Free African American Archaeology: Interpreting an Antebellum Farmstead, Site 44PG317, Fort Lee

The purpose of this work is to examine material culture recovered from the Charles A. Gilliam site, 44PG317, within an interpretive, contextual framework. The site represents the remains of a middling farmstead which was owned and occupied by Charles Gilliam, a free African American, and his heirs from ca. 1823 to 1917. This study concentrates on the period 1823-1865 when Charles lived at the site.
Ceramics recovered from the site, and the information provided by the architectural remains are interpreted vis-a-vis the use of historical documents and official records pertaining directly to the Gilliarns and other antebellum free African Americans. Nineteenth century photographs are used much as period diaries have been used by other archaeologists to help provide an interpretive context for the architectural remains discovered at the site.
Examination of the ceramics indicated that Charles Gilliam participated in activities that would be expected of a middling farmer. His ethnicity was not reflected in either the ceramics assemblage or the activities which could be inferred from the assemblage. The unfashionable exterior appearance of his house, however, suggests that at least in those parts of Charles' daily life that would have been available for public scrutiny, he was careful to show a face which expressed his differences l from his white neighbors.

The differences between the public and private faces which are suggested by the ceramics and the architecture are examined within the antebellum context in which free African Americans were subject to increasing legal and social restraints on activities such as display of material objects which whites considered to be the province of their own power and place within the social structure.