farm landscapes preserve their original eighteenth- and nineteenth-century arrangements. Outlying farm features typically contain few, if any, artifacts and therefore are very difficult to identify archaeologically. However, secondary dwellings such as tenant houses would be an exception. These property types are typically considered separate sites (see house and garden property type, below).

Although a distinction between a tenant-occupied African American Agricultural Complex and those owned by farmers does exist, this distinction is not employed here. Experience in Delaware has shown that any farm with a long history is likely to have had at least one period of tenant operation (Grettler et al. 1995). Documentary research also shows that some large farms with full

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complements of outbuildings were often leased to tenants for periods of time during their existence.

2. House and Garden

The house and garden is expected to be the most common domestic property type associated with free African Americans in St. Georges Hundred during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This property type developed in St. Georges Hundred and throughout central Delaware as planters had to develop new strategies for working with married agricultural laborers and their families during the nineteenth century. The house and garden properties were specifically designed to house these married laborers through established lease-labor arrangements that governed both labor obligations and housing rental (Siders et al. 1991).

An in-depth analysis of the nineteenth-century house and garden property type was undertaken by the Center for Historic Architecture and Design at the University of Delaware in the 1990s and submitted to the National Register of Historic Places as a multiple property listing. A more detailed description of the property type as well as examples can be found in their document, The House and Garden in Central Delaware, 1780-1930 (Sheppard et al. 2001).

The house and garden buildings typically took the form of one finished room with an attached kitchen on the ground floor (Figures 110 and 111). A stair located inside the house led to a second room, likely a sleeping chamber under the roof. These houses were extremely plain and were built to be easily portable. Planters moved their tenants’ dwellings around the landscape frequently, and therefore the houses were often built on piers or wooden sills. The dwellings associated with this property type were often situated on a small plot of ground that included enough space for a tenant to maintain as small garden and a few livestock. There is some variation in the size of land associated with house and garden property types. Previously identified house and garden properties identified in Delaware could be as small as a few thousand square feet (Frederick et al. 2006) or as large as an acre (Sheppard et al. 2001). Variations in the physical form of the house and garden were common and usually involved such elements as the orientation of the house to the closest road, the height of the house, either one and a half to two stories, and the number of bays on the front elevation (Siders et al. 1991). The quality and condition of these homes must have varied, but some of them at least seem to have been quite run down. Estate records for Delaware farms sometimes mention tenant cabins that seem like poor places indeed. The Eliza Evans estate near Glasgow, surveyed for the Orphans’ Court in 1806, included three such homes:

. . . there are on the premises three small log tenements Viz., one occupied by David Biggs in very bad condition, no out buildings or fruit trees, and about two acres of cleared land, one occupied by John Bratten in tenantable order no out houses or fruit trees about two acres land cleared; one occupied by Stephen Augustus in bad order no out buildings about three acres cleared land part of which is in Meadow. Catts and Custer (1990:48)

The physical location of the house and garden dwellings within the landscape represents a defining element in their identification as a property type. They typically follow a specific locational model that differentiates them from the larger agricultural complexes in St. Georges Hundred and the wider region. Farm complexes are often set back from the closest road, often with tree-lined farm

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279 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware lanes leading up to the front of the house. In contrast, house and garden dwellings are generally located on the edges of large agricultural properties, either hidden near a tree line at the edge of a field or in clusters of two to five dwellings along the road in front of, but often some distance from, the main farm complex (Figure 112). Significantly, despite the distance of these dwellings from the owner’s house and farm complex, the house and garden properties still remained within visual range of the main farm dwelling and their employer (Sheppard et al. 2001).

According to Sheppard et al. (2001) a clear chronology exists regarding the development of the house and garden as a labor housing solution for farmers in Central Delaware. From the 1770s to the 1820s, this property type consisted of no particular form, but rather represented an accepted practice for housing certain elements of the rural population of Central Delaware, specifically free African Americans. Between 1820 and 1860, the owners of these larger farms in St. Georges Hundred and throughout the region focused on the specific building type discussed previously as one of the most appropriate for housing agricultural laborers. They combined this traditional building plan with the concept of the house and garden to solve some of the planters’ labor housing needs (Sheppard et al. 2001). Prior to 1860, these farm owners commonly managed the house and garden dwellings as part of their larger farms. After 1860 it became more common to find farmers beginning to partition the dwellings, including their small garden lots, and either selling or giving the properties to their laborers. In some cases, the laborers only received the land. As a result they were required to build their own new dwellings which often followed an architectural pattern familiar from their time as house and garden tenant laborers (Sheppard et al. 2001). Even in those cases where the laborers now owned their dwellings and land, they often maintained their labor relationships with their former landlord farmers.

Based on the characteristics discussed above and outlined in the NRHP document, The House and Garden in Central Delaware, 1780-1930, three configurations of the house and garden property type exist in St. Georges Hundred. First is a tenant house and small lot owned by a landlord farmer and located within the boundaries of the main farm property. These house and garden properties were constructed anytime between 1780 and 1930. The second variation is a dwelling and lot owned by a farmer but established on a separate piece of land that is not part of the farmer’s home farm. Such properties usually date from 1800 to 1880. The last configuration includes a house and

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small lot (approximately 5 acres or less) owned by an agricultural laborer which was once owned by the farmer where the laborer is employed. These properties were likely built between 1850 and 1930.

3. Slave Quarter

The archaeological study of slavery has become a sub-discipline within American historical archaeology over the last 50 years (Epperson 1990; Liebeknecht et al. 2014; Orser 1989; Samford 1996, 2007; Singleton 1985). The difficult topic of race-based slavery is often fueled by intense debate and disagreement over aims, objectives, and audiences. With the notable exceptions of Virginia and Maryland, much of the archaeology of slavery in the Southern states has focused on larger and more formal plantations dating from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By contrast, work north of the Mason-Dixon Line has not been as extensive, perhaps because of a long-established tendency to downplay slavery’s importance in the Middle Atlantic and New England colonies (Malakoff 2004). However, the situation has been changing and important studies have been completed at Rose Hill in Geneva, New York (Delle and Fellows 2012), on Long Island (Rava and Matthews 2013), and at the Beverwych site in New Jersey (Silber and Catts 2004), among others.

Although there are excellent historical studies of Delaware slavery (Williams 1996), there has been essentially no archaeological recognition or study of slave sites in the state (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). Possibly as a reflection of the state’s status as a border colony, the demography in southern Delaware shared many characteristics with its Chesapeake neighbors of Maryland and Virginia, while northern Delaware had a much lower percentage of slaves than in other Southern states. This was likely, in part, a result of northern Delaware’s close political ties to the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). However, New Castle County had a higher number of total slaves at the end of the eighteenth century that any county in New Jersey, which remained a slave state until 1804. In an interesting parallel, southern New Jersey actually experienced a similar demographic influence of the Quaker population around Philadelphia, with far fewer slaves than northern New Jersey counties (Gigantino 2010). Although slavery was not as prevalent in St. Georges Hundred and greater New Castle County as it was in the southern Delaware counties, the peculiar institution still played a prominent role in Delaware society in the eighteenth century and proved a significant component in the development of African American settlements in the Hundred until the Civil War.

Preliminary discussions for the development of a historic context on the African American experience in Delaware took place in 1991 (Ames and Siders 1991); however, a full context on the topic was never produced. A later historic context noted that no slave quarter sites had been archaeologically documented in Delaware up to that point (Bedell 2002). Only in 2012 was a possible slave quarter identified. The Cedar Creek Road Site in Sussex County included a complex of three post-in-ground structures that strongly resemble a mid-eighteenth-century occupation inhabited by enslaved African Americans (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). In addition to the Cedar Creek Road Site, only one other structure related to enslaved African Americans has been identified in the state: the nineteenth-century Ross Mansion Slave Quarter located near Seaford, Sussex County (Ames et al. 1992).

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The archaeological identification of enslaved people of African heritage is not a straightforward endeavor. In America slavery was not only a legal, economic, and social status, for by the eighteenth century it was also racially defined (Berlin 2003). As a result enslaved African Americans form an almost classic group that should be identifiable in the archaeological record. However, it has proven difficult to securely identify the sites of enslaved African Americans without the assistance of written documentary evidence, particularly in locations where the institution of slavery was not as widespread, including New England and the Middle Atlantic.

Although historical documentary records serve as an important means to identify sites associated with African American slavery, it is by no means the only tool available to archaeologists. Many of the archaeological studies of slave plantations over the last 40 years have focused on the identification of patterns in artifact data that can demonstrably be connected to enslaved African American (Adams and Boling 1989; Otto 1975). For example, Patricia Samford, in her discussion of the archaeological identification of slave sites, argues that such sites can be identified through two overlapping and complimentary ways: Pattern Recognition and African Cultural Retention (Samford 1996, 2007).

Samford derives Pattern Recognition from Processual archaeological theories that argue that patterns of artifacts or features can sometimes indicate underlying cultural processes (Samford 1996, 2007). For example, common small sub-floor pits have come to be seen as largely artifacts of slave housing since the 1980s (Kelso 1984; Neiman 1997; Samford 2007). In addition, foodways that have both cultural and socio-economic meaning are also elements that should be considered. However, Samford (1996) further cautions that archaeologists should not expect or attempt to use a single pattern as the standard identifier for slave sites. Only when a combination of patterns can be identified in conjunction with each other should such evidence be considered as a means to identifying slave sites through the archaeological record alone.

Samford’s second method for identifying enslaved African American sites in the archaeological record is African Cultural Retention, defined as evidence that demonstrates physical or behavioral links to West Africa (Samford 1996). The best known instances of specifically African cultural behavior include distinctive assemblages of artifacts from sub-floor or basement areas that have been plausibly interpreted as directly related to West African religious, ritual, and healing practices (Kraus et al. 2010). The artifacts that make up these assemblages are typically English or European items that were modified physically into artifacts with a different meaning. This method recognizes that African Cultural Retention was not a static or passive process, but one that underwent adaptation and divergence in America (Samford 1996). As with the previous method, a single pattern of possible African Cultural Retention on a site should not be relied upon as the sole evidence used to interpret a site as one associated with enslaved African Americans. Instead, combination of identified patterns can serve as a more reliable means to identify enslaved African American sites through the use of archaeology alone.

As a property type the slave quarter can be defined as a dwelling or dwelling area maintained by a slaveowner for his or her enslaved workforce. A slave quarter can take a variety of forms. In some cases the quarter might be a separate building or complex of buildings isolated from the main dwelling house occupied by the Euro-American property owner or farm manager. This form would often be found in situations where the slave master owned large enslaved populations who worked

282 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware on one large farm or several farm properties owned by the same slaveowner. In other instances, the slave quarter might consist of a structure within the main farm complex but separate from the farm owner’s dwelling. This type of quarter would often be found on any size farm or plantation where the property owner maintained an enslaved workforce. In this case the slave quarter might not necessarily be dedicated structures for the housing of enslaved men and woman. In many cases these slave quarters were often lofts or parts of other outbuildings within the inner farm complex, such as out-kitchens or stables. Some smaller farmers with enslaved workforces often used dedicated rooms located inside the master’s own house. This type of slave quarter may be the most difficult to identify when not historically documented given the lack of separate structures to differentiate assemblages. However, when identified, this type of site would possess a high degree of research potential. As there is variation in the types of slave quarter sites likely present within Delaware, this property type should likely be divided into two sub-categories:

 Plantation Slave Quarter. This property type is composed of a residence or residential complex housing a number of enslaved African Americans located on farms but isolated from the main farmstead and inner farm complex. It encompasses at least one dwelling, along with domestic outbuildings, if present, and the yards, garden, and activity areas associated with them.

 Domestic Slave Quarter. This property type is composed of a residence or residential space located in an outbuilding (such as an attached or detached kitchen) within the inner farm complex. This property type would consist of one dwelling or dwelling space within an outbuilding used for some other dedicated purpose as well as the yard, garden, and activity areas associated with it.

4. Town Dwelling

This property type was generally found in only three locations in St. Georges Hundred from 1770 to 1940: Middletown, Odessa, and Port Penn. The number of African Americans living in these “urban” town dwellings increased during the late nineteenth century with the founding of Daletown, outside Middletown, around 1869.

On average, town lots were smaller than the nearby rural properties occupied by African Americans, but larger than the lots in truly urban areas such as Wilmington. A review of land records dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries indicates that lots owned or rented by African American residents generally ranged in size from 4,000 to 9,000 square feet, although in some cases the lots were as large as 15,000 square feet. The lots African Americans occupied in these “urban centers” were generally about the same size as those owned or rented by their Euro- American counterparts, or just slightly smaller.

