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32. Southall's Quarter

by S. C. Pullins, J. B. Jones, J. R. Underwood, K. A. Ettinger and D. W. Lewes, with contributions from J. W. McKnight and G. J. Brown

Archaeology at an 18th-Century Slave Quarter in James City County, Data Recovery at Site 44JC969
Associated with the Proposed Route 199 Project, James City County, Virginia
2003 182 pp., 92 figs., 62 tables, 6 appdx.

Excavation of this mid- to late eighteenth-century slave quarter site identified four structures defined by subfloor pits, postholes, hearths, shallow middens, and other features. According to the documentary record, Southall's Quarter may have been a field quarter owned by Raleigh Tavern proprietor James Southall. Carefully integrated archaeological and historical data reveal clues about the site’s landscape, organization, and material culture. Unlike many archaeological studies of quarters on the grounds of Virginia's great mansion houses, the Southall's Quarter excavations document slave life at a small quarter quite isolated from the primary residence of the owner.

Download the report and appendices (pdf)