Material Remains of a 170-Year Relationship with Slavery

“With over half of the College of William and Mary’s lifespan marked by its involvement in slavery, there is certainly much to still learn about the experience of enslaved and free Africans at the College. The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation is a collective research effort committed to uncovering and sharing this dynamic history through the analysis of primary and secondary documents. Yet, while documents may refer to the presence and labor of enslaved men, women, and children on Historic Campus, there is still little known about the materiality of these lives. As the Anthropology Graduate Research Fellow for The Lemon Project, I seek to know more about this dimension. Official archaeological investigations and ‘ground-testing’ have taken place on University grounds since at least the mid-20th century. However, the collection and overview of reports from these past excavations reveal a scarcity of archaeological work directly related to the investigation of slavery. In this paper, I thus question the various factors that drive archaeological endeavors at William and Mary. This includes temporal and financial constraints placed upon archaeologists, the need for compliance-based projects during construction events, and ultimately a deeply rooted fascination with monumental architecture over other, less visible material histories. Moreover, I address the broader goal of my research fellowship with The Lemon Project, which is to build upon a digital database that houses site reports and artifact inventories and serves as a source to the general public to engage with archaeological description and data. As a graduate student studying the history of slavery through a material lens, there are unique challenges and advantages. To this effect, my research reflects the need for continuous future investigations into the relationship between slavery, archaeology, and academy.”