Overall, I found the article interesting, but a little redundant and difficult to follow. To me, there was not a very clear and logical flow. I also found myself having to reread passages repeatedly in order to understand the points made by the author and it was a mystery trying to figure out what the purpose was throughout the whole passage. With that being said, I also found that the author had some pretty elaborate literary elements that helped make up for the lack of flow. The author was very meticulous in trying to stay on the topic, but he manages to include relevant parts of history to help strengthen the main point that the origin of this particular architectural structure was complex. The author does manage to make his main point concise is that architecture, especially this particular structure has a unique history based upon nature. I explained in reviewing the supplementary reading that nature is important part in shaping architecture and the way a community lives. This same point is reflected when reviewing the history of the dwelling of Cato Howe. The actions of humans moving one culture to another was a reflection of nature and it caused the complex and varying structure seen in the house. Not only is there the nature of humanity, but also the nature of natural disasters. One paragraph, as described by the author showed the remains of a fire that left its everlasting imprint on the structure. Despite the lack of clarity that was present throughout the paper, I still believe that the author was successful in making his main point and forcing the audience to ponder the power of nature as I have.

The supporting text, After Flooding, Some Louisiana Students Face Uncertain School Year by Emily Sharpiro, Catherine Thorbecke and Liz Stark is about the struggles that students faced after a major flood in Louisiana .Governor John Bel Edwards described the flood as “historic” because it left 13 people dead and over 60,000 homes were affected by the flood. The students were unable to return to class because of loss of transportation, school damage and relocation. Many of the students will have to change school completely because their homes were destroyed and they no longer live in the school district. The transportation issues were caused by parents losing their vehicles and there not being enough buses to handle the needs of the students. Students lost their sense of normalcy because of a natural disaster and the community had a change in shape.

Cato Howe was different than the other soldiers because he was black, however, he still was given respect and honor for his time of service like many other servicemen. The main point of this paragraph is to introduce and set the tone for the rest of the reading excerpt. Upon reading the rest of the passage, o realize that the pain point is the struggle that archeologist face when trying to piece together the history of a specific place. The author address one of the main challenge in this particular project – race. This particular spot that is focused on was owned and dwelled by several African American families which created a challenge. Since, at this time, African American people were considered property, their artifacts were essentially nonexistent. The author stresses the importance and practicality of oral tradition with the combination of artifacts and written records in order to form a complete view of a place’s history

I found this paragraph particularly enthralling because it draws the reader’s attention to the fact that the land was “granted but not own”. During this time, African Americans were not treated as equals. African Americans were not allowed to own land, even if they were patriots. I found it cleaver that the author subtly brings the reader’s attention to this aspect of the history without letting it drown out his main point. He stays true to his initial message - the history of this particular area, instead of letting this become an essay about the inequalities faced in early American history. However, by bringing up the point subtly, he draws the reader back to reality of the situation without losing his direction of topic.

The first sentence of this portion the paper tries to bring all the elements of the first few pages together. If the author’s point could be summarized so nicely, why would he include it? After reflecting on this question, I can only assume that the author did it to build suspense and wonder into his rather academic writing. Every author needs an audience, so if he spent all this time on his research for there not to be an audience, it would have been a waste of time. He builds suspense by making the audience question his motives as well as evoking the same emotions he had when he was doing the research himself. The author obviously had a sense of passion and wonderment for this subject, and I believe that all the writing up to this point was to cause the reader to have that same frame of mind.

I found this particular part to be quite interesting. Based on a chance meeting, the excavators were able to fill in a major piece of the puzzle that was missing! An elderly couple ended up being a primary source because the gentleman was able to recall those who lived there giving the historians a vital piece of history. This paragraph, whether or not intentional, stresses the importance of primary sources, oral tradition in conjunction with secondary sources and records. All were needed in order to determine for certain whether or not the house belonged to James Burr at one period of time.

I found this to be a unique feature. Through research, they found that the pottery, based on its design, originated from Africa. The fact of the matter is, humans are a part of nature, thus they are capable of changing the environment around them, just like the natural disasters did in the supplementary reading. In Louisiana, the flooding caused the nature of the school to be change and shaped the lives of many different people. This reflects the idea that this part of the country was shaped by humanity. Humans brought over the African people, along with this piece of pottery. If the would not have slaves brought the pottery from Africa to the West Indies and then to the colony, then, the pottery would have stayed in its original location. Thus, this one piece of pottery ties together an important part of history and allows archeologist to assume that the people whom mainly inhabited this area were primarily from Africa and the West Indies. Also, the pots were buried in dirt. In a strange way, it seems that nature preserved the pots by protecting them with the soft earth instead of letting the elements decay them so that we could better understand the intertwining of cultures.

The author mentions the hybrid languages to help the reader better understand the importance of the architectural find. The hybrid languages, just like the house, are preservation as well as the creation of a new, blended culture. When the African Americans were brought the Americas, they preserved their own way of life and language and incorporated it into culture that still lives today. The building reflects the influence of their African and West Indies ancestors just as the languages do. It gives the reader a greater appreciation for the “handprints” that were left behind by those before them.

This excerpt from chapter 8 ‘s main point is to connect the ways of the slaves to the preservation and structure found in the Burr house. I like how the author makes the point about the slave houses resembling that of those found in Africa. This makes sense because the slaves, which came from Africa, probably had to build their own slave houses. I doubt that the “owners” would have cared much about the dwellings of the slaves and that is why they have their unique structure. The Africans that came over were unintentionally allowed to leave their mark just by building a house for themselves. Since the land owners did not build the houses themselves, they were not able to imprint their own fingerprint onto the structure; thus, leaving it with a mark of African culture.

The author chooses to end his article with an excerpt from Chapter 9 from Parting Ways. The author wants to summarize his findings without being too lengthy. I do not agree that his point was successful because he states that the United States wasn’t a melting pot in the 18th century, nor is it now. By saying this he discredits all the research that he did connecting the Turner- Burr house to Africans and West Indians. The structure was different than those cookie cutter houses of the Anglo-Saxons, which is what made it so captivating. By this one simple statement, in my opinion, he takes all away from it. The fact that the structure was different proves that America was a melting pot, because if it wasn’t, then the Turner- Burr house and the New Guinea settlements throughout Plymouth would not be what they are. The imprints of other cultures create the melting pot that is America and can be viewed in these structures and well as thousands of others spread throughout the country. I think that this melting pot theory is what the Built Environment project is trying to get us to see; that our towns, cities, and individual buildings are all the products of differing people from various cultures and ideas “melted” together just like the Thomas-Burr house.