Traditions in Rice and Clay: Understanding an Eighteenth-Nineteenth Century Rice Plantation, Dean Hall Plantation (38BK2132), Berkeley County, South Carolina

Data recovery investigations of 38BK2132 examined archaeological artifacts and deposits associated with the circa 1790s-1900 Dean Hall Plantation slave settlement. Archival and archaeological research identified this portion of Dean Hall as the location that Alexander Nisbett, grandson of original settler Alexander Nisbett, moved the settlement to from its original location first established around 1725. This move occurred in the 1790s, and after Alexander’s death, the property was sold to merchant turned rice planter William Carson in 1821. Carson lived at Dean Hall until his death in 1857, and after legal issues over the purchase by Elias Ball before the Civil War, Carson’s heirs retained the property. They eventually sold Dean Hall to the Kittredge family from New York, who used the old plantation as a hunting ground and southern retreat. Benjamin Rufus Kittredge eventually made the black water reservoir, which was used for almost 150 years as the primary reservoir for inland rice fields, and surrounding grounds into Cypress Gardens. African American tenants of Carson’s son Jim lived at Dean Hall throughout the late nineteenth century, and remained there until the 1930s.
Archaeological investigations identified the layout of the settlement, including several cabin footprints. The original layout consisted of 21 single pen cabins from the late Nisbett period. Carson quickly converted these into 16 duplexes with end chimneys. Roughly twenty years later, after 1837, he constructed a new road perpendicular to the original Quarters Road, complete with 12 additional duplexes. Archaeology revealed that four of these were two-story residences, possibly resembling dormitory style housing. Coinciding with the construction of this new road and houses, Carson had an embankment built surrounding the village. This acted to aid in draining the settlement, which raised the level of hygiene and cleanliness—two things that William Carson was intent on promoting. This embankment, in turn, tightly defined the usable space of the yards for the cabins, which allowed us to utilize archaeology to understand more clearly how the enslaved used their yards. Some of the yards studied revealed sets of features that were pivotal in our understanding of the site.
Colonoware was the largest class of artifacts recovered from our investigations of Dean Hall. This handmade, low-fired, earthenware comprised 47 percent of the 125,000 artifacts recovered, making it the largest known assemblage of this pottery to date. What is most notable about this assemblage is that every sherd recovered belonged to a vessel made by the enslaved Africans there. This collection is a testament to their struggles to create a sense of place at Dean Hall—a place they knew as the reason for their bondage and a place they attempted to call home. Several features we identified are interpreted to be a potter’s shed where a large amount of the Colonoware vessels were crafted. A large part of this report deals with this assemblage of Colonoware, and the qualities of it that make it one of the most unique collections ever seen.
What makes the artifacts so unique is that they reflect a very personal side of the enslaved. A large number of sherds are decorated, but not decorated with an X as usually expected on Colonowares. These markings are rarely identified, and help to present a new, fresh look and interpretation of a ceramic type we have been finding for almost 30 years in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Along with these ceramics, we recovered a diverse array of faunal material that reveals the foods the enslaved were given as rations, but mostly, the animals they raised themselves, hunted, and fished. The highly intact nature of the site allows us to see some change through time concerning these facets of culture. One of the most remarkable features of our excavations is the uncovering of proof that the enslaved produced and used Colonoware beyond the 1850s, and possibly, as freedmen, used the ceramic until almost the turn of the twentieth century. Some houses at Dean Hall represent the tenant period, and represent a vibrant, active, and rich community. Historical data and historical archaeology of Dean Hall provide us with a clear picture of how strong the slave families were, and how they persisted unbroken and intact through 125 years of bondage.

本研究针对遗址编号38BK2132开展考古数据回收调查，对与约1790年至1900年的迪恩霍尔种植园（Dean Hall Plantation）奴隶定居点相关的考古遗物与沉积堆积进行了系统分析。档案与考古研究确认，迪恩霍尔的这片区域正是初代定居者亚历山大·尼比特（Alexander Nisbett）之孙亚历山大·尼比特将定居点从约1725年始建的原地址迁移至此的地点。此次迁移发生于1790年代；亚历山大去世后，该地产于1821年被售予从商人转型为稻米种植园主的威廉·卡森（William Carson）。卡森在迪恩霍尔定居直至1857年去世；内战前伊莱亚斯·鲍尔（Elias Ball）就该地产购买产生法律纠纷后，卡森的继承人保留了该产业。最终他们将迪恩霍尔售予来自纽约的基特里奇家族（Kittredge family），后者将这座旧种植园用作狩猎场与南部休养地。本杰明·鲁弗斯·基特里奇（Benjamin Rufus Kittredge）随后将这座曾作为内陆稻田主供水水库、使用时长近150年的黑水水库，与周边场地一同改造为柏树花园（Cypress Gardens）。卡森之子吉姆名下的非裔美国佃户自19世纪晚期起便定居于迪恩霍尔，并在此居住至20世纪30年代。

考古调查明确了该定居点的布局，包括多座小屋的地基遗迹。最初的布局包含21座建于尼比特统治晚期的单开间小屋，卡森很快将其改造为16座带端部烟囱的双联住宅。约20年后的1837年，他修建了一条与原居住区道路垂直的新路，并新增了12座双联住宅。考古发现其中4座为两层住宅，风格近似集体宿舍。在修建新路与住宅的同时，卡森还在定居点外围修筑了护堤，用于排干区域积水以提升卫生清洁水平——这正是威廉·卡森着力推行的两项改善措施。该护堤严格划定了各小屋院落的可用空间，也让我们得以通过考古学手段更清晰地理解被奴役的黑奴如何使用自家院落。部分被研究的院落出土了多组关键遗迹，为我们理解该遗址提供了核心依据。

科洛诺陶器（Colonoware）是本次迪恩霍尔考古调查中出土数量最多的遗物类别。这件手工低温烧制陶器占本次出土的12.5万件遗物的47%，是目前已知同类陶器中规模最大的出土组合。该组合最显著的特征在于，所有出土陶片均为当地被奴役的非洲裔所制作的器皿残片。这批遗物见证了黑奴们为在迪恩霍尔构建场所认同感所做的努力——在他们眼中，这里是束缚他们的枷锁之地，却也是他们试图称之为家园的地方。本报告的核心内容之一便是这套科洛诺陶器组合，以及使其成为迄今所见最独特遗物组合之一的各项特征。

这批遗物的独特之处在于，它们展现了被奴役者极为私人化的生活侧面。大量陶片带有装饰，但并非科洛诺陶器常见的X形纹饰。这类罕见的纹饰标记，为我们研究近30年来在南卡罗来纳州低地地区持续出土的这类陶瓷类型提供了全新的视角与解读方式。除陶瓷器外，本次调查还出土了种类丰富的动物遗存，既揭示了黑奴获得的官方配给食物，更展现了他们自行饲养、狩猎与捕捞的动物来源。该遗址保存状况极佳，让我们得以观察这些文化维度随时间产生的变化。本次发掘最引人注目的成果之一，便是证实了黑奴不仅在1850年代之后仍在生产和使用科洛诺陶器，甚至在获得自由后，仍将这类陶器使用至20世纪初前后。迪恩霍尔的部分住宅见证了佃户时期的社区风貌，展现出一个充满活力、活跃度极高且文化丰富的社群。迪恩霍尔的历史资料与历史考古研究，为我们清晰呈现了黑奴家庭的韧性——他们在长达125年的奴役生涯中，始终维系着完整且未曾断裂的家族纽带。