The Archaeology of Anti-Slavery Resistance

211 Pages·2012·3.52 MB·English

by  Terrance M. Weik

ARCHAEOLOGY/HISTORY
Terrance M. Weik
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“Weik’s comprehensive survey of the archaeology of freedom represents a critical i
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contribution to African Diaspora studies and serves as an admirable standard for
which future research in this area should strive.”—Maria Franklin, University of
Texas at Austin Th
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“Offers a fresh approach to understanding the varied ways in which enslaved

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people sought freedom.”—Theresa Singleton, Syracuse University
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D
uring the many decades of slavery in North America, people of African e
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descent sought to protect their human rights, escape from bondage, and
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combat exploitation. Their actions varied across different settings and times and The Archaeology of
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included accommodation, collaboration, autonomy, and militancy. This volume y

focuses on the evolution of antislavery resistance by examining the things o
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left behind, including documents, oral traditions, and other material evidence
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illustrating how enslaved people fought for their freedom.
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Terrance Weik presents readers with case studies accumulated from the archaeo- t
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logical record left by Maroons in the Americas, Black Seminoles, and the Under- s
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ground Railroad. He highlights the ways archaeologists have contributed to our
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understanding of the struggles for freedom from slavery pursued by people of the e
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African Diaspora in the Americas and their allies. y

Weik encourages readers to consider the global dimensions of antislavery re- R
sistance as well as issues that continue to spark debate today, including racism, e
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cultural survival, self-determination, and inequality. i
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Terrance M. Weik, associate professor of anthropology at the University of South n
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Carolina, is a contributor to Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora.
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A volume in the series The American Experience in Archaeological
Perspective, edited by Michael S. Nassaney
Front cover, right: Yanga statue, city of Yanga, Mexico. Photo by author. Bottom: “Burning of
Pilaklikaha by Gen. Eustis.” Lithograph by R. F. Gray (1836). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
University Press of Florida
ISBN 978-0-8130-3759-2
www.upf.com
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The American Experience in Archaeological Perspective
The Archaeology of Antislavery Resistance
The American Experience in Archaeological Perspective
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola

The Archaeology of
AntislAvery
resistAnce
Terrance M. Weik
Foreword by Michael S. Nassaney
University Press of Florida
Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton · Pensacola
Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota
Copyright 2012 by Terrance M. Weik
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America. This book is printed on Glatfelter
Natures Book, a paper certified under the standards of the Forestry Stewardship
Council (FSC). It is a recycled stock that contains 30 percent post-consumer
waste and is acid-free.
17 16 15 14 13 12 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weik, Terrance M.
The archaeology of antislavery resistance / Terrance M. Weik ; foreword by
Michael S. Nassaney.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8130-3759-2 (alk. paper)
1. Antislavery movements—United States—History. 2. Slave insurrections—
United States—History. 3. Fugitive slaves—United States—History.
4. Underground Railroad. 5. Ethnoarchaeology—United States. 6. Archaeology
and history—United States. 7. African Americans—Antiquities. 8. Slaves—
United States—Antiquities I. Title.
E450.W398 2012
326.'80973—dc23 2011037454
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State
University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida
Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International
University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of
Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of
South Florida, and University of West Florida.
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
Contents
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Historical Highlights of Antislavery Resistance . . . . . 9
3. Resistance, Freedom, Networks, and Ethnogenesis
in Theory and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4. Archaeologies of Self-Liberated African Communities . . . 55
5. Antislavery Collaborations and the Underground Railroad . . 80
6. Coalitions, Community-Building, and Conflict
in Seminole Territory . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Beads from Pilaklikaha 5
1.2 Yanga statue and author, city of Yanga, Mexico 6
3.1 Moremi statue, city of Ife, Nigeria 39
5.1 Eastern wall of Stevens cistern showing modified “window” 89
5.2 Planview map of Roberts site cabin foundation stones 99
5.3 Church at Amapa, Mexico 113
5.4 Adobe house at Nacimiento 116
6.1 African Seminole towns, Maroon communities, and African-
colonial forts 122
6.2 “Burning of Pilaklikaha by Gen. Eustis” 126
6.3 Structural remains from Pilaklikaha 129
6.4 Bisected feature, southern half of test unit 2000N1985E 131
6.5 Planview of artifact and feature clusters from Pilaklikaha 132
6.6 Letter to an agent of an Alachua County slave owner permitting
payment to Abraham for cattle 141
6.7 Lead shot, bullet, and molten mass recovered from
Pilaklikaha 143
6.8 Euro-American pottery sherds from Pilaklikaha 144
6.9 Seminole and locally made pottery from Pilaklikaha 146
Maps
2.1 Select locations of African antislavery rebellion and
self-liberation 21
4.1 Select self-liberated communities studied by archaeologists 57
5.1 Select UGRR and antislavery archaeological research
locations 94

Foreword
It would be difficult to identify more central core values in the American
experience than justice and freedom. Early European immigrants in the
age of discovery appropriated new lands at any cost to practice beliefs un-
impeded by divine monarchs and politically oppressive regimes. In New
England and the Southern colonies these migrants in turn banned and
persecuted those who disagreed with their dominant beliefs. The legacy
of a free nation propels people from around the world to seek admittance
to the United States in order to realize their social and economic dreams
for their children and grandchildren.
Yet Americans have always lived with contradictions that have denied
large segments of the population supposedly inalienable rights for vari-
ous ideological reasons. Women, the working classes, Native Americans,
and masses of forcefully displaced Africans brought here against their
wishes to work without compensation (now called African Americans)
have struggled for the freedom and justice that white, male, land-owning
Americans have long taken for granted. Perhaps the most horrific denial
of human dignity and equality occurred under the peculiar institution of
American slavery—a dominant mode of production from the seventeenth
through nineteenth centuries. So pervasive and insidious were the injus-
tices and skewed rationale of slavery that the country still lingers in the
dark shadow of racism that legitimized the social hierarchy of repression.
Despite the apparent hegemony of slavery, which was buttressed by le-
gal, political/military, social, and economic policies and practices, people
of color and their white sympathizers challenged, resisted, and rebelled
against human bondage, because the desire for freedom is universal. A
small but adamant minority recognized the demeaning nature of enslave-
ment for both the enslaved and the enslavers and sought to liberate espe-
cially the former from the physical and conceptual shackles that compro-
mised their humanity.