Skip to main content
Log in

The Plurality of Parting Ways: Landscapes of Dependence and Independence and the Making of a Free African American Community in Massachusetts

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Historical Archaeology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Parting Ways was a plural space shaped by multiple social and historical forces that combined to reinforce its residents’ dependence on the dominant society, while simultaneously affording the creation a “homeplace” for its residents, within which to construct their lives as free people. Such plurality highlights tension between African American freedom and processes of racialization in 19th-century Massachusetts: the Parting Ways residents labored as free men and women, but found their efforts controlled by the White community, and they created an autonomous homeplace on land that continued to be owned and controlled by town officials. This article explores how the physical landscape and property history of Parting Ways and social relationships between the residents and Plymouth elite contributed to the perpetuation of relationships of dependency; it also uses archaeological evidence to examine how the formerly enslaved residents at Parting Ways constructed autonomous households that supported individual, family, and community independence.

Extracto

Parting Ways era un espacio plural al que dieron forma múltiples fuerzas sociales e históricas que se combinaron para reforzar la dependencia de sus residentes en la sociedad dominante, proporcionando al mismo tiempo de manera simultánea la creación de un "hogar" para sus residentes, dentro del cual construir sus vidas como personas libres. Dicha pluralidad destaca la tensión entre la libertad de los afroamericanos y los procesos de racionalización en el Massachusetts del siglo XIX: los residentes de Parting Ways trabajaban como hombres y mujeres libres, pero encontraban que sus esfuerzos eran controlados por la comunidad blanca, y crearon un hogar autónomo en la tierra que continuó estando en poder y controlado por las autoridades de la ciudad. El presente artículo explora cómo el paisaje físico y la historia de la propiedad de Parting Ways y las relaciones sociales entre los residentes y la élite de Plymouth contribuyeron a la perpetuación de relaciones de dependencia; también utiliza pruebas arqueológicas para examinar cómo los residentes anteriormente esclavizados de Parting Ways construyeron hogares autónomos que apoyaban la independencia individual, familiar y comunitaria.

Résumé

Parting Ways était un espace pluriel formé par des forces sociales et historiques multiples qui se conjuguaient pour renforcer la dépendance de ses résidents à l’égard de la société dominante, tout en permettant simultanément la création d’un « lieu de résidence » pour ses résidents afin de construire leur vie en tant que personnes libres. Cette pluralité met en évidence la tension entre la liberté des Afro-américains et les processus de racialisation dans le Massachusetts du 19e siècle : les résidents de Parting Ways travaillaient comme des hommes et des femmes libres, mais constatèrent que leurs actions étaient contrôlées par la communauté blanche et ils créèrent un lieu de résidence autonome sur des terres qui restaient détenues et contrôlées par les fonctionnaires de la ville. Cet article explore comment le paysage physique et l’histoire de la propriété de Parting Ways et les rapports sociaux entre les résidents et l’élite de Plymouth ont contribué à perpétuer les relations de dépendance. Il utilise également les preuves archéologiques pour examiner comment les habitants autrefois asservis à Parting Ways ont construit des lieux de résidence autonomes qui étaient favorables à l’indépendance de l’individu, de la famille et de la communauté.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. For example, Quamony Quash served in the war from 1780 to 1783, at the request of Col. Cotton, in exchange for his freedom, which was awarded at the end of the war. By 1781, Quash’s father and mother, along with members of the Turner family, were living at Parting Ways.

  2. These interpretations were based on the erroneous assumption that the African American families were the first inhabitants at Parting Ways. I argue elsewhere (Hutchins 2013a) that many of the mid-18th-century ceramics were actually associated with the known mid-18th-century occupation by the Anglo-American Fuller family.