Houses built on these town lots faced the street with no front yards, allowing an outbuilding to be constructed in the rear yards. A review of tax assessments for African American owned homes during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries indicate the dwellings were generally of log or wood-frame construction (Figure 113). In fact, none of the African American-owned town dwellings identified in St. Georges Hundred were identified as either brick or stone, though it is possible some frame dwellings possessed stone or brick foundations. In addition to information

283 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware gleaned from historic records, details regarding the size and construction of African American owned town dwellings during the period can be found through the review of the Delaware Cultural Resources Survey Inventory files.

In 1981 the New Castle Department of Planning completed cultural resource survey forms for 28 properties located in the historical African American settlement of Daletown (Table 87). All the town dwellings surveyed were constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by African American residents. These remaining examples provide some additional insight into the size and organization of African American owned or occupied town dwellings in St. Georges Hundred during the period of interest.

The African American town dwellings in the CRS Inventory for Daletown indicate that there was some variation in the size and construction techniques of homes. All the houses were of wood- frame construction. Four of the houses were built on either brick or stone foundations; the majority appeared to be built directly on the ground or on wooden sills. Only one of the 28 houses definitely had a cellar or basement. Several other homes may have possessed a basement; however, their presence could not be ascertained through exterior survey of the properties. Although the majority of the houses present in the inventory were two-story, there were also several examples of homes ranging in size from one to two and a half stories.

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TABLE 87

DALETOWN AFRICAN AMERICAN TOWN DWELLINGS IN THE CRS INVENTORY

CRS NUMBER ADDRESS CONSTRUCTION SIZE BASEMENT OUTBUILDINGS N04252 301 E. Lake Street Wood Frame 2 ½-story None Shed N04253 302 Jefferson Street Wood Frame 2-story Unknown None N04254 304 Jefferson Street Wood Frame/Brick 2-story None Privy, shed foundation N04255 305 Jefferson Street Wood Frame 2-story Unknown Shed N04256 308 Jefferson Street Wood Frame 2-story Unknown Privy N04257 309 Jefferson Street Wood Frame/Brick 1-story None Privy Foundation N04258 310 Jefferson Street Wood Frame Unknown Unknown Unknown N04260 314 Jefferson Street Wood Frame 1-story None None N04262 302 New Street Wood Frame/Stone 1 ½-story Yes Shop Foundation N04263 303-305 New Street Wood Frame 2-story None Privy, shed N04264 304 New Street Wood Frame/Brick 1 ½-story None None foundation N04265 307 New Street Wood Frame 2-story Unknown Privy, shed N04266 308 New Street Wood Frame 2-story Unknown None N04267 311 New Street Wood Frame 2-story Unknown Shed N04268 312 New Street Wood Frame 1-story None None N04269 313-315 New Street Wood Frame 2 ½-story Unknown Privy N04270 314 New Street Wood Frame 1-story None Privy, shed N04271 317 New Street Wood Frame 1-story None Privy N04272 319 New Street Wood Frame 1-story Unknown Privy N04273 321 New Street Wood Frame 1 ½-story None Privy, shed N04274 307 E. Lake Street Wood Frame Unknown Unknown Unknown N06346 405 Lake Street Wood Frame 2-story None Shed N06347 301 Elizabeth Street Wood Frame 1-story None None N06348 302 Elizabeth Street Wood Frame 2 ½-story Unknown None N06349 304 Elizabeth Street Wood Frame 2-story None Shed N06350 305 Elizabeth Street Wood Frame Unknown Unknown Unknown N06351 307 Elizabeth Street Wood Frame 2-story None Privy, shed, pig pen N06352 310 Elizabeth Street Wood Frame 2-story None Shed

A variety of outbuildings would also be expected on town dwelling properties. Historical tax assessments do not indicate the presence of outbuildings on the town lots. However, African American owned or occupied town dwellings likely had some auxiliary buildings or structures in their rear yards, including wells and privies. Some tax assessments indicate African American town residents were assessed for livestock, suggesting that some likely constructed chicken coops, pens, or small stables on their properties. Turning again to the CRS Inventory of existent nineteenth-century properties in Daletown, 18 of the 28 properties are recorded as possessing outbuildings in their rear yards. Most were identified as sheds and were likely built after 1940; however, several properties are also recorded as possessing older privies. One house (CRS No. N06351) also included a pig pen among other outbuildings, and another property (CRS No. N04262) included a workshop. The workshop and pig pen identified in the CRS Inventory forms were likely constructed after 1940, but they represent some examples of outbuildings that would have also been present on such town dwelling lots during the late nineteenth and early twentieth

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centuries. Any outbuildings found on sites under this property type should be considered, along with yards and activity areas, as contributing resources to the identified Town Dwelling site type.

5. African American Schools

One of the more complicated property types to identify in St. Georges Hundred is the African American school. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, African American schools took a variety of forms. During the early nineteenth century educational institutions were organized opportunistically and classes were often held in places where the education of African American children was not the building’s exclusive function, such as in private homes and churches. The construction of designated school buildings began after the Civil War. Initially the movement to build dedicated school buildings was undertaken by the local communities with the help of benevolent aid organizations such as the Freedmen’s Bureau and the Delaware Association for the Moral Improvement and Education of Colored People. These schools eventually fell under the jurisdiction of the State of Delaware, where they remained through the early twentieth century. Because of the diversity of form and design over the last two centuries, the identification of African American schools in St. Georges Hundred would depend on a range of varying physical and associative characteristics associated with the period during which they were in use.

An in-depth analysis of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African American school property types was undertaken by Bradley Skelcher at Delaware State University in the 1990s (Skelcher 1995a). A more detailed description of the property type as well as additional examples can be found in that historic context report.

The early education of African Americans during the period of 1770 to 1865 was established within the emerging African American communities by religious organizations such as the Society of Friends and the Methodist Episcopal Church. No information from this period has been found to indicate the physical characteristics of the schoolhouses, if ones did exist separately from church buildings or private homes. Historical records from this period are incomplete, but existing documents do indicate that separate buildings were not created for this purpose by these groups (Skelcher 1995a). As a result any evidence of African American education during this period would have to be found through the archaeological record and likely be component of an associated domestic or church site.

Development of the African American education system in St. Georges Hundred and throughout Delaware began in earnest after the Civil War. After 1865 the Delaware Association, with the support of African Americans from local communities and the Freedman’s Bureau, began erecting the majority of the African American schools in St. Georges Hundred (Skelcher 1995a). During that time the schools serving the African American communities in St. Georges Hundred were private institutions operated by the local communities they served or by religious organizations such as the Society of Friends or the Methodist Episcopal Church. By the 1890s these schools became public when they were taken over by the State of Delaware. The school buildings during this period were independent structures located near the community’s church. In some cases churches continued to operate as schools during this period, particularly in the years immediately following the Civil War. Schooling within churches often began as Sabbath schools with classes held on Sundays following the service. Schoolhouse buildings constructed during this period were

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prominently one-story vernacular structures with one room and a gabled roof. Two- and three- story schoolhouses were also built during this time period in Delaware, but none were located in St. Georges Hundred.

In 1919 the infrastructure of the educational system in Delaware underwent a complete redesign. Funding for the new African American schools was completely supplied by Pierre S. du Pont. Designs for the new schools were developed by J.O. Betelle, a prominent expert in schoolhouse architecture. His designs used Colonial Revival detailing and expressed the current contemporary philosophy of school building reform that purported to offer students the optimum learning environment (Skelcher 1995a). The size of the school was dictated by the size of the communities they served. Of the four African American du Pont schools constructed in St. Georges Hundred, three were one-room schoolhouses, located in Odessa, Mount Pleasant, and Congo Town (Port Penn). The fourth school, in Middletown, was a three-room school.

The design of the du Pont one-room schoolhouses in St. Georges Hundred varied but they were often minor details, such as the placement of windows and entries as well as the whether the roof was hipped or gable. All of the buildings were rectangular in shape and contain wing extensions located on the long side wall, usually at the opposite end of the entry (Skelcher 1995a). With the exception of the Odessa school, the one-room schoolhouses in St. Georges Hundred as well as across Delaware were wood-frame structures. The Odessa school was different in that du Pont intended the school to serve as an experiment in creating a completely fireproof building. The Odessa school was constructed on a brick foundation with asbestos walls and roof, and copper window frames and trimmings. Unlike the one-room counterparts elsewhere in St. Georges Hundred, the African American school in Middletown was entirely brick with a flat roof. The school had three bays, which divided the building into three classrooms, each with a bank of six windows.

Unlike the informal schools that existed in St. Georges Hundred prior to 1865, a variety of primary documentation exists for the schools built by religious and benevolent societies after the Civil War and by Pierre S. du Pont in the early twentieth century. New Castle County land records and maps from the nineteenth century are an important resource in determining the locations of the African American schools during these periods. For the schools in operation after 1865, a review of the records of the Delaware Association and the Freedman’s Bureau as well as those of the Society of Friends, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Delaware State Board of Education would also serve as important resources for determining the details of school construction, administration, class attendance, and curriculum. Such records would serve as an important resource in informing any future archaeological investigations conducted on this property type.

Following a review of Bradley Skelcher’s 1995 context, it appears that the property types he identified remain relevant. It is recommended that African American schools identified in St. Georges Hundred follow the same guidelines laid out in African American Education Statewide in Delaware, 1770-1940 (Skelcher 1995a):

 Parochial Schools, 1770 to 1865. Historical records do not indicate whether buildings were created specifically for the purpose of education for African Americans. Therefore it must

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be documented that there was an association between a particular property and African American education.

 Delaware Association Schools, 1865 to 1919. To identify a building in this context, documentary evidence must show must show that these were used for the education of African American children.

 African American Schools, 1919 to 1940. To identify a building in this context, documentary evidence must show that these were schools constructed under the du Pont rebuilding program and the building was used for the education of African Americans.

 Other Schools, 1865 to 1940. Like the previously mentioned sub-property types, institutions that fall under this sub-property type should have some documented linkage with the education of African American children. Schools under this sub-category cannot fall under any of the three previous sub-types.

6. African American Churches

Historically, the central institutions in African-American communities have been churches, serving their communities not only as houses of worship but as the focal point of political and social relationships (Ames and Siders 1991). Churches were important in the establishment of African American communities and often are the only remaining evidence of an African American presence on the landscape (Skelcher 1995b). Through the research associated with this historic context, seven African American churches have been identified in St. Georges Hundred (Table 88).

TABLE 88

IDENTIFIED AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCHES IN ST. GEORGES HUNDRED

CHURCH DATE FOUNDED COMMUNITY Zoar Methodist Episcopal Church 1845 Odessa Mount Piggah Union African Methodist Episcopal Church 1820 Summit Bridge Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church 1834 Congo Town Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church 1894 Middletown Dale’s Methodist Episcopal Church 1869 Daletown Ringgold Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church 1912 Armstrong Corner Mount Calvary Baptist Church 1932 Middletown

Four of the identified churches—Dale’s M.E. Church in Daletown, Zoar M.E. Church in Odessa, Zion A.M.E. Church in Congo Town, and Mount Piggah Union A.M.E. Church in Summit Bridge—were integral in the creation and development of their respective African American communities. These communities were further strengthened by the construction of church-affiliated African American schools. After 1865 African American communities and their churches constructed a series of primary schools in the African American communities in St. Georges Hundred with the aid of the Delaware Association. These schools were often built on the same parcels as the church or on adjacent lots. With the presence of the church-affiliated African

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American schools, these churches further strengthened their role as focal points in their respective communities.

The three other churches identified in St. Georges Hundred were founded well after their respective communities had been established. Both Trinity A.M.E. Church and Mount Calvary Baptist Church were founded in Middletown, in the vicinity of the African American community of Daletown. Of all the African American communities in St. Georges Hundred, Daletown was the largest and most successful, lasting well into the early twentieth century. The establishment of two additional churches in this community during that time speaks to the resilience and progress of Daletown and its residents. Ringgold Chapel was founded in the early twentieth century. By that time the African American community of Armstrong Corner had been in existence for nearly a century. Although considered an autonomous community by its members, residents of Armstrong Corner previously had to travel to north to Summit Bridge or south to Daletown to attend services. With its founding in 1912, Ringgold Chapel, like other previously founded African American churches, became the center of a small rural African American community in western St. Georges Hundred.

