Risk and Material Conditions of the African American Slaves at Locust Grove

Unfortunately, a static and romanticized image of plantations and slaves in the antebellum South has been created with movies like "Gone With The Wind." I call this "Taravision." This image, to some degree, has colored archaeologists perceptions of slavery and thus influenced our investigations of plantation life in the South. This image, of course, is not real, and ignores the importance of the roles of the African Americans, slave and free, in the culture of the Old South. In this study, the theory of risk management is used as a context for understanding the special circumstances of African American slaves in the Upland South and those experiences common to all African American slaves during the antebellum period. This framework does not assume that Southern slavery was uniform from colonial times until the Civil War in the United States, nor does it assume uniformity in the populations derived from Africa. Rather, risk minimization allows for an understanding of the variability of the African American experience under the slave regime. More specifically, the archaeology conducted at three slave cabin sites at Locust Grove, Louisville, Kentucky is documented and the material culture of the slaves at this Upland South plantation is reconstructed. A detailed analysis of over 25,000 artifacts recovered in the excavations coupled with a consideration of the documented features provides the basis for a number of conclusions. Through this research it is suggested that the houses and furnishings as well as the diet and health of the slaves at Locust Grove were adequate. This was likely the result of the efforts of the slaves rather than the paternalism of the owners. The slaves at Locust Grove managed to minimize some of their risks by forming strong family and community ties, raising their own livestock and gardens and storing surplus in small pit cellars, and through the use of magic and religion to ward off misfortune and strengthen community bonds. They appeared to have maintained close ties with their African heritage, and used their African traditions to mitigate some of the evils of slavery.