In Not-So-Small Things Forgotten: Archaeologies of Colonialism and Racialization in the Northeast

The colonial northeast US is often portrayed as founded in independent, homogenous communities of like-minded settlers.  These received historical narratives are often based in the perspectives received by archival materials, and the perspectives compiled by 19^th century historians reacting to national discussions of slavery, immigration, and Indian affairs.  When racial pluralism was acknowledged, races were represented as distinct and for all intents non-overlapping.  Archaeological material can intervene in such representations by interjecting the uncurated materiality of colonial life, that which was abandoned or literally buried.  How can researchers align archival records of racialized persons with a material life experienced as multiple subjectivities, and entangled in multiple communities of practice?  I explore this question through the case of Sylvester Manor, a provisioning plantation established in mid-17^th century coastal New York, at which Manhanset Indian people, enslaved Africans, and Europeans lived and labored.  I argue that the failure of the archaeological remains to clearly reflect a racially distinct experience, as one might read in archival remains, calls attention to the operation of colonialism and racialization both in the colonial past and the contemporary present in our own interpretations, and at particular moments of commemoration in between.  This finding has implications for other colonial sites in which scholars may struggle with “intractable” pluralism in the effort to see particular historical communities.  This is especially the case in northern territories grappling with histories of slavery and Indian removals.