African American churches founded in St. Georges Hundred during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were clearly visible in the historical record. All of the religious institutions were founded by community members serving as trustees to the church. Therefore the trustees purchased land for the establishment of their churches, and records for those transactions often appear in the Land Records of New Castle County. Over the years some churches expanded, adding new land for additional buildings such as schools, and the records for those purchases also appear in county land records. Other primary documentary sources from the period were also useful in identifying African American churches in St. Georges Hundred. Historical maps such as the Rea & Price (1849) Map of New Castle County and the Pomeroy & Beers (1868) Atlas of New Castle County clearly identify several African American churches in their respective communities.

In addition to primary documents, secondary sources are useful tools for identifying sites associated with African American churches. In 1940 the WPA compiled an inventory of all churches in Delaware. Titled Inventory of the Church Archives of Delaware, the document includes every existing institution, including African American churches, in the state as of 1940. In addition, the WPA included some information regarding various churches that had disbanded prior to the survey. Every entry in the WPA study also included references to associated land records as well as information regarding the types and locations of various private records associated with those religious institutions. Another useful record is Frank Zebley’s Churches of Delaware (1947). Like the WPA study, Zebley inventoried every religious institution, including African American churches, within the state as of 1947. Unlike the WPA study, Zebley’s work also includes photographs of the majority of the churches in his study. Both the WPA and Zebley document and photographs are located in the Delaware Public Archives.

Based on the preceding historic context, archaeological resources identified as African American churches include a single building with documentary evidence that shows the structure was used as religious institution for a local African American community. In addition to the church structure, the site may encompass outbuildings, yards, and activity areas associated with it. Church cemeteries are also often considered a contributing resource to the church property type. With the

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exception of Mt. Piggah A.M.E. Church, historical research into African American communities and their churches in St. Georges Hundred failed to identify African American churches with associated cemeteries. Land records associated with those churches never identify designated burial plots, and secondary sources do not mention the existence of cemeteries within African American church properties in St. Georges Hundred. However, land records are not always accurate, and it is entirely possible some other African American churches in St. Georges Hundred may also possess cemetery plots. If those plots are present, they should be considered contributing resources to the overall church property.

7. Cemeteries

Over the past 30 years the excavation of nineteenth- and twentieth-century cemeteries has become an increasingly important part of American archaeology. The study of African American cemeteries has been a major part of this trend, and there is a growing literature on African American burial practices (Davidson 2004; LeeDecker 2009).

Two types of cemeteries were known in colonial America, family graveyards and those associated with churches. In the South enslaved African Americans were usually buried in the family plot of the plantation where they resided, generally in a section clearly separate from graves of the landowning family. In other places churches maintained separate African American sections of their graveyards. In the nineteenth century a new type of cemetery developed, independent of churches and used by the general public. Some of these new cemeteries were run by associations, and in larger cities African Americans founded their own burial associations and thus their own cemeteries. However, there were no such African American burial associations in St. Georges Hundred or most other rural areas.

One well-documented African American burial ground is the Asbury Cemetery, located along U.S. Route 13 between Odessa and Port Penn (Archibald 2005). The cemetery was associated with the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, built in about 1815 and demolished around 1850. This church was used by both African Americans and whites, and both races also used the burial ground. Records disagree over whether there was clear separation between burials of the races; however, all of the visible carved stones are for white graves. In 1928 the cemetery’s trustees purchased additional land, and at those trustees were all African America. It seems that in the later nineteenth or early twentieth century the graveyard began to be used exclusively by African Americans.

8. Sites Associated with the Underground Railroad

Because of the prominence of the Underground Railroad in the history of St. Georges Hundred, the question naturally arises of what archaeological sites might be identified that could be associated with the road to freedom. The house sites of the leading local abolitionists—John Hunn, John Alston, and Daniel Corbit—would certainly merit consideration for significance under this heading, since written accounts show that they sheltered many fugitives. The Quaker meeting house in Odessa has long been recognized for its Underground Railroad associations. Beyond these well-documented, European-American places, it may prove difficult to identify particular sites with Underground Railroad associations. The narrative presented in Chapter IV shows that any house occupied by African Americans might have been a safe haven for people traveling the

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freedom road but that written documentation of such actions is likely to be missing. Perhaps it is more appropriate to consider the Underground Railroad as a factor in the background to all African American homes of the period rather than hoping to identify particular residences with provable Underground Railroad associations.

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VII.2B ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS

A.1B RESEARCH CONTEXT

One of the main purposes of a historic context is to describe the research issues that animate a field of study and the kinds of archaeological remains that may help in answering the questions that are formulated. Knowledge of the research concerns is essential in determining eligibility for the NRHP under Criterion D, because it enables us to recognize which data are more likely to be truly important. Delaware already has several documents that take up this problem and provide sample research questions, especially Bedell (2002), De Cunzo and Catts (1990), and De Cunzo and Garcia (1992). Most of these questions apply to African Americans sites in St. Georges Hundred. For discussion of topics that apply to all historic archaeological sites, such as housing, domestic economy, and the use of space, the reader is referred to those documents.

The discussion in this document focuses on questions specifically relevant to the archaeology of African American sites. The archaeology of ethnicity is a large and contentious topic, and much has been written about the material record of the African diaspora. Work in other regions has shown that it is possible to identify a specifically African American material culture. However, more work has focused on the plantation cultures of the South and the Caribbean, or on urban contexts, than on rural areas in the upper South (Ferguson 1992; Singleton 1985). Whether it is possible for archaeologists to identify a distinct African American material culture outside the plantation context remains controversial.

B.12B RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. African Influence

One of the key questions in African diaspora studies is the degree of African influence on New World cultures. In the eighteenth century hundreds of African-born slaves were imported into Delaware. Written records describe men who spoke no English, practiced African religions, and bore such names as Congamachu and Auyuba Suleiman (Williams 1996). What mark did they leave in Delaware’s archaeological record?

Much about New World culture can be traced to Africa, from music and speech patterns to crops and irrigation strategies (Vlach 1978). The amount of African influence obviously varies from place to place, but it is widespread and pervasive. Buildings have been identified in the South and even in New England that were constructed according to African designs (Deetz 1977; Vlach 1986). The layout of slave quarters and the use of space around the buildings may have been based on African models (Samford 2007). African artistic motifs have been identified on pottery and tobacco pipes made in Virginia and the Carolinas (Ferguson 1992). Archaeological evidence of magical practices based on African precedents has also been found on many Southern sites (Kraus et al. 2010; Wilkie 1997). Africans brought with them certain crops, such as sorghum and black- eyed peas, as well as medicinal plants (Carney and Rosomoff 2010). Colonoware pottery seems to have been made by African potters using traditional African methods. At the Cedar Creek Road site in Sussex County, Delaware, a bloomery (iron furnace) was found that may incorporate

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African technology (Liebeknecht et al. 2014). Traces of African burial practices have been found in several North American cemeteries, not just from colonial times but enduring into the nineteenth century (LeeDecker 2009). At the First African Baptist Church in Philadelphia, burials dating to between 1823 and 1841 involved several practices derived from Africa, such as putting a single coin next to the head, placing a plate over the stomach, and placing a single shoe by the feet (Parrington et al. 1989). Evidence of similar funeral practices has been reported in Texas as late as the 1890s (Davidson 2004). Some African Americans collected ancient Native American spear or arrow points as talismans, as well as natural crystals with striking shapes, a practice that derives from West Africa (Figure 114).

Detecting clear indications of African culture has thus far proved difficult in Delaware archaeology. Rather than being grouped together in large numbers on plantations, African-born slaves in Delaware were generally dispersed into small groups and lived closely with their white owners, a circumstance that made the preservation of their culture difficult (Fitts 2008). By the time the Africans’ children or grandchildren were freed to set up their own households, as many of Delaware’s slaves had been by 1800, their ties to Africa were weak. The environment of the Middle Atlantic was not favorable for crops from the African tropics. It is not surprising, therefore, that their culture shows fewer obvious African traits than those of the Sea Islands or the Caribbean. However, that does not mean there were no African cultural practices in Delaware. The suggestion that the bloomery at Cedar Creek Road may have been of African design shows that such indications may be found if archaeologists look in the right places. African origin was certainly part of the self-understanding of northern African Americans in the nineteenth century, as shown

293 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware in their use of “African” in the names of their new institutions—African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Mutual Relief Society, and so on (La Roche and Blakey 1997).

Research summarized in Chapter 4 on the transatlantic slave trade to the Delaware regions shows high proportions of shipments of enslaved Africans from Senegambia, West Central Africa, and the Gold Coast. This is in contrast to the greater concentration of individuals shipped to the Chesapeake from the Bight of Biafra. Studies attempting to assert specific cultural derivatives from Africa on sites in the Chesapeake have emphasized Igbo and Bakongo traditions. Researchers in Delaware contexts should therefore be wary of appropriating African or African American interpretive mechanisms from the more numerous Chesapeake studies because the mixture of more numerous African cultures appears to be quite distinct in Delaware.

2. African American Culture

The culture that African Americans developed in the New World was derived partly from African traditions and partly from Europeans, but it also included other elements. Much of African American culture arose as a response to the conditions in which Africans and their descendants found themselves. Documentary research on St. Georges Hundred brings home the extent to which the lives of African Americans were shaped by racism, both legal and informal. Because the process of liberation in Delaware was often long and drawn out, some African American families were split into free and indentured parts for decades. Many lived in white households. Well into the twentieth century, most African Americans in the Hundred worked as either laborers or household servants, confining them to the bottom of the socio-economic scale. Few owned land. They were denied formal education for decades after it was made available to whites, and into the twentieth century high school remained a luxury few African Americans could afford. They clustered together in communities, presumably for both positive and negative reasons. They supported each other and developed institutions, especially churches and schools, that made life in African American communities appealing. They were also excluded from certain neighborhoods, as is seen most clearly in the growth of Daletown just outside the borders of Middletown. When they were caught up in the legal system, they often needed the support of white friends or patrons, as Samuel Dale did when purchasing land.

Given these conditions, African Americans probably shared many of the cultural responses to life in the New World that developed across the South. Consider “soul food,” which arose from the efforts of African American cooks to feed their families using inexpensive cuts of meat and crops they could grow easily in their gardens. This way of cooking incorporated African influences, such as the use of the African crops of black-eyed peas and okra. By and large, however, it was a creation of Africans living in America, and it drew heavily on English and Native American traditions (Franklin 2001). It was once common to use the word creole to describe these mixtures of customs (Mouer 1993). The various origins of cultural elements are an interesting area of study, but the end result, that is, what people actually did, was something uniquely African American. Investigation of African American lifeways is therefore distinct from just the investigation of African influences.

The use of certain artifacts to ascribe African identity or suggest direct cultural transference from Africa to New World contexts has occurred often in archaeology, though calls have been made for

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more contextualized interpretations of how “African” objects were conceived of in new contexts of slavery and freedom in North America, as well as how even more common objects without any inherent connection to Africa or African Americans could still be valued or used in unique ways (Samford 1996). Others have also critiqued the use of so-called “ethnic marker” artifacts as continuing the practice of racial “othering” of African Americans, and that simply ascribing African or African American precedence to material culture prevents more nuanced interpretations (Heath 2010a). Small finds such gaming pieces, beads, coins used for non-currency purposes, and other often-cited ethnic markers have been shown to be less than reliable in their association with African and African American archaeological sites in the Chesapeake (Heath and Breen 2009).

African American culture can be conceived of in two ways: as everything African Americans did, or as the things they did that distinguished them from European Americans. Rural African Americans did have much in common with others, especially their poor white and American Indian neighbors. Archaeology of the 1770 to 1940 period tends to bring out those similarities, since American material culture was becoming increasingly standardized across regions and ethnicities. However, even when Delaware’s blacks did use objects similar or identical to those used by whites, they may nevertheless have had their own material culture. The ways objects are used, and the meanings assigned to them by their users, are key parts of material culture, and there are many reasons for thinking that African Americans viewed some objects quite differently from whites (Wilkie 1997). For example, well-worn, roughly triangular pieces of pottery and glass have been found at numerous African American sites, and archaeologists think some of these were gaming counters or charms (Figure 115). Such pieces may have been found at the Cedar Creek Road Site

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(Liebeknecht et al. 2014), although other scholars have noted that such artifacts could also be gizzard stones (Goode 2009), as previously discussed.

One major research void concerns the more secret side of African American life. Churches and schools are well documented, but what about taverns and dances? Studies of slave communities have highlighted the lengths enslaved people went through to meet away from white eyes (Fitts 2008). Our main source on such meetings is the alarmed reports of slaveowners and their allies about “negroes congregating in the woods.” Some of those meetings were religious in nature, and as African Americans acquired their own churches, that practice would have declined. But others were frankly parties and no doubt continued. The rowdy side of African American life is sometimes documented in nineteenth-century criminal court records or the crime pages of newspapers; almost the only time unlicensed taverns or gathering places enters the written record is when a crime was committed there and arrests were made. However, no such records were identified for St. Georges Hundred.

