University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2016 Slave Subsistence Strategies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Plantation: Paleoethnobotanical Analysis and Interpretation of the Site 8 (44AB442) Macrobotanical Assemblage Stephanie Nicole Hacker University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Hacker, Stephanie Nicole, "Slave Subsistence Strategies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Plantation: Paleoethnobotanical Analysis and Interpretation of the Site 8 (44AB442) Macrobotanical Assemblage. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2016. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4039 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Stephanie Nicole Hacker entitled "Slave Subsistence Strategies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Plantation: Paleoethnobotanical Analysis and Interpretation of the Site 8 (44AB442) Macrobotanical Assemblage." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Anthropology. Kandace D. Hollenbach, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Barbara J. Heath, David G. Anderson Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Slave Subsistence Strategies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Plantation: Paleoethnobotanical Analysis and Interpretation of the Site 8 (44AB442) Macrobotanical Assemblage A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Stephanie Nicole Hacker August 2016 ii Copyright © 2016 by Stephanie Nicole Hacker All rights reserved. iii Acknowledgements I would first like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor, Dr. Kandace Hollenbach, whose expertise, encouragement, and patience, have added considerably to my graduate and professional experience. It was under her tutelage that I developed an interest in archaeological studies and without her mentorship, kindness, and direction I would not have considered a graduate career in archaeological research. The paleoethnobotanical analysis training I received from Dr. Hollenbach has undoubtedly made a remarkable impact on my life. It is difficult to convey my gratitude fully, but I owe her my profound appreciation. A very special thanks goes out to the additional members of my committee, Dr. Barbara J. Heath and Dr. David G. Anderson for the education and assistance they provided during my graduate career and throughout this project. I am appreciative of their time and expertise in which they have always been willing to offer. I am extraordinarily thankful to the staff of the Archaeological Research Laboratory (ARL) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who have always presented me with their patience, encouragement, and incredible opportunities. My experience at the ARL has been invaluable and I will always be grateful for the warmth and guidance I have received from those I have been so fortunate to work with. Many thanks go out to Dr. Fraser Neiman, the staff of the Monticello Department of Archaeology, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. for the opportunity to work on this project. I am grateful to Dr. Neiman, who has been exceedingly helpful throughout the duration of this project. This research would not have been possible without the funding provided by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. and I express my gratitude for their sponsorship. iv Of course, I must also acknowledge my wonderful parents for the immeasurable amount of support which they have always provided me. Lastly, I am thankful for Bruno and his incredible companionship. v Abstract Throughout the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries millions of enslaved Africans and African Americans were crucial to the success of plantations in the American South, but despite their numbers little exists in the written record to provide an accurate history for the African American slave community. However, archaeological and historical research shows that even under the constraints of slavery, enslaved African Americans were active in forming their own families and communities, countering ill-treatment and nutritional deprivation, maintaining their cultural and spiritual identities, and establishing ways to enhance their well-being. The research presented in this study emphasizes the utility of studying carbonized plant remains recovered from slave quarters to draw conclusions that contribute to our understanding of the lifeways of the enslaved in late eighteenth-century Virginia. The primary focus of this study is Site 8 (44AB442), a late eighteenth-century slave quarter occupied by the field laborers of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. Jefferson transformed Monticello from a tobacco plantation to a wheat plantation in the early 1790s, resulting in major alterations to both the landscape and the labor system. Agricultural labor systems implemented by planters and overseers largely impacted slaves’ free time, and consequently affected their domestic pursuits. Theories borrowed from human behavioral ecology have been applied to this study to interpret the Site 8 macrobotanical assemblage in order to better understand how the agricultural shift from commercial tobacco production to commercial wheat production affected the subsistence behaviors of the Site 8 occupants. Borrowing from Tucker (2006), a model based on future discounting theory is applied to the Site 8 macrobotanical assemblage to explain observable patterns pointing to a mixed foraging/low- vi investment horticulture subsistence strategy employed by the Site 8 occupants to balance nutritional stress and add variety to their diets. vii Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 Background ................................................................................................................... 4 Natural Setting ............................................................................................................................ 6 Landscape and Terrestrial Resources...................................................................................... 6 Hydrology and Aquatic Resources ......................................................................................... 7 Cultural Setting ........................................................................................................................... 9 Subsistence under Enslavement ................................................................................................ 12 Domesticated Crops .............................................................................................................. 14 Wild Plants ............................................................................................................................ 16 Preserving Resources ............................................................................................................ 17 Subfloor Pits.......................................................................................................................... 18 Slave Yards ............................................................................................................................... 20 The Agricultural Shift ............................................................................................................... 21 The Agricultural Shift at Monticello..................................................................................... 24 Behavioral Ecology ................................................................................................................... 28 Jefferson’s Slaves...................................................................................................................... 33 Site 8 Paleoethnobotanical Study.............................................................................................. 34 Chapter 3 Materials and Methods ................................................................................................. 39 Preservation and Representation of Plant Materials ................................................................. 39 Sample Biases ....................................................................................................................... 40 Collecting and Processing Plant Remains............................................................................. 42 The Site 8 Macrobotanical Assemblage ................................................................................... 43 Basic Methods for Reporting Botanical Assemblages .............................................................. 44 Ubiquity ...............................................................................................................................