New Perspectives from Old Collections

Abstract

Charles Fairbanks advanced the field of plantation archaeology in 1968 in his pioneering excavation in the cabins of enslaved laborers at Kingsley Plantation, Florida, with a focus on identifying "Africanisms." Failing to recognize elements of African cultures, Fairbanks and his students moved to St. Simons Island, the Couper Plantation and Cannon's Point site, and focused instead upon socio-economic status patterns. Other archaeologists would later make the case for material evidence of African cultural retentions at sites in the United States. Using new interpretative frameworks, a reanalysis of the archaeological materials recovered in the Couper Plantation excavations in the 1970s reveals elements of possible African spirituality not originally identified.