Investigation of the distinctive patterns of African American life remains an important priority for Delaware archaeology. Many of the potential distinctions of African American sites and assemblages identified and discussed in the synthesis of Chapter 5 provide important avenues of future research. How do the settlement patterns identified compare to other regions of Delaware and the Middle Atlantic? Why do African American assemblages contain more refined white earthenware than comparable Euro-American sites? How can the differences in the proportions and functions of glass and ceramic storage vessels between African Americans and Euro- Americans be interpreted? Are the subtle differences in certain small find categories between social groups meaningful? Is there an identifiable foodways tradition among African Americans in Delaware?

3. Slavery

Research for this document turned up little information on the lives of enslaved people in St. Georges Hundred. Study of the census shows that they were mainly dispersed in fairly small groups, since most slaveowners had only one to four enslaved workers. Instead of residing on remote quarters, most of these people lived either in the same house as their owners, or in a kitchen or other nearby outbuilding, making it very difficult to separate their artifacts from those of other members of the household (Williams 1996:103). A few larger farmers owned as many as 19 people, and buildings described as “negro quarters” do appear in the probate records. Slave quarter sites certainly do exist in Delaware, however hard it has been to find them, and they would be important sites for the study of African American life. Even when African Americans lived in the same households as European Americans, it is sometimes possible to identify their actions or possessions in the archaeological record. For example, African ritual deposits have been found around and in the basements of houses occupied by Euro-Americans (Wilkie 1997). At the Roulette Farm on the Antietam Battlefield, documents show that the enslaved workers lived above the separate kitchen, and a trash midden identified adjacent to the kitchen therefore represents largely their activity (Bedell and Shellenhamer 2014).

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4. The House and Garden Property

Many African Americans in rural Delaware lived in house and garden tenements. The archaeological signature of these homes is not well understood. Was the garden space around the house defined in a way that left an archaeological signature, such as a fence? Can it perhaps be defined in other ways, such as by artifact distributions or soil chemistry? It seems that the size of the “garden” area in these leases varied a good deal; did such variation lead to major differences in how the land was used, with larger tenements resembling farms? There is a growing theoretical literature on the use of space by African Americans, enslaved or free, as a way of understanding how they created their own lives within the overarching oppressive structures of racism and slavery (Fitts 1996; Samford 2007). Heath and Bennett (2000) provide a review of documentary and archaeological evidence of the use of yards on slave and other African American sites, and they believe that it is possible both to define yard areas used for work and socializing, based on artifact and chemical data, and to draw parallels between African American and African use of outdoor space.

Archaeologists also have no idea if the way these tenements were used changed over time. According to Sheppard et al. (2001), the houses built for these tenements evolved over the course of the nineteenth century from a random assortment of cabins toward a particular building style. Did something similar happen for the tenement as a whole?

5. Household Formation

Research done for the development of this context raises two important questions about African American life in the early nineteenth century concerning the formation of households and the founding of communities. Early census documents and other sources suggest that before about 1825, African Americans in Delaware had great difficulty establishing stable households. The 1825 to 1850 period saw a burst of household formation. In the latter period a large number of African Americans were able to find or build homes where they could live with their families as a stable unit. African Americans remained mobile, moving fairly often from one tenancy or house and garden lot to another, but they moved as families. Is this change visible in the material record? Is there, for example, a great increase in the number of separate, small African American archaeological sites around that time?

The records consulted for this report provided little information on African American households in the eighteenth century. Research done in Virginia has shown that the process of household formation began among some enslaved Virginians by the 1720s. Evidence of this can be found in the records kept by slaveowners, in descriptions left by travelers, and archaeology (Morgan 1998). The excavation of a series of slave quarter sites on the Utopia and Kingsmill plantations showed that in the seventeenth century many Africans lived in what look like barracks, but in the eighteenth century those structures were replaced by “cabins” inhabited by single-family households (Samford 2007). The enslaved people at Utopia and Kingsmill were part of a community with dozens of members, which presumably made it much easier for them to find mates and establish households. Did the dispersion of enslaved people in smaller groups, as was common in the North, impede household formation? Can this earlier history be investigated in Delaware at all?

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6. Community Formation

Written records for St. Georges Hundred indicate that African Americans first developed their own communities at the same time as the burst of household formation noted above, from 1825 to 1850. It was during that time that the first African-American neighborhoods appeared, along with the first black churches. However, the written records can hardly be considered definitive, since they provide so little information about the locations of African American residences before this period. African Americans must, after all, have lived somewhere. Does archaeology confirm the establishment of African American communities in the 1825 to 1850 period? Or do those communities have a long “prehistory” of occupation before they appear in the written records? Do written records such as tax assessments, deeds, and maps provide a good indication of the size of these communities, or were houses present that escaped official notice? Can archaeology document connections between households that go beyond proximity, for example, identical items of clothing, jewelry or ceramics?

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VIII.3B CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES

A.13B APPROACH

Not all Delaware archaeological sites should be considered eligible for listing in the NRHP. African American sites are much less well documented than sites of Euro-Americans, but there are still a substantial number, especially for the period after 1830. Not every site can give us significant information about the past that we do not already know or could not more easily learn from documentary research. This section lays out some guidelines for deciding which sites meet the criteria for eligibility.

To be considered eligible for listing in the NRHP, a TABLE 89 property must possess integrity and meet one of the NRHP ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA four established criteria (Table 89). Archaeological sites are generally considered eligible for the NRHP A Properties that are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the under Criterion D, because they may yield or have broad patterns of our history. yielded significant information about the past. In B Properties that are associated with the lives of principle, an archaeological site could be considered persons significant in our past. eligible under any of the criteria. Criteria A and B, C Properties that embody the distinctive relating to significant events and persons, depend on characteristics of a type, period, or method of historical judgments somewhat beyond the scope of construction or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or this document. Criterion C could apply to that represent a significant and distinguishable archaeological remains of very high integrity, such entity whose components may lack individual as building foundations, but no use has been made of distinction. this possibility in Delaware. It seems likely that for D Properties that have yielded, or may be likely to the foreseeable future most archaeological sites in yield, information important in prehistory or history. Delaware will continue to be considered for eligibility under Criterion D. Source: CFR 360

Archaeological integrity is generally defined in terms of features and deposits. Features means intact structures surviving below the ground, such as building foundations, wells, postholes, ditches, or pits. Deposits are collections of artifacts found together, for example, all the artifacts in a pit, or in a single layer of soil. The most useful deposits for archaeology are those that can be dated to a specific time period and associated with a particular household.

As with other types of archaeological sites, the eligibility criteria for African American sites in St. Georges Hundred should be tighter for more recent periods. Historical research showed that it is very difficult to learn much from documents about the local African American community before about 1800. In fact, because the documentary record is so poor, it is difficult to establish with certainty that a site was occupied by African Americans. Therefore African American sites dating to the eighteenth century and having any archaeological integrity should have a presumption of significance. The problem in that case is that because the documentary record is generally poor, it is hard to verify that a site was actually occupied by African Americans. After about 1830 it is much easier to identify sites occupied by African Americans, and many such sites are known.

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Therefore each site must be considered more carefully to determine if excavation could answer relevant research questions.

B.14B CRITERIA FOR SPECIFIC SITE TYPES

1. African American Agricultural Complex

The eligibility criteria for a farm owned or rented by African Americans should be similar to those for European Americans, but especially for the 1770 to 1830 period they should be less strict. Little is known about how African American farms compare with those owned by European Americans. The presumption would be that they were very similar, but in the absence of research this remains uncertain.

2. House and Garden

House and garden properties were probably the main type of African American household in St. Georges Hundred across the whole nineteenth century. However, they are little known archaeologically, and the combination of these two facts makes identified house and garden sites potentially highly significant. Integrity for a house and garden property includes both the core site area, where building foundations and artifact deposits are concentrated, and the entire area of the house and garden lease. Indications of integrity would include:

 Architectural features, such as pier bases or chimney bases;

 Pit features or wells;

 Trash middens or other intact deposits of artifacts and faunal material;

 Yard or plowzone deposits reasonably intact for the period of house and garden occupation, not heavily contaminated with later material or material from other households;

 Availability of the whole “garden” plot for investigations, that is, the half-acre or so around the house site;

 Documentary evidence of a house and garden lease or other evidence of occupation by African American tenants; strong circumstantial evidence might substitute for clear documentary proof.

For the 1770 to 1830 period, a house and garden site might be considered significant if only three of these were present; for later periods, at least four or perhaps even five might be required.

3. Town House

No African American town house sites have been excavated in Delaware outside Wilmington, so the archaeology of the comparatively large lots in Daletown or Odessa remains a complete unknown. Were these properties treated like smaller versions of rural, house and garden lots, or

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were they conceived differently? Nor is there much information on how Euro-Americans used similar lots in Delaware’s small towns. Because so little is known about town house lots, a threatened house lot with integrity should at a minimum receive extensive testing to thoroughly evaluate its potential. The integrity indications would be very similar to those for a house and garden site:

 Standing house or house foundation;

 Outbuilding remains, such as pier bases or chimney bases;

 Pit features, privies or wells;

 Trash middens or other intact deposits of artifacts and faunal material;

 Yard deposits containing datable artifacts;

 Availability of the whole yard for investigations.

An African American town lot with at least four of these indications should probably be considered eligible, and exceptional promise in any one area (such as trash middens or pit features) might be enough to cross the threshold.

4. Slave Quarter

To date only a single slave quarter site has been excavated in Delaware, at the Cedar Creek Road Site, and the identification of this site as a slave quarter is not certain. Any slave quarter sites identified in the future in Delaware therefore have a presumption of importance and should be considered eligible if they have any features or deposits dating to the period when the site was occupied by enslaved people.

5. African American Church and School

Most likely, all of the locations of African American schools in St. Georges Hundred are known at least approximately. Schools by their nature generated large paper trails, so a completely unknown school is highly unlikely. Churches are also well known, the only exception being the possible church in Mount Pleasant. Archaeologists have debated whether any significant information about the past can be recovered from such sites. The excavators of the Welsh Tract school in Newark, Delaware, concluded that little could be learned from school sites and recommended that if schools were encountered in future highway projects, “detailed investigation may not be necessary” (Catts et al. 1983). Gibb and Beisaw (2000) argued on the contrary that learning from school sites requires developing appropriate research questions based on understanding the history of education, and they suggested particular attention to the architecture of schools, the details of remodeling and additions, and evidence of heating, lighting, and sanitation. More recent research at Harvard Yard in Massachusetts (Peabody Museum 2015) and Bray School in Virginia (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 2015) has further shown the value of investigating school sites related to minority populations.

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Churches and schools were closely identified with communities, and from a cultural resource management perspective, they may be most appropriately seen as community foci. The information content of nineteenth-century church and school sites is not likely to be large, so they are not likely to be found eligible under Criterion D by themselves. Such sites might be significant, however, when considered as parts of whole communities.

6. Cemetery

In contrast to schools and churches, the African American burial grounds of St. Georges Hundred may be largely unknown. In the eighteenth century many African Americans were probably buried in the family or church plots of their employers or owners, but this remains speculation. Sites that produce information on African American burial practices—starting with where people were buried—could be considered significant under Criterion D.

7. Sites Associated with the Underground Railroad

Because of the nationwide significance of the Underground Railroad theme, sites that can be shown historically to be associated with this theme have a presumption of significance.

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IX.4B CONCLUSION

A.15B INFORMATION NEEDS

The information collected for this report suggests that the largest holes in our knowledge of African Americans in Delaware are in the earlier period. Very little information was discovered about the lives of African Americans in the eighteenth century; therefore any archaeological site containing data on the lives of eighteenth-century African Americans and any degree of integrity has a presumption of significance. Important information gaps for this period include housing, diet, burial practices, indications of African influence, and most other aspects of the material culture.

For the period after 1800, and especially after 1830, much more information is available. The nineteenth-century site types most likely to produce new information are:

 Slave quarters;

 House and garden plots or other small tenements (these were the main site type for free African American households in this period and are therefore associated with the formation of both households and communities in the 1800 to 1850 period);

 Town lots;

 Cemeteries.

These under-investigated site types should receive priority.

