The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Master's Theses Fall 12-2014 Did Money Matter? Interpreting the Effect of Displayed Wealth on Social Relations within an Enslaved Community Matthew Clark Greer University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Greer, Matthew Clark, "Did Money Matter? Interpreting the Effect of Displayed Wealth on Social Relations within an Enslaved Community" (2014). Master's Theses. 73. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/73 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi DID MONEY MATTER? INTERPRETING THE EFFECT OF DISPLAYED WEALTH ON SOCIAL RELATIONS WITHIN AN ENSLAVED COMMUNITY by Matthew Clark Greer A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved: Dr. Amy L. Young____________________ Committee Chair Dr. Douglas B. Chambers ______________ Dr. H. Edwin Jackson__________________ Dr. Jeffery C. Kaufmann_______________ Dr. Karen S. Coats____________________ Dean of the Graduate School December 2014 ABSTRACT DID MONEY MATTER? INTERPERTING THE EFFECT OF DISPLAYED WEALTH ON SOCIAL RELATIONS WITHIN AN ENSLAVED COMMUNITY by Matthew Clark Greer December 2014 Social relationships structure daily life in a startling, and important, variety of ways. However, when considering the social world that existed inside slave quarters across the Virginia Piedmont (and the Antebellum South), archaeologists have not been able to come to a clear consensus on how to approach the study of social networks; with some researchers focusing on social standing, seen most often through the role of material wealth to create connections, and others focusing on how interactions can be meaningfully interpreted from the archaeological record. This thesis represents an attempt to bridge these two theoretical stances, by looking to see if, in fact, wealth mattered in the social relationships within the black community at Virginia’s Montpelier plantation. By comparing the amount of costly consumer goods owned by the residents of three sites to the evidence for their social interaction with their neighbors, including gift giving, participation in intra-plantation economies, and involvement in the local spiritual community, it appears as if the amount of wealth a household displayed did not affect their social relationships within the enslaved community. Rather, a complex, overlapping, web of identity and belonging likely shaped who the women and men at Montpelier formed social connections with, and the degree these various connections mattered in their lives: influenced by, amongst other factors, gender, where these African Americans called home, and who they were “kin” to. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis represents the culmination of several years of research, and numerous people have helped me in getting to this point. First, I would like to thank Dr. Amy Young, my thesis advisor, for her constant help over the last year, particularly for reading the endless drafts of these chapters and letting me invade her office hours on a daily basis. I would also like to thank the members of my thesis committee, Dr. Ed Jackson, Dr. Jeffrey Kaufmann, and Dr. Douglas Chambers (Department of History) for their assistance, and their willingness to read this manuscript at such a late date, allowing me to defend on time. Additionally, other members of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology have helped along the way, including Dr. Marie Danforth, Dr. Bridget Hayden, and Mrs. Petra Lamb. Lastly, I would like to thank my fellow graduate students, including the members of my cohort (Stephanie, Beth, Sarah, and Shyrle) for their help, and listening to me ramble on about this project for the last two years, without changing the subject too many times. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the Interlibrary Loan staff, who handled my continual requests for sources not available on campus. The members of the Montpelier Archaeology Department also deserve special recognition for their help, including Adam Marshall, Dr. Mark Trickett, and Kimberly Trickett for leading the field and lab work at the South Yard and Stable Quarters, and Sam Henderson and Eric Schweickart for sharing their research with me. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Matthew Reeves for answering my numerous questions and requests for pictures, and for his help in reviewing an early copy of this manuscript. None of this work would have been possible, however, without generous funding from iii the National Endowment of the Humanities and other donors who allow excavations at Montpelier to occur each year. In addition to my friends, mentors, and colleagues at Southern Miss and Montpelier, I would like to thank everyone else that has helped me out over the last few years. A special thank you goes to Katherine Seeber in particular for helping me edit this lengthy document. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. UNEARTHING THE SOCIAL WORLD OF MONTPELIER’S BLACK COMMUNITY ............................................................................................1 Assessing Social Relations at Montpelier From a Quarter, to a Plantation, to a Region Measures of Comparison II. VIRGINIA, MONTPELIER, AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA ............13 Montpelier: A Piedmont Plantation Archaeology at Montpelier III. SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THE PLANTATION SOUTH .......................33 Between the Household and Community Property, Kinship, and Community IV. ASSESSING THE HOUSEHOLDS’ DISPLAYED WEALTH ................57 From Internal Economies to World Markets Costly Ceramics Glass Tableware Clothing and Bodily Adornment Miscellaneous Consumer Goods Displayed Wealth and Gender at Montpelier V. INTERPRETING SOCIAL RELATIONS WITHIN THE BLACK COMMUNITY ........................................................................................114 Exchange of Ceramic Vessels Trade of Equestrian Related Items Dispersal of Woodworking Knowledge v Food Acquisition and Storage Involvement in Montpelier’s Spiritual Community Communal Spaces Theft Prevention Gender, Wealth, and Social Interaction VI. SOCIAL REATIONSHIPS AND BELONGING AT MONTPELIER ...182 Intimate Culture Groups at Montpelier Contexts of Stability and Mobility Concluding Thoughts APPENDIXES .................................................................................................................198 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................212 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Olive Green Wine Bottle Count and Weight per Site ............................................11 2. Mended Vessels and Associated Abundance Index by Site ..................................67 3. Percentage of Combined Transferprinted Pearlware and Porcelain Vessels Recovered per Site by Vessel Form .......................................................................79 4. Recovered Glass Tableware Shards per Site .........................................................88 5. Clothing and Adornment Artifacts by Type and Site ............................................90 6. Recovered Buckles by Material, Buckles Type, and Decoration ..........................99 7. Recovered Jewelry and Other Items of Personal Adornment by Site ..................101 8. Recovered Pharmaceutical Bottle Fragments per Site .........................................105 9. Other Miscellaneous Consumer Goods by Category and Site .............................107 10. Occupation-Associated Artifacts by Site .............................................................116 11. Number of Vessel Sets and Vessels per Set.........................................................119 12. Acquired Madison Tablewares by Site ................................................................128 13. Recovered Equestrian Related Artifacts ..............................................................130 14. Equestrian Related Artifacts by Site ....................................................................131 15. Beads Recovered from Southeast Duplex by Color and Manufacture Technique .............................................................................................................154 16. Beads Recovered from Southwest Home by Color and Manufacture Technique .............................................................................................................156 17. Beads Recovered from Stable Quarter by Color and Manufacture Technique ...162 18. Keys, Padlocks, and Furniture Locks by Site ......................................................177 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Abundance Index Formula .....................................................................................10