Carter’s Grove Slave Quarter
Working at Carter’s Grove plantation during the early 1970s, archaeologist William Kelso uncovered a series of pit features (later interpreted as root cellars), postholes probably relating to a fenced enclosure, drainage ditches and a trash dump. The features delineated where slave cabins associated with the Burwell plantation (later called “Carter’s Grove”) were located in the eighteenth century. Artifacts recovered from the site range from coarse to refined earthenware, a few small sherds of colonoware, porcelain, and stoneware. Other items include padlocks and keys, pewter spoons, glass, marbles, tobacco pipes, and gun parts along with other metal objects.
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| Some of the cabin remains found in the Carter’s Grove Quarter excavation. |
In the 1980s and 1990s, plans were developed to reconstruct the slave quarters on this property in order to interpret rural African-American life in the eighteenth century. The archaeological data was the most influential evidence used to determine the site for reconstruction, and the reconstructed cabins were placed over the location where the subfloor pits were found. The artifacts found in excavation were used extensively in the furnishing plan. Today the assemblage serves as a study collection and is used in training programs for interpreters. The collection has great potential for comparative and other studies in archaeology and material culture, and the reconstructed buildings are among Colonial Williamsburg’s showpiece exhibition sites.
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| The remains of ceramic vessels, a fork, two completed spoons, and a wine bottle fragment recovered during archaeological investigations at the Carter’s Grove Slave Quarter. |
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