In terms of the material culture categories most often found on historic archaeological sites, the same guidelines generally apply as for other historic sites: the most valuable data are provided by architectural remains, well-dated primary artifact deposits, and indications of how space was used in and around the residence. More detailed and intensive artifact analyses, such as glass and ceramic minimum vessel estimates from Phase II evaluation and Phase III data recovery efforts, would add much needed information making larger scale synthetic analyses more fruitful. Particular data needs include large, well-preserved faunal assemblages and their rigorous analysis, including MNI and meat weight estimates. The growing trend of botanical analysis needs to be continued, and expanded to include recent advances in analytical methodology such as pollen and phytolith analysis.

B.16B LESSONS

One of the lessons of this study has been that extensive historical research that covers a neighborhood rather than a single property can often establish relationships not apparent in less thorough research. For example, basic Phase IA research established that the Samuel Dale Site had belonged to the Rev. Samuel Dale, but the site’s previous occupation as a house and garden tenement was identified later in the account books of James Mansfield. Many of the African American archaeological sites in St. Georges Hundred were parts of communities, the history of

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which has been laid out in this document; the authors believe that this broader, community history provides important contextual information for interpreting these sites. The DelDOT report collection includes many fine examples of detailed documentary research that show the richness of the available records, including Ned Heite’s work around Dover and Camden, UDCAR’s research around Christiana (Catts et al. 1989), and Hunter’s work on Colonial cart roads (Burrow et al. 2009).

Another lesson has been that the study of African American archaeological sites in Delaware is greatly enriched by a broad knowledge of African and African American archaeology in general. The particular meanings of artifacts like well-worn sherds of glass and ceramic, the possibility that some pits functioned as shrines, and the sacred meanings of some collections of artifacts are not obvious, and most archaeologists can only learn about them by reading the relevant literature. The possibility that the bloomery at the Cedar Creek Road Site employed African methods shows the level of knowledge that may be needed to tease out the African or African American associations of certain features or deposits. Advances in scholarship of the slave trade and other historical research can add greatly to the development of site-specific interpretive contexts.

C.17B SUMMING UP

It has been the purpose of this document to explore in the detail the archaeology of one group of people in a small place, laying out what is known and what remains to be learned. This information, it is hoped, will be of use to those who come after us, helping them to place African American archaeological sites in their proper historic context, evaluate their significance, and plan for the excavation of significant sites threatened by development.

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Adams, William H. 2003 Dating Historical Sites: The Importance of Understanding Time Lag in the Acquisition, Curation, Use, and Disposal of Artifacts. Historical Archaeology 37(3):38-64.

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Affleck, Richard M. 2011 At the Road’s Edge: Final Archaeological Investigations of the Wilson Farm Tenancy Site (7NC-F-94), Middletown, New Castle County, Delaware. Prepared for Delaware Department of Transportation by URS Corporation, Burlington, New Jersey.

Affleck, Richard, Leslie Frucht, Ingrid Wuebber, John Bedell, and Lenore Santone 1998 Class and Social Identity in St. George’s Hundred Ca. 1830-1920: Final Archaeological Excavations at Locust Grove, State Route 1 Corridor, Odessa, New Castle County, Delaware. Delaware Department of Transportation Archaeology Series No. 153. Prepared for the Delaware Department of Transportation, Dover, by Louis Berger and Associates, Inc., East Orange, New Jersey.

American Weekly Mercury [Philadelphia] 1734 Alexander Draper: Advertisement. June 6:5. America’s Historical Newspapers, Early American Newspaper Series 1-3. Accessed online at .

Ames, David L., Robert D. Bethke, James Curtis, J. Richie Garrison, Bernard L. Herman, James Newton, Rebecca J. Siders, and William H. Williams 1992 Ross Mansion Quarter, Seaford, Sussex County, Delaware. Historic Structures Report. University of Delaware, Wilmington.

Ames, David L., Mary Helen Callahan, Bernard L. Herman, and Rebecca Siders 1989 Delaware Comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan. Center for Historic Architecture and Engineering, College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, University of Delaware, Newark.

Ames, David L., Bernard L. Herman, and Rebecca Siders 1987 The Delaware Statewide Comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan. Center for Historic

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1783 Daniel J. Adams: Advertisement. January 18 (11[991]:3). America’s Historical Newspapers, Early American Newspaper Series 1-3. Accessed online at .

Pogue, Dennis J. 1988 Anthrosols and the Analysis of Archaeological Sites in a Plowed Context: The King’s Reach Site. Northeast Historical Archaeology 17:1-14.

Pomeroy & Beers 1868 Atlas of the State of Delaware. Pomeroy & Beers, Philadelphia

Pulsipher, Lydia M. 1994 The Landscapes and Ideational Roles of Caribbean Slave Gardens. In The Archaeology of Garden and Field, edited by Naomi F. Miller and Kathryn L. Gleason, pp. 202-222. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

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Rea, Samuel, & Jacob Price 1849 Map of New Castle County, Delaware, from Original Surveys. Smith and Wister, Philadelphia.

Redding, J. Saunders 1991 Troubled in Mind: J. Saunders Redding’s Early Years in Wilmington, Delaware. Delaware Heritage Press, Wilmington.

321 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

Reitz, Elizabeth J., and C. Margaret Scarry 1985 Reconstructing Historic Subsistence with an Example from Sixteenth-Century Spanish Florida. Special Publication Series, Number 3, Society for Historical Archaeology. Accessed online at .

Riordan, Liam 1997 Passing as Black/Passing as Christian: African-American Religious Autonomy in Early Republican Delaware. Pennsylvania History 64:207-229.

Samford, Patricia M. 1996 Archaeology of African American Slavery and Material Culture. The William and Mary Quarterly 53(1):87-114.

2007 Subfloor Pits and the Archaeology of Slavery in Colonial Virginia. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Shaffer, Mark, Jay F. Custer, David Grettler, Scott C. Watson, and Colleen De Santis 1988 Final Phase III Investigations of the Whitten Road Site, 7NC-D-100, Whitten or Walther Road, County Road 346, New Castle County, Delaware. DelDOT Archaeology Series No. 68. Prepared for the Delaware Department of Transportation, Dover, by the University of Delaware Center for Archaeological Research, Newark.

Scharf, J. Thomas 1888 History of Delaware, 1609-1888. Volumes I and II. L.J. Richards and Co., Philadelphia.

Schumer, Jessica L. Smoker, Barbara J. Gundy, and Bryan C. Henderson 2011 Phase I Archaeological Survey Report, US 301 Contract 2C Project Armstrong Corner Interchange/St Georges Hundred, New Castle County. Prepared for the Delaware Department of Transportation, Dover, by Skelly and Loy, Inc.

Scott, Donald 2013 Camp William Penn. Accessed online March 17, 2014, at .

Sheppard, Rebecca J., Anna Andrzejewski, and Deirdre McCarthy 2001 The House and Garden in Central Delaware, 1780-1930. National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Nomination. On file, Delaware State Historic Preservation Office, Dover.

Sheppard, Rebecca J., and Kimberly Toney 2010 Reconstructing Delaware’s Free Black Communities, 1800-1870. Center for Historic Architecture and Design, University of Delaware, Newark.

322 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

Siders, Rebecca J., and Anna V. Andrezejewski 1997 The House and Garden: Housing Agricultural Laborers in Central Delaware, 1780-1930. In Exploring Everyday Landscapes: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture VII, edited by Annemarie Adams and Sally McMurry, pp. 149-166. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Siders, Rebecca J, Bernard S. Herman, David L. Ames, Andrea L. Marth, Gabrielle M. Lanier, Margaret H. Watson, Elizabeth M. Bellingrath, Nancy I. Van Dolsen, Leslie D. Bashman, and Susan M. Chase 1991 Agricultural Tenancy in Central Delaware, 1770-1900: A Historic Context. On file, University of Delaware Library, Newark.

Silber, Barbara Chi Hsaio, and Wade P. Catts 2004 Archaeological Data Recovery Investigations at the Beverwych Site (28MR256), U.S. Route 46 and South Beverwych Road, Parsippany-Troy Hills Township, Morris County, New Jersey. On file, New Jersey Department of Transportation, Trenton.

Singleton, Theresa A. 1985 Archaeology of Slavery in North America. Annual Review of Anthropology 24:119-240.

2001 Slavery and Spatial Dialectics on Cuban Coffee Plantations. World Archaeology 33(1):98-114.

Skelcher, Bradley 1995a African American Education Statewide in Delaware, 1770-1940 +/-. Historic Context Report. Prepared for the Delaware State Historic Preservation Office, Dover.

1995b African American Settlement Patterns in the Upper Peninsula Zone of Delaware, 1770- 1940+/-. Historic Context Report. Prepared for the Delaware State Historic Preservation Office, Dover.

Sobel, Mechal 1987 The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

Steward, Rev. T.G. 1872 Delaware State Journal, December 21, 1872. On file, Delaware Public Archives, Dover.

Still, William 1886 The Underground Railroad. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia. Accessed online at .

Strayer, George D., N.L. Englehardt, and F.W. Hart 1919a General Report on School Buildings and Grounds of Delaware. Bulletin of the Service Citizens of Delaware October 15, 1919. On file, Historical Society of Delaware, Wilmington.

323 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

1919b Possible Consolidations of Rural Schools in Delaware Bulletin of the Service Citizens of Delaware. On file, Historical Society of Delaware, Wilmington.

Taylor, Randolph, Timothy Thompson, Kimberly Snyder, and William Gardner 1987 Data Recovery Excavations at the Grant Tenancy Site, Centre Road and Lancaster Pike, New Castle County, Delaware. Delaware Department of Transportation Archaeological Series No. 56. Prepared for the Delaware Department of Transportation, Dover, by Thunderbird Archaeological Associates, Woodstock, Virginia.

Tilley, Christopher Y. 1994 A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths, and Monuments. Berg, Oxford, UK.

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph 1998 Culture on the Edges: Creolization in the Plantation Context. Plantation Society in the Americas 5:8-28.

Tuma, Michael W. 2006 Ethnoarchaeology of Subsistence Behaviors within a Rural African American Community: Implications for Interpreting Vertebrate Faunal Data from Slave Quarters Areas of Antebellum Plantations Sites. Historical Archaeology 40(4):1-26.

United States Department of Agriculture 2007 Hydrologic Soil Groups. In National Engineering Handbook, Part 630 Hydrology, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, D.C. Available online at .

United States Geological Survey [USGS] 1992a Elkton, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1992b Ellendale, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1992c Milton, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1993a Cecilton, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1993b Delaware City, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1993c Dover, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

324 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

1993d Little Creek, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1993e Middletown, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1993f Milford, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1993g Mispillion River, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

1993h Saint Georges, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

2014a Elkton, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

2014b Middletown, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

2014c Saint Georges, Delaware. 7.5-Minute Series Topographic Quadrangle. United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

Upton, Dell 1985 White and Black Landscapes of Eighteenth-Century Virginia. Places 2(2):59-72.

Vlach, John Michael 1978 The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland.

1986 The Shotgun House: An African Architectural Legacy. In Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture, edited by Dell Upton and John Michael Vlach, pp. 58-78. University of Georgia Press, Athens.

Wax, Darold D. 1962 The Negro Slave Trade in Colonial Pennsylvania. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle. University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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325 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

2003 The Archaeology of Mothering: An African-American Midwife’s Tale. Routledge, New York.

Wilkins, Andrew, Jason Shellenhamer, and John Bedell 2015 Phase III Archaeological Investigations at the Noxon Tenancy Site (7NC-F-133), U.S. Route 301 Corridor, New Castle County, Delaware. Prepared for the Delaware Department of Transportation, Dover, by Louis Berger, Washington, DC.

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Wilmington Evening Star 1932 Guardians Sale of Real Estate. On file, Delaware Public Archives, Dover.

Wilson, Carol 1994 Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America, 1780-1865. University of Kentucky Press, Lexington.

Wilson, Clare A., Donald A. Davidson, and Malcolm S. Cresser 2007 Multi-element Soil Analysis: An Assessment of its Potential as an Aid to Archaeological Interpretation. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(2): 412-424.

Wise, Cara Blume 1978 Ashton Historic District National Register Nomination. On file, Delaware State Historic Preservation Office, Dover.

Works Project Administration [WPA] 1940 Inventory of the Church Archives of Delaware by the Historical Records Survey. On file, Delaware Public Archives, Dover.

Zebley, Frank R. 1947 The Churches of Delaware. Frank Zebley, Wilmington, Delaware. On file, Delaware Public Archives, Dover.

