Africans and Enslavement on the Piscataqua

Hey. I'm Barbara Mancini. I'm a writer, and I am an Intercultural Studies Masters student at Biola University in L.A. county. My emphasis is in Anthropology and Archaeology. The Strawbery Banke Field and Lab School has been absolutely fantastic! I have learned so much.
--at the Field School Lunch & Open House
As a descendant of numerous 17th c. European immigrants about whom I hope to write -- and some of whom held enslaved servants -- learning about the life and culture of the 17th and early 18th c. enslaved Africans here along the Piscataqua River, is extremely valuable.

The written and archaeological records of enslaved African culture has been largely hidden by the dominant European immigrant culture. Contemporary archaeology, which takes a broadened view, is helping to bring greater clarity in this dilemma.

With a bit of imagination we can paint the beginnings of a picture of an enslaved servant's life in this era by considering the objects in the artifact record which they would have handled on a daily basis.

--hand-made shell, bone, and metal buttons, and a rowel
--North Devon strainer
--Buckley tankard
--Slipware chamber pot
--Westerwald tankard
--Redware vessel manufactured at Marshall Pottery
Deduction and the written record give an idea of where the enslaved lived, and how cohesive their African cultural contacts might have been. Four books helpful to my research include "Black Portsmouth" by Mark Sammons and Valerie Cunningham, "Lives of Consequence" by Patricia Wall, "In Small Things Forgotten" by James Deetz, and "The Redeemed Captive" by John Williams.

The poster below replicates a map of Strawbery Banke and the extent of the Piscataqua where European immigrants were living in the 17th century. The upper reaches of European settlement were the places of most intense engagement with the Native American population. The list at the bottom right of the poster gives an idea of the locations where the enslaved would have been present.
--regional maps marking important places (click to see full size)
The clay pot on the poster represents a West Indian redware vessel previously excavated at the Marshall Pottery site at Strawbery Banke. Used in the 18th century as a tamarind shipping jar or sugar cane processing vessel, it is linked to the presence of enslaved Africans at the Marshall Pottery.
West Indian redware vessel (on display in the Horticulture Learning Center)
Another artifact uncovered during our field school this summer was a money cowrie (Monetaria moneta) shell -- not native to North America, and generally possessed by Africans. Perhaps it was the possession of one of the enslaved persons living in the Sherburne house, or of another African who was present on the property.
--cowrie shell (SB04.028)
Ultimately, the most profound part of the poster is the list of names creating the left border. It is all the named Africans living along the Piscataqua in the represented time period. When I turned the poster to complete the list--name over name--the metaphoric essence was clear: the names lay end to end, side to side, in the same manner they crossed the Atlantic in the holds of slaver ships; in the same way others were lain, unmarked, in the African Burial Ground.

Many thanks to all those who participated in the field and in the lab--it was a pleasure to meet you all. And my gratitude to Archaeologist Alix Martin for the amazing experience of the Strawbery Banke 2019 Field School.

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