Abstract
The childhood home of W. E. B. Du Bois in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, has been the focus of archaeological research since the 1980s. Reports of this work have mainly focused on the materials recovered from the site, the people who created it, and its implications for African American archaeology. In this article we report on the regional contexts for the site and its residents, and the role of African American “homeplaces” within this larger context, issues that will guide future work at the W. E. B. Du Bois Homesite.
Extracto
El hogar de la infancia de W. E. B. Du Bois en Great Barrington, Massachusetts, ha sido el foco de la investigación arqueológica desde la década de los 1980. Los informes de este trabajo se han centrado principalmente en los materiales recuperados del sitio, las personas que lo crearon y sus implicaciones para la arqueología afroamericana. En este artículo informamos sobre los contextos regionales para el sitio y sus residentes, y el papel de los “hogares” afroamericanos en este contexto más amplio, temas que guiarán el trabajo futuro en el sitio de la vivienda de W. E. B. Du Bois.
Résumé
Le domicile d’enfance de W. E. B. Du Bois à Great Barrington au Massachusetts est le point central de recherches archéologiques depuis les années 80. Les rapports de ces travaux portent généralement sur les matériaux récupérés du site, les personnes qui les ont créés et leurs implications pour l’archéologie afro-américaine. Dans le présent article, nous produisons un rapport sur les contextes régionaux du site et de ses résidents, et sur le rôle des « lieux d’appartenance » afro-américains dans ce contexte plus vaste, questions qui orienteront les travaux futurs réalisés à la résidence W. E. B. Du Bois.
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Notes
We capitalize the H in “Homesite” when referring to the present roughly 5 ac. plot that is today’s W. E. B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite and a small h when referring to the roughly 1 ac. or less that was the property owned by members of the Burghardt family where Du Bois resided as a toddler and child, and that he owned later in life. Du Bois refers to the house that was on this property as the “House of the Black Burghardts” (Du Bois 1928). We refer to this as the “House,” with a capital H.
This information is in an appendix of summaries of Massachusetts freedom suits in Edward L. Bell’s (2016a) manuscript, titled “Obtaining Her Liberty, a Biography about Nancy Parker of Andover, Massachusetts,” and graciously provided to us by Mr. Bell.
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Acknowledgments:
Our work has been supported by Historic Deerfield, Inc., the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Historic Northampton, and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Bob is particularly grateful for the efforts of the many students and volunteers who lent a hand to this research, and especially the thoughts and support from Thomas Patterson, Mark Leone, and Braden Morley Paynter.
Thanks to Jenna Wallace Coplin and James Moore for inviting us to their inspiring session, “Landscapes of Riches and Ruin,” at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology in Toronto, Canada, and for reading an earlier version of this paper at the session. We are especially grateful for the work of and collaboration with Bernard Drew, David Levinson, Emilie Piper, and Anthony Martin, whose research since we first took up this research problem has provided such useful insights into African American life in Berkshire County. Thanks to Nancy Muller, Rita Reinke, Rick Gumaer, Quentin Lewis, Lyzann Harlow, John Dilthey, MaryEllen Loan, Christopher Douyard, Elena Sesma, Honora Sullivan-Chin, Evelyn Jeffers, Elizabeth Norris, and especially Kerry Lynch for their hard work on the Homesite. Thanks to Warren Perry, Janet Woodruff, and Jerry Sawyer, who also toil trying to understand the African American past in New England. And a special thanks to Ed Bell for sharing with us his knowledge about the legal history of slavery and his stimulating work on freedom suits in colonial Massachusetts. Thanks to Mrs. Elaine Gunn, Wray Gunn, Cora Portnoff, Rev. Esther Dozier, Rachel Fletcher, Mary Nell Morgan, and Dr. Frances Jones-Sneed for support of the work in Great Barrington. Thanks to our colleagues and friends, Jay Schafer, Rob Cox, Bill Strickland, Amilcar Shabazz, David Glassberg, the UMass Amherst Public History Program, Pamela Munn, and UMass Amherst for their continuing support. Thanks to Michael Singer, Jason Bregman, Jonathan Fogelson, and Veronica Jackson for their thought-provoking designs at the Homesite. Most especially, thanks to Dolores Root for programming ideas, design insights, and fund-raising acumen on behalf of the W. E. B. Du Bois National Historic Site. We would especially like to acknowledge Carol Connare, Kim Fill, Leslie Schaler, Alison Kiraly, Brooks Fitch, Maurice Hobson, and Jay Schafer, who have helped keep the W. E. B. Du Bois Center at the University of Massachusetts afloat, and our colleague, Enoch Page, for his insights on race and Whiteness. We also thank an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. Richard Schaefer provided deft copyediting and sage advice for which we are very grateful. We dedicate this paper to the memories of the Rev. Esther Dozier, Mrs. Elaine Gunn, and Professor David Du Bois. Of course, we are responsible for how all this scholarly advice and support took shape in this paper.
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Paynter, R., Baptiste, W.B. Contexts of Resistance in African American Western Massachusetts: A View from the W. E. B. Du Bois Homesite in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Hist Arch 53, 323–340 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-019-00191-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-019-00191-x