326 Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

APPENDIX6B A

Selected Probate Documents

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

CAESAR EVANS PROBATE INVENTORY, AUGUST 6, 1812

ITEM VALUE ITEM VALUE Wearing apparel $10 .00 A lot of pewter 1 .50 Walnut desk 4 .00 A small pine table .12 Card table 3 .00 One oval ditto 1 .00 Dining Table 4 .00 Two churns washing tub and bucket 1 .50 Square Cupboard 2 .00 Well bucket and chain barrel and bag 1 .50 Trunk 2 .00 One old bed .50 Two little wheels 3 .00 One straw bed bedstead and furniture 1 .50 Two looking glasses 1 .00 A lot of potatoes 1 .50 Six rushbottom chairs 5 .00 A lot of bacon by the lb. 10 cents 115 lb. 11 .50 Two sugar boxes .25 Two guns 1 .50 Six table spoons silver 10 .00 A lot of old iron 1 .00 Six tea ditto 1 .00 His right of 3 beehives 2 .00 Crockware in Cupboard 1 .00 A lot of earthenware 1 .50 One green bedstead bed and furniture 16 .00 Soap trough and churn and tar barrel 1 .50 One high post ditto and furniture 16 .00 Three coverleds and four sheets 7 .00 A lot of fish and barrels 3 .50 Tea box .75 A lot of pork and barrels 4 .00 A lot of books 1 .00 Two tea kettles 1 .00 One white bedstead and bed 6 .00 Ring maul 4 wedges and 5 naces (?) 3 .00 One trunk .50 Two harrows and two chains 7 .00 One chest .50 Ox yoke grindstone and plough colters .75 A lot of wheat 3 .00 Ox cart 15 .00 A case of bottles .50 Light wagon and harness 25 .00 Half dozen knives and forks .60 Large 4-horse wagon 40 .00 A lot of barrels and guns .50 A lot of forks and hoes 1 .00 Seven bags 3 .00 Ox yoke and chain 1 .00 Weavers loom and spool wheel 1 .00 Corn cradle and flaxbreak 1 .25 Rocking chair and one small ditto .50 Five ploughs and a flock harrow 6 .00 Reel and mortar .50 A lot of gears 4 .00 A lot of woolen & linen & cotton yard 2 .00 Scythe and cradle 1 .00 Stilliards and a lot of carpenters tools 2 .00 Dutch fan 4 .00 Cross cut saw 1 .00 Cutting box and knife .50 Scales and weights .50 Two weeding shovels and one iron ditto 1 .25 Two baskets .50 A lot of oats 2 .00 Saddle and bridle 5 .00 A lot of corn on barn floor by the bushel .50, 120 60 .00 bushels Three buckets and one tub 1 .00 One iron shovel and spade 1 .00 One large pot and two small ditto 1 .50 A lot of corn in crib by the bushel .55, 135 bushels 74 .25 Two ovens two pots frying pan skillet 2 .00 Two scythes and hangings one new scythe 1 .50 skimmer & ladle Sifter lantern five tongs two pot racks 1 .50 Two hogs in pen by house 10 .00 Two candlesticks and three flat irons .50 Six hogs in pen by the barn 18 .00 Tin ware .75 One year old heifer 4 .00 Big spinning wheel and hogshead .25 One pair of oxen 30 .00 Twelve sheep and nine lambs 30 .00 One red steer 14 .00 One bed blanket and bedspread 10 .00 One bull 12 .00 Spider and adze .75 Sorrel horse 12 .00 Two chests .75 Bay horse 30 .00 A lot of wool by the lb .35, 43 lbs. 15 .05 Old sorrel mare 20 .00 Brindle cow white rump and calf 18 .00 Brown mare 40 .00 Old red cow and calf 18 .00 Wheat and rye on the ground 125 .00 Young red cow and calf 20 .00 Cornfield supposed to be 20 acres and the fallow 150 .00 field for wheat Brown crumplyhorn cow 13 .00 Meadow and pasture ground 45 .00 White back steer 25 .00 House rent and firewood 30 .00 Two black steers 16 .00 One half bushel and 2 grubbing hoes 1 .25 Heifer white back 8 .00 $1145 .82

A-1

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

ALEXANDER LEA PROBATE INVENTORY, FEBRUARY 22, 1822

ITEM VALUE ITEM VALUE Diverse wearing apparel $5 .50 Soap tub .25 Pine table .50 One furkin of lard 2.34 Ten Windsor chairs 5 .00 177lbs of pork 10 .82 Bed, bedstead and bedding 4 .00 Old brake and wood horse .23 Chest and contents 1 .50 One sled old .25 Chest case and two bottles .50 Well bucket and chains 1 .50 Lot carpenters tools 3 .00 Pine horseshaft (?) .25 Pair steelyards .50 Two flock harrows 2 .00 Lot of earthen ware 1 .50 Cutting box and knife 2 .50 Homeny mortar .50 Cart body and shafts .75 Two sythes and cradles 4 .00 Grindstone 1 .00 Three mowing scythes 3 .00 Two fallow harrows 3 .00 Two riding saddles and bridles 1 .50 Three old plows 2 .00 Lot of spades and shovels 3 .00 Horse wagon 20 .00 Two dung forks .75 Ox cart 30 .00 Old Gun .50 Quantity of flax ? 3 .00 Three axes, maul and wedges 3 .00 Yoke of oxen 50 .00 Three grubbing hoes 2 .00 One bull 12 .00 Pails, tubs and churn 3 .00 12 milk cows at $12 a head 144 .00 Lot plow gears 2 .00 7 heifers at $8.50 a head 59 .00 Three sheep skins .37 Two yearling colts 24 00 Two pair iron traces and hawes 4 .00 Two bay horses 110 .00 Lot of iron .50 Two bay mares 90 .00 Cake tallow 1 .00 One three year old colt 30 .00 Walnut table 1 .00 One breeding sow 6 .00 Pine table .25 40 and 53 bushels of corn 215 .97 Lot milk pan, dishes, etc. 2 .00 363 and 25 bushels of oats 90 .87 Flat iron .50 103 and 65 bushels of barley 67 .27 Lot of iron pots, griddle and potracks 2 .00 Two dutch fans 10 .00 Iron pitchfork .50 Tail chain .75 Ox chain .75 His right in flock of sheep on the shares 12 .00 Lot of old querns and salt 1 .00 Lot of tobacco 1 .00 Table and bedstead 1 .00 Field wheat and rye supposed to be 30 acres 100 .00 Andirons and tongs .25 10 calves at $3.50 35 .00 Large iron pot 1 .00 12 and 25 yrds of bed ticking 3.00 Old wool reel .50 10 and 20 yrds of muslin 2 .00 Two bedsteads .25 12 head of sheep at $2 a head 24 .00 Corner cupboard 5 .00 12 bushels potatoes .75 Half bushel and basket .50 2 houghs 2 .00 Corn cradle 50 4 locks 2 .12 Nine old baggs .75 $1253 .82 Cider mill 10 .00 Three meat hogs heads and five 2 .00

A-2

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

CUFF FRISBY’S 1845 INVENTORY

ITEM VALUE One Table walnut $0.87½ 6 chairs 1.00 2 beds, steads & covering 11.00 1 high Drawer & andirons 2.50 1 pine Table & stand 0.50 Cedar [sic] & looking glass 0.50 Cupboard & contents 1.50 Sundries 1.00 1 Chest 3.00 $21.87½

A-3

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

PERRY GREEN SR PROBATE INVENTORY JANUARY 2, 1830

ITEM VALUE ITEM VALUE 1 old silver watch, French $6 .00 Lott of pewter & earthenware in Entry $1 .00 1 bedstead & bedding in parlor 15 .00 1 pair andirons in kitchen .50 1 pr. blankets 2 .00 2 pot racks .50 1 do. sheets 2 .00 Lott of case or table knives, forks & spoons 1 .50 1 do. do. cotton 1 .50 1 pine kitchen table .25 1 quilt 1 .50 1 large kitchen chest .50 1 large heve quilt 4 .00 1 large & good kitchen table .75 1 pr. table cloths .62½ 1 small ditto .12½ 1 piece of new quilt began .25 4 pots of lard 7 .00 1 parcel work flannel & muslin .50 2 candlesticks .12½ 1 walnut table 4 .00 4 odd chairs .50 1 walnut bureau 6 .00 Lott of cast iron 3 .00 1 waiter on ditto .25 Ditto cedar ware 3 .00 1 looking glass over ditto .25 1 grindstone & crank .50 1 new sweeping brush .31 1 pine table in yard .25 2 towels 5 table cloths .50 1 pair scales 1 .00 6 yellow chairs 3 .00 1 pair steelyards .25 1 mahogany car & table 5 .00 Lott of jars & bottles .25 8 silver tea spoons 5 .00 3 iron wedges .25 1 blue cupboard & contents 4 .00 3 flax hackles .37½ contents in closet 1 .00 1 pair wool cards .12½ 43 yards drab cloth at .40 17 .20 1 shot gun 1 .50 1 tin trunk .12½ 28 grain bags 2 .50 1 pair andirons shovel & tongs 1 .00 Lott of feathers .25 Lott of books .25 4 farm ploughs 6 .00 1 small & old trunk .12½ 2 scythes and cradles 4 .00 2 bags with dried apples & pears 1 .00 Lott of old iron 1 .00 1 bedstead & bedding upstairs 9 .00 6 empty bbls .75 1 pine chest upstairs .12½ Lott of wool 6 .00 1 bed & quilt on floor 1 .50 4 kegs & tub .67½ 2 pair sheep shears .12½ 6 bu. wheat & peas 2 .50 Remnant of blue linsey .50 1 bbl tallow 2 .50 2 old stead bedding 3 .00 1½ bu. salt 1 .25 __ old stead & bedding in entry (?) 9 .00 Bbl. & some vinegar .75 __ pine table in ditto .25 3 empty bbls in 1 .00 ____ Sieve .16 9 sheep 10 .00 Coffee mill .50 1 nohorned cow 5 .00 1 ½ hhds salted port 35 .00 1 horned brown ditto 5 .00 1 wool wheel .25 1 white face horned ditto 5 .00 Lott of carpenter tools .50 1 year old rede bull 3 .00 1 craddling scythe .75 1 black & white cow 7 .00 6 iron forks 1 .00 1 ditto ditto 7 .00 6 pr rawhide gears 1 .50 1 brindle & white ditto 7 .00 2 leather & 3 _____ collars .50 1 black pide (= pied cow) 5 .00 Lott chains 1 .00 1 red pide 5 .00 1 old cutting box & knives .50 1 white pide & red spots 8 .00 Lott of spades & shovels 1 .25 1 ditto black with white back 4 .00 1 bridle & old saddle 1 .00 1 white ditto little red 5 .00 3 narrow axes 1 .00 1 red bull 7 .00 1 half bu. measure .25 1 black & white ox 10 .00 4 ox yokes 2 .50 1 yoke red oxen 25 .00 Lott of hoes .62½ 1 black & white no horn heifer 4 .00 1 large fallow harrow 2 .00 1 yoke black & brown oxen 30 .00 1 S. harrow .50 1 black & white heifer 5 .00 2 cultivators 2 .00 1 old stear 6 .00 1 old wheat cradle .25 1 pide heifer 5 .00 1 old pleasure carriage 5 .00 6 heifers 18 .00 1 ox cart 10 .00 Blades tops & on both farms 12 .00

A-4

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

ITEM VALUE ITEM VALUE 1 horse cart 3 .00 Lott of flax .50 1 ox wagon 13 .00 13 hogs 20 .00 1 stud horse 40 .00 1 beef or fatted ox 12 .00 1 grey mare 35 .00 Lott of potatoes, turnips, cabbages 1 bay ditto 30 .00 & apples 4 .00 1 sorrel horse 15 .00 Interest in crop of wheat on ground, clear of rent 15 .00 1 chestnut ditto 35 .00 Stack of rye 2 .00 1 bay horse 35 .00 5 bu. corn & 30 in crib 15 .00 1 sorrel mare 25 .00 Crop of wheat at Black Bird (?) 1 old mare bay 25 .00 Clear of rent & all other expenses 10 .00 1 young ditto 25 .00 166 2/3 Bu. corn in crib at Black Bird 50 .00 3 year old colt 18 .00 5 calves 10 .00 Cash found in home at death by the Lott of geese turkeys & fowls 3 .00 Administrator so he says 130 .00 1 old wheat fan 6 .00 1 old cultivation harrow 25 .00 TOTAL $872 .80½ 1 old cart body 75 .00