References

  • Adams, William Hampton 2003 Dating Historical Sites: The Importance of Understanding Time Lag in the Acquisition, Curation, Use, and Disposal of Artifacts. Historical Archaeology 37(2):38–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Austin, Jane G. 1900 Dr. Le Baron and His Daughter: A Story of the Old Colony. Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bethel, Elizabeth Rauh 1997 The Roots of African-American Identity: Memory and History in Free Antebellum Communities. St. Martin's Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, Joanne 1990 A Study of Seasonality and Subsistence: Eighteenth Century Suffield, Connecticut. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Brown University, Providence, RI. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.

  • Bowen, Joanne 1992 Faunal Remains and Urban Household Subsistence in New England. In The Art and Mystery of Historical Archaeology, Anne Yentsch and Mary C. Beaudry, editors, pp. 267–281. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, Joanne 1998 To Market, to Market: Animal Husbandry in New England. Historical Archaeology 32(3):137–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, Alexandra A. 2007 Slavery in the Age of Reason: Archaeology at a New England Farm. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cotton, Roland C. 1823 Map of Town Lands Left for Quamany, Prince, Plato, and Cato, 14 February. Book 195, p. 209, Plymouth County Registry of Deeds, Plymouth, MA.

  • Davis, William T. 1884 Plymouth, Massachusetts. In History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Vol. 1, D. Hamilton Hurd, editor, pp. 64–190. J. W. Lewis & Co., Philadelphia, PA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, William T. 1906 Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian. Memorial Press, Plymouth, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deetz, James 1977 In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life. Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deetz, James 1996 In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life, expanded and revised from 1977 edition. Anchor Books/Doubleday, New York, NY.

  • Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) 1819 Survivor's Pension Application File S. 33832, Plato Turner. NARA Microfilm Publication M804, Roll 2426, RG 15, National Archives, Washington, DC.

  • Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) 1853 Survivor's Pension Application File, Cato Howe [1819], and Widow's Application File and Bounty Land Warrant Application File, Lucy Rogers, W. 2354 and Blwa 12829-150-55. NARA Microfilm Publication M804, Roll 1344, RG 15, National Archives, Washington, DC.

  • Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) 1858 Survivor's Pension Application File, Quamony Quash, and Widow's Pension Application File, Ellen Talbot, R. 18,097. NARA Microfilm Publication, M804, Roll 1990, RG 15, National Archives, Washington, DC.

  • Foner, Eric 1994 The Meaning of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation. Journal of American History 81(2):435–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garman, James 1998 Rethinking “Resistance Accommodation”: Toward an Archaeology of African-American Lives in Southern New England, 1638–1800. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 2(2):133–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heitman, Francis B. 1914 Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, April 1775, to December, 1783. Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • hooks, bell 1990 Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. South End Press, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchins, Karen A.2013aIn Pursuit of Full Freedom: An Archaeological and Historical Study of the Free African-American Community at Parting Ways, Massachusetts, 1779–1900. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Archaeology. Boston University, Boston, MA. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.

  • Hutchins, Karen A. 2013b Movement and Liminality at the Margins: The Wandering Poor in Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts. In Archaeologies of Mobility and Movement, Mary C. Beaudry and Travis G. Parno, editors, pp. 151–164. Springer, New York, NY.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hutchins-Keim, Karen A. 2015 Parting Ways Revisited: Archaeology at a Nineteenth-Century African-American Community in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 4(2):1–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jimenez, Mary Ann 1986 Madness in Early American History: Insanity in Massachusetts from 1700 to 1830. Journal of Social History 20(1):25–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kasson, John F. 1990 Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America. Hill & Wang, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klippel, Walter E. 2001 Sugar Monoculture, Bovid Skeletal Part Frequencies, and Stable Carbon Isotopes: Interpreting Enslaved African Diet at Brimstone Hill, St. Kitts, West Indies. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(11):1191–1198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landon, David 1996 Feeding Colonial Boston: A Zooarchaeological Study. Thematic issue, Historical Archaeology 30(1).

  • Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1801 The Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Passed from the Year 1780, to the End of the Year 1800. Manning & Loring, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovett, Alice W. 1975 Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Gray of the Parting Ways Museum, 29 September. Family Reconstitution Files, Parting Ways Museum Research Files, Plymouth Public Library, Plymouth, MA.