A-5

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

PERRY GREEN JR. PROBATE INVENTORY, FEBRUARY 8, 1848

ITEM VALUE ITEM VALUE Bed, bedstead and bed clothing upstairs $5 .00 Sundries in loft .50 Three old bed covers and two pair of sheets 1 .00 Lot of wheat in blls 5 .50 Six yellow Windsor chairs 3 .00 Lot of chains and wedges .75 Lot of stools and benches .50 Lot of ploughs and cart gears 3 .00 Looking glass, pair of andirons and old .75 Manure drag and fork .75 stands Chest and three old boxes .25 One old plough .25 Large chest, hair trunk and basket 2 .00 Two cultivators 1 .00 One stand and old arm chair .50 One fallow harrow 1 .00 Bureau 3 .00 Lot of hoes and shovels 1 .50 Lot of glass, hard and crockery ware 1 .00 Lot of pickled beef 6 .00 One looking glass and five small pictures 1 .25 Lot of sundries in cellar .25 Bed, bedstead, bedding and curtains 8 .00 One wheelbarrow 2 .00 6 light yellow and one rocking chair 3 .25 Grindstone 1 .25 Stove and fixtures 5 .00 Horse cart 12 .00 Walnut table and small stand 1 .00 Lot of turnips 5 .00 One cupboard 3 .00 One shoat 5 .00 Lot contents of cupboard 2 .50 Two ditto 7 .00 Lot jugs .75 Old gig wheels .75 One desk with drawers 4 .00 Lot of hay and corn fodder 9 .00 One breakfast and one dining table 3 .00 Lot of corn in the ear 48cts/per bu - 227bu, 109 .25 34 lbs Lot of knives, forks and sundries .50 One Sorrel horse 45 .00 Lot of crockery and hard ware .50 One half of Bay yearling colt 12 .50 Two window blinds and maps .20 One-Third of grey horse 10 .00 Kitchen cupboard and crockery ware 1 .50 One yoke of young oxen 60 .00 Lot of crockery and iron ware and old 1 .25 Red and white cow 14 .00 knives and forks Lot of iron ware, knives and forks 1 .50 Dearborn and harness 15 .00 One old tin plate stove 1 .00 Lot of bricks .40 One table and lot of kitchen chairs .75 Lot of wheat in the ground 15 .00 Lot of wooden ware 1 .00 Lot of old Carpen?? 1 .00 Lot of barrels .25 Bucket and table .75 Lot of old iron 2 .00 Coffee mill ? etc .50 Two axes and hatchet 1 .50 Lot old chains 25, pot lard etc. 300 3 .25 Hay knife and two old saws .50 Lot carpet and bed covering 5 .00 Pair steelyards .75 Lot crockery 150, trunk and basket ? 100 2 .50 Lot of pork and cask 6 .00 Waiter, tub, etc. .75 Lot of ham- 8cts/lb - 155lbs 12 .40 Silver tea spoons 8 .00 Lot of shoulders – 6cts/lb – 79lbs 4 .74 Silver cup and table spoons 12 .00 Lot of dried beef- 7cts/lb – 16lbs 1 .12 460 .21 Lot of beans 1 .25

A-6

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

PERRY GREEN ESTATE SALE, SEPTEMBER 5, 1848

ITEM BUYER VALUE Lot of old iron ?. Brewer $0 .25 Ditto Charles? Biggens .25 Ditto Jos Brewer .25 Ditto Ditto .25 Cart harness J.B. Henry .12 1/2 Lot of bridles J. Hodgson .42 Pair of raw-hide traces Ditto .30 Lot of harness William Wilson .25 Lot of copper and iron Wilson Green .12 1/2 Ox chain William Hatch 2 .00 Trase chains, etc. Jacob Penington .12 1/2 Wedges John Hudson .75 Old saws Peter Burchard .6 1/2 Lot straw, etc. G. Vandegrift .12 1/2 Hatchet J. Hodgson .25 Lot keg from ??? Peter Burchard .40 Mustard, keg bu etc. John Wright .3 1/2 Hay knife Wilson Hodgson .22 Post spade Sam T. Jones .55 Shovel, etc. J. Hodgson .40 Grubbing and garden hoe Jacob Grose .12 1/2 Lot shovels, etc. C?, Biggens 1 .00 Shovel Noah Eagle .02 Hominy mortar Sam Jefferson .75 One axe Abraham Saunders .60 One broad axe P. Cleaner .25 Lot old iron ware William H .6 1/2 Iron pot Jacob Grose .3 1/2 Frozen ham, etc. Abraham Saunders .12 Lot bread board, etc. Issac? Cannon .15 Half bushell Wilson Green .12 1/2 Peck measure Wilson Green .30 Tin plate stove C. Biggens .75 Iron pot Robert Grose? .12 1/2 Lot sundries William Cleaner .3 1/2 Lot bread board etc. John Wright .10 Six knives and forks Wilson Green .40 Two butchers knives Wilson Green .12 1/2 Six dinner plates Robert Grose .20 Lot plates John Wright .6 1/2 Lot plates Samuel S/L? .15 Lot plates W? Huey? .6 1/2 Lot dishes Tim Ponzo .47 Large dish Abraham Saunders .3 1/2 Lot crockery ware Robert Grose .6 1/2 Lot milch pans John Wright .6 1/2 Looking glass Robert Grose .6 1/2 Lot tin ware William Huey .1 Looking glass Abraham Saunders .37 1/2 Lot coffee mill etc. Wilson Green .6 1/2 Lot milch pans W. Coop .20 ??? George Ridgemont .20 Breakfast table John Hodgson 2 .00

A-7

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

ITEM BUYER VALUE Large table Lewis Green 1 .00 Pine table Abraham Saunders .40 Pine stand Abraham Saunders .12 1/2 3 Shoats William H. Delworth .25 Two andirons Noah Eagle .70 Six yellow Windsor chairs Lewis Green 2 .70 Milk bucket H. Foster .25 Tub Lewis Green .50 Two jugs William Cleaner .30 Bucket Isaac Cannon .15 Lot, 3 jugs Wilson Green .30 Bedstead and cord Lewis Green 1 .30 Bench Robert Grose .6? Wheelbarrow Hugh Fleming 2 .12 1/2 Stealyards John Hodgson 1 .17 Manure drag and fork John Hodgson .85 Fallow harrow John Hodgson 1 .60 Old plough Isaac Cleaner .6 1/2 Old cultivator Isaac Cleaner .6 1/2 Old cultivator John Hodgson 1 .50 Horse cart Wilson Green 25 .00 Cart gears Wilson Green 1 .50 Grindstone John Moore 5 .00 Shoat John Hodgson 7 .12 1/2 Shoat N. Chiffin 5 .99 Shoat J. Hodgson 3 .78 Dearborn and harness Wilson Green 25 .00 Lot corn per bu/43cts Wilson Green 97 .37 Stack hay James Henry 6 .00 Stack hay James Henry 4 .00 Fodder stack Wilson Green 3 .25 Old wheels Michael Green 2 .75 Washing tub E. Green Widow .20 Lot chains and box E. Green Widow .20 Washboard and salt ? P. Burchard .25 Lot box, etc. E. Green Widow .20 Two coffee pots Lewis Green .67 Waiters, etc. Abraham Saunders .42 Waiters Abraham Saunders .30 Large waiter S. Johnson .35 Stealgards, etc. W. Coop .42 Axe mallet, etc. W. Mapsey .30 Lot candlesticks, etc. E. Green Widow .20 Lot beeswax N. Chiffin .37 Basket, etc. E. Green Widow .25 Stand cover Abraham Saunders .50 Table cloth J. Chiffin .25 Table cloth W. Mapsey .50 Lot pillow cases, etc. Abraham Saunders .40 One sheet Lewis Green .50 New carpet 21cts/yd, 34.5yds Michael Green 7 .24 1/2 Pitcher with pickles Joseph Cleaner .16 Lot sundries E. Green Widow .25 Pot of lard C. Biggens 3 .65 Two pots and hooks Joseph Cleaner .45

A-8

Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

ITEM BUYER VALUE Copper kettle etc. E. Green Widow .25 Feather bed Joshua Green 13 .50 Blanket Tim Ponzo .45 Straw bed Abraham Saunders .55 Coverlet Michael Green 3 .37 Bolster and pillows J. Pinkson .35 Pair of sheets William Mapsey .65 Bed cover J. Pinkson .45 One sheet Lewis Green .40 Bedspread Lewis Green 1 .00 Bedspread J. Pinkson 1 .00 Trunk with sundries E. Green Widow .50 Silver cup and spoons W.A. Dalworth 12 .00 Lot bedclothes J. Pinkson .25 Straw bed Sam Saunders .25 Desk walnut Samuel Higgins 7 .25 Lot beans W.P. Brooks 1 .30 Jowls (pig?) W.P. Brooks 1 .57 Pork per lb. Lawrence Aspr? 13 .02 1 ham W.C. Brooks 2 .73 2 hams Joseph Cleaner 6 .23 1 shoal Joseph Cleaner 2 .39 Lot dried beef David Reed .62 1 hogs head Lawrence Aspr? .35 Cask of salt William Wilson .20 Lot of blls W. Dalworth .10 Lot of plates Lewis Green .50 Lot of saucers Lewis Green .70 Lot of saucers J. Pinkson .30 Lot of saucers Lewis Green .30 Lot of plates, etc. Lewis Green .55 Lot of plates, etc. Lewis Green .45 Lot of plates, etc. John Tiney? .30 Lot of plates, etc. Sam Saunders .25 Teapot, etc. Lewis Green .50 Lot crockery W.C. Brooks .35 Red and white cow James T. Carpenter 15 .87 Oxen and yoke James T. Carpenter 87 .25 Sorrel horse Wilson Green 60 .00 One half? of yearling colt Wilson Green 32 .50 One third of ? horse Wilson Green 10 .00 Five boxes of turnips S? Taylor 1 .40 Five boxes of turnips J. ?iney 1 .30 Balance of turnips Lewis Green 2 .50 Potatoes per bu Charles Biggard ? Bll of pickled beef John Green 5 .00 Kitchen cupboard Lewis Green .52 Lot of chains Lewis Green .25 Wheat in ground Wilson Green 15 .00 Lot of brick W. Dalworth .50 Lot of wheat Wilson Green 2 .50 Balance of wheat Wilson Green 2 .50

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Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

THOMAS BAYARD PROBATE INVENTORY, 1864

ITEM VALUE ITME VALUE Lott of bed cloths $10 .00 Contents of dresser 1 .00 Bed & bed stead 2 .00 Lot of hollow ware 1 .00 Arm chair & stand .50 Lot of cedar ware 1 .00 Pair candlesticks & bird cage .50 Lot of tin ware 2 .00 ½ peck measure & basket .50 Lot of earthen ware 1 .00 Bed & bed stead 5 .00 ____ of lard 2 .00 Three quilts c 2 8 .00 Lot of bacon 15 .00 Lot of sheets & pillow cases 2 .00 Contents of smoke house 1 .50 Bed bolster pillows & sheets 10 .00 Wheel barrow 2 .00 Bureau 2 .00 Spades hoes etc. 2 .00 Two old chests 1 .00 Lot of milk pans crocks jugs etc. .50 2 barrels 2 buckets 1 .00 3 hives with bees @ 2 6 .00 Old chest & stand .25 Carriage & harness 15 .00 Bed stead & bolster 12 .00 Sleigh with Trunge (?) & shafts 5 .00 Piece of carpet .25 Small lot of wheat & bags 6 .00 Bed stead & bedding 15 .00 Cutting ax .25 Bureau 5 .00 Cow 50 .00 3 breakfast tables 5 .00 69 shoats @ 12 ½ 8 .63 6 new Windsor chairs 5 .00 6 old ditto ditto 3 .00 $234 .25 4 old rush ditto .50 2 table & one bureau cover 1 .00 Clock 1 .00 Lamps candle sticks etc. .50 Stove 1 .00 Andirons shovel & tongs .50 Corner cupboard 4 .00 Contents of cupboard 3 .00 2 old chests .25 Carpet on floor 4 .00 Looking glass & maps .25 Lot of books .25 Window curtains .12 Chest 1 .00 Single barrel gun 5 .00 Contents of closet 1 .00 Kitchen table 1 .00 Kitchen dresser 1 .00 Dough tray 1 .00 Brass kettle 1 .00

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Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

THOMAS BAYARD ESTATE SALE, EXECUTOR CHARLES TATMAN, JULY 14, 1864

BUYER ITEM VALUE BUYER ITEM VALUE Charles Tatman 1 dung fork $0.25 Joshua Brinckley Lot of tins .30 Samuel Segars 2 hoes .30 William Ennis Waiter & spoons .10 James Doughten 1 grub hoe .55 Samuel Segars Dipper & coffee pot .05 Samuel Enos 1 shovel .15 Abraham Jones Shaving cup .10 James Doughten 1 spade .75 Samuel Segars Bread pan .05 Abraham Jones 1 rake .13 Samuel Segars Box & cloth pins .05 Sarah A Townsend 3 candlesticks .25 Abraham Jones Shoe fixtures .05 Solomon Griffin 1 bason & match box 15 Abraham Jones Hammer & nails .40 Deborah Harris Lamp and box .25 Wilson Green Hammer .13 Samuel Segars Mortar & pestle .30 Samuel Segars Boot jack .40 Samuel Segars Butter fixtures .05 William Douley Sleigh bells & bridle .75 Samuel Segars Jug .05 Wilson Green Basket .40 Samuel Segars Mousetrap .06 Samuel Enos 1 lot bottles .05 Thomas Silcox Shovel & tongs .25 Solomon Griffin 2 old chests .05 Abraham Jones Hatchet .15 Joseph Vandergrift Box and cradle .20 John Segars Steelyards .25 John Fisher Pot and lard 3.50 Samuel Enos Axe .35 Deborah Harris Wire sieve .45 Sarah A Townsend Broad axe 1.00 Abraham Jones 2 chests .05 Charles Tatman Wash board .25 H.P. Bullen Tin box .10 Jacob Green Dough tray .20 William Douley Flower bucket & Bbl .25 Solomon Griffin 2 griddles .10 Samuel Segars Bucket & flour .30 Solomon Griffin 1 tea kettle .10 Samuel Enos Wheelbarrow 3.60 Solomon Griffin 1 pot .10 Samuel Segars Old Bbls 13 Charles Tatman 1 pot .60 Abraham Jones 3 old chairs 15 Abraham Jones Lot of old iron .05 Abraham Jones 1 old rock chair .30 Abraham Vandegrift 1 Dutch oven .10 Samuel Segars 6 chairs 5.46 Hester A. Segars 1 small pot .25 John Fisher 1 bedstead & flock 20.00 Rebecca Denby 1 small pot .25 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto ditto 3.50 Rebecca Jones 1 pr. waffle irons .75 Rebecca Denby 1 ditto ditto 2.25 Samuel Segars 1 basket .21 Solomon Griffin 1 ditto ditto 2.25 Jacob Glaser 1 brass kettle 1.45 Samuel Segars 6 chairs 1.65 Malow Batten Butter bole .35 Jacob Green Kitchen dresser .90 Samuel Segars Cake board .02 Abraham Jones Lot old books .05 William Douley 1 tub .45 Abraham Jones 1 ditto ditto .05 John Segars 1 bucket .20 Samuel Segars 1 ditto ditto .05 Solomon Griffin 1 bucket .07 J.B. Stevens 1 basket .38 Deborah Harris 1 bucket .25 Malow Bratton 1 ditto .15 Solomon Griffin 1 tub .75 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto .40 Rebecca Denby 1 tub .55 Joshua Brinckley 2 broken looking glasses .06 Joshua Brinckley 1 table 2.10 H.P. Bullen 1 clock .30 John Fisher 1 bucket 12 Thomas Silcox 1 gunn 2.25 John Segars Demijohn .20 H.P. Bullen 1 wash stand .35 Charles Tatman Bottles .10 George Ingraham 1 piece carpet .70 Solomon Griffin Pitcher & jug .10 Rebecca Denby 1 piece carpet .50 Abraham Jones Lot bottles .05 Sarah A. Townsend 1 ditto .70 William Ennis 2 jars .20 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto 12.00 Rebecca Denby 1 jar .10 H.P. Bullen 2 umbrellas .15 John Segars 2 earthen pots .15 Joshua Brinckley Shovel & tongs .11 William Ennis 2 ditto .07 Sarah A. Townsend 1 pr. andirons .60 John Segars 1 tin milk bucket .80 Joshua Brinckley Lamp & candlesticks .90 Samuel Segars 4 milk pans .33 H.P. Bullen 2 oil lamps .10 Samuel Segars Lott ditto .20 J.B. Stevens 2 plaster grumerts (?) .02 Abraham Jones 1 pitcher .09 William Douley 2 practers (2) .04 Rebecca Denby 2 dishes .05 William Douley 1 old bed 1.30 Charles Tatman 1 pan .05 Jacob Green 1 bed & pillows 9.00 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto 7.25 Samuel Segars 2 bottles & cup .12 Abraham Jones 1 ditto 20.00 John Segars 6 knives .70 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto 23.00 William Doughten 1 box & bottle .05

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Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

BUYER ITEM VALUE BUYER ITEM VALUE Rebecca Jones 1 table cover .50 Joshua Brinckley Sugar box .10 Samuel Segars 1 ditto .35 Thomas Silcox Molasses jug .10 Rebecca Denby 1 ditto .60 William Doughten 1 stone pitcher .18 William Douley 1 table cloth .45 Joshua Brinckley 1 chest & contents .60 John Fisher 1 sheet .25 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto 6.00 John Fisher 1 pr. pillow cases .45 Joshua Brinckley 1 dining table 4.00 Deborah Harris 1 bed tick .40 Samuel Jones 1 bureau 1.00 Deborah Harris 2 sheets .95 J.B. Stevens Coffee pot & tumbler .25 George Ingraham 1 towel .20 Samuel Segars Lot knives & forks .68 William Douley 1 pr. pillow cases .20 George Chambers 1 meat dish .60 John Fisher 1 pr. pillow cases .50 Solomon Griffin 2 ditto small .45 Isaac Woods 1 blanket .75 James Baker 1 tea pot .20 John Fisher 1 ditto 1.40 James Baker 1 pr. ditto .10 John Segars 1 ditto 1.10 Abraham Vandergrift 1 stove 6.00 Solomon Griffin 1 ditto 1.45 J.B. Stevens 1 clock 2.45 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto double 5.50 Wilson Green 1 table 3.00 Samuel Segars 1 bed quilt .50 Isaac Woods 1 corner cupboard 2.00 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto 2.00 Samuel Jones 1 bureau 4.50 John Fisher 1 ditto 1.70 William Douley 19 lb ham @ .19 3.61 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto 5.00 William Douley 22 ½ lb. ham @ 20 ½ 4.61 Joshua Brinckley 1 ditto 4.70 Mercellas Matter 23 lb. side @ .23 5.29 William Ennis 1 ditto 4.60 20 lb. side @ .23 4.60 Joshua Brinckley 1 spread 1.60 Wm. Douley 25 lb. ditto @.25 6.25 Marcelles Matten 1 sheet 1.50 Joshua Brinckley 25 lb. shoulder @ .24 6.00 William Douley 1 bag .10 Samuel Jones 9 ½ lb. ____ @ .08 .76 Samuel Segars 1 basket & brush .32 Samuel Segars 1 meat stand .50 William Douley 1 mill bag .55 Thomas Silcox 1 carriage 17.00 William Ennis 1 waiter .15 Wm. Douley Carriage harness .50 Joshua Brinckley 1 pr. flat irons .80 Wilson Green 1 sleigh 5.50 William Douley 3 dishes .10 Charles Tatman Wheat & bag 5.00 John Segars 3 boles .15 Wilson Green Sleigh harness .25 Solomon Griffin ½ dozen cups & saucers .45 James J. Jamison 1 cow 48.00 Elizabeth Green 3 old plates .05 Samuel Segars 69___ posts @ 11 ½ ¢ 7.93 James Baker 6 plates 1.00 Sarah A. Townsend 1 hive of bees 4.00 John Segars 6 plates .38 Wm. Money 2 hives of bees 7.40 James Baker 2 ditto .45 John Segars 5 pans .55 Deborah Harris 1 pitcher .30 Samuel Segars 2 stands .25 Joshua Brinckley Coffee pot .50 William Doughten 1 churn .50 James Baker 1 punch bole .35 $326.45

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Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

EDWARD CONGO PROBATE INVENTORY, 1871

LINE VALUE LINE VALUE Room No 1. Upstairs In shop Old stand lamp etc. $0.25 Three chopping axes .75 Three old chairs .30 One broad axe 1.50 Iron watter, Candle sticks etc. .25 pan shovel .25 Two flour barrels .20 Wood saw & horse .30 One trunk .50 One draw knife & [sic] .40 Bedstead & sacking .15 Pork barrel & box .35 Coverlid .10 Pine box & contents .25 Out doors Two earthen jugs .30 [Rain] cask & half barrel .25 Tin box .10 Earthen Crock .15 In crib Hammer & [Whatsing] .20 Stove, [sic] and rings & wedges 1.10 Five Augers 1.50 Post spade .50 Box & contents, old [sic] .25 Contents of crib .50 Honing morter .10 Room No 1. Downstairs Grind stone 1.00 Six Windsor chairs 3.00 Wheel barrow 1.00 Clock 2.50 Mowing scythe & fork .75 Bureau .75 Shaving Razor .25 Cupboard & contents 1.00 Cultivator .25 Beach table 1.50 Old wagon 1.20 Bucket .10 Tub & wash board .75 $30.35 Pine chest .50 Stove & fixtures 5.00

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Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

JOHN B. GREEN’S 1895 INVENTORY

ITEM VALUE 1 Parlor Suit 9 pieces $35.00 6 [ditto] Carpet & 3 Rugs 15.00 1 Hanging Lamp 1.50 1 Hall Lamp 1.00 5 Sitting Room chairs 2.50 1 [ditto] [ditto] Carpet 12 yds 3.00 1 Kitchen stove 5.00 1 Extension table 2.00 1 Kitchen [ditto] .50 1 Settee & 2 Chairs 2.00 1 Bed Room Carpet 2.00 1 chamber Suite 4 pieces 6.00 1 Lounge 1.50 1 Stove 1.50 1 Bed Room Carpet 4.00 1 chamber Suit 3 pieces 3.00 1 Bed Room Carpet 1.50 2 Feather Beds 7.00 2 Sets Harness 10.00 10 Window Shade 1.00 1 [No] pop Buggy 25.00 1 Sulkey No 1 20.00 1 Sulkey No 2 15.00 1 Cutting Box 2.00 1 Shovel .15 2 Hay Forks .50 4 Horse Collars 1.00 $168.65

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Historic Context U.S. Route 301 Corridor Archaeology of African American Life, St. Georges Hundred New Castle County, Delaware

WILSON T. GREEN PROBATE INVENTORY MARCH 4, 1920

ITEM VALUE ITEM VALUE Contents of Wagon Shed, $25.00 1 Grind stone, .50 Spring Harrow, 2.00 Desk, 3.00 3 Cultivators, 1.50 8 Chairs & Stand, 1.50 1 Plow, 1.00 Bureau and Stand and Chair, 1.75 Mowing Machine, 15.00 Bureau & Chair, 5.00 Dirt Scoop 3.00 50 chickens, 50.00 Wagon, 75.00 Desk, 1.00 Rigging 10.00 Contents of Kitchen, 15.00 Farm Wagon, 20.00 8 Chairs, 4.00 Potato Plow, 10.00 Table, 1.50 5 Barrels, 2.50 Dishes, 2.00 Grain Fan, 10.00 Stove, 2.00 Chest or Feed Box, .50 1 Chair, 1.00 Speed cart, 5.00 Lard Press, 2.00 Bean & Pea, 3.00 Sausage Grinder, 2.00 120 Bushels wheat, 240.00 Bed room No.1 15.00 Old Iron, 2.00 " " No.2 10.00 3 Forks, 1.00 " " No. 3 5.00 Harness, 10.00 " " No.4 6.00 1 Sorrel Horse, 25.00 Gun, 2.00 1 Bay Horse, 35.00 Contents of Shed kitchen, 5.00 2 Hogs, 50.00 Swinging churn, 1.50 5 Cows, 300.00 11 Acres wheat in ground, 55.00 Bull, 40.00 150 Bushels Wheat in shock (.50) 75.00 Black Stallion, 50.00 20 Bushels Wheat (1.50) 30.00 1 Pair Mules, 225.00 50 Bushels Wheat (2.00) 100.00 Bay Mare, 35.00 90 Bushels Oats (.50) 45.00 Horse, 5.00 Cash in Delaware City National Bank 675.73 3 year old Colt, 35.00 Cash in Hand 65.84 2 year old Colt, 30.00 2554.32 2 year cod Colt, 30.00 1 Bull, 30.00 Additions 1 Plow, 2.00 Rebate on Fire Insurance Provisions 269.91 1 Wheel cultivator, 1.50 Received ½ of sale of frame building 67.50 1 Carriage, 5.00 From sale of chickens 12.74 2 Horse Carriage, 1.00 Cash in hands of Henrietta Jackson 25.00 Corn Sheller, 1.00 Excess of administrator’s sale above 562.14 appraisement

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