  • Massachusetts Historical Society 1875 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 1873–1875, Vol. 12. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melish, Joanne Pope 1998 Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and "Race" in New England, 1780–1860. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plymouth County Registry of Deeds (PCRD) 1779 Job Cushman to Plato Turner, 6 July. Book 65, p. 165, Plymouth County Registry of Deeds, Plymouth, MA.

  • Plymouth County Registry of Probate (PCRP) 1818a Cato Howe, March. Book 49, pp. 248–249, Guardianship Proceedings, Plymouth County Registry of Probate, Plymouth, MA.

  • Plymouth County Registry of Probate (PCRP) 1818b Plato Turner, March. Book 49, pp. 251–252, Guardianship Proceedings, Plymouth County Registry of Probate, Plymouth, MA.

  • Plymouth County Registry of Probate (PCRP) 1818c Prince Bolt, March. Book 49, pp. 249–250, Guardianship Proceedings, Plymouth County Registry of Probate, Plymouth, MA.

  • Plymouth County Registry of Probate (PCRP) 1821 Accounts of Nathan Hayward, Guardian of Plato Turner, April. Book 53, p. 310, Plymouth County Registry of Probate, Plymouth, MA.

  • Plymouth County Registry of Probate (PCRP) 1833 Quamony Quash, March. Case No. 16316, Guardianship Proceedings and Accounts, Plymouth County Registry of Probate, Plymouth, MA.

  • Plymouth Notary Public 1803 Instrument of Protest by the Charrety, 11 September. Book 4 (1768–1830), pp. 273,275,576, Plymouth Notary Public Records, Plymouth Notary Public, Plymouth, MA.

  • Plymouth Town Clerk 1824 Actions Pertaining to Cato Howe's and Prince Goodwin's Property. Book 4 (1795–1828), pp. 477,480, Plymouth Town Records, Plymouth Town Clerk, Plymouth, MA.

  • Records of the Town of Plymouth 1889 Records of the Town of Plymouth, 1636–1705. Avery & Doten, Plymouth, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Records of the Town of Plymouth 1903 Records of the Town of Plymouth, 1743–1783. Avery & Doten, Plymouth, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Resch, John P. 1988 Politics and Public Culture: The Revolutionary War Pension Act of 1818. Journal of the Early Republic 8(2):139–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roediger, David R. 2007 The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, revised edition. Verso, London, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, Ruth Ann Wilder (editor) 1993 Vital Records of Plymouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Picton Press, Camden, ME.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, James Brewer 1999 Modernizing ‘Difference’: The Political Meanings of Color in the Free States, 1776–1840. Journal of the Early Republic 19(4):691–712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stockwell, Mary Le Baron Esty 1904 Descendants of Francis Le Baron of Plymouth, Mass. T. R. Marvin & Son, Boston, MA.

  • Taylor, J. N. 1895 Jim Burr’s Life. Boston Globe 8 December:32.

  • U.S. Bureau of the Census 1790 First Census of the United States, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. NARA Microfilm Publication M637, Roll 4, National Archives, Washington, DC.

  • U.S. Bureau of the Census 1800 Second Census of the United States, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. NARA Microfilm Publication M32, Roll 16, National Archives, Washington DC.

  • U.S. Geological Survey 1939 Plymouth, Mass, 7.5 minute series. United States Geological Survey, Washington, DC.

  • Vital Records of Bridgewater 1916 Vital Records of Bridgewater, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1850. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA.

  • Walling, Henry Francis 1857 Map of the County of Plymouth, Massachusetts. D. R. Smith & Co., Boston, MA. Library of Congress <https://www.loc.gov/item/2012592354/>. Accessed 31 October 2017.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen A. Hutchins-Keim.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hutchins-Keim, K.A. The Plurality of Parting Ways: Landscapes of Dependence and Independence and the Making of a Free African American Community in Massachusetts. Hist Arch 52, 85–99 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-017-0077-4

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-017-0077-4

Keywords

Navigation