- Sep 2016
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www.histarch.illinois.edu www.histarch.illinois.eduParting Ways10
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The presence of the kind of pottery normally seen as an indicator of high status on a site occupied by pensioners receiving eight dollars a month should serve as a caveat to those who would uncritically use such a single piece of evidence to support a point.
Most often, if valuable objects are found at a site, it is inferred that these people were rich and could afford such items. However, it is known that these men only received eight dollars a month, thus making it impossible for them to have bought that item. At this point, critical thinking must come into play to determine how the pottery came into this men's possession.
“James Deetz, Parting Ways Site, Illustrations.” Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/partingillust7.html. This is a picture of the pottery found at the site of Parting Ways
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from
In After Flooding, Some Louisiana Students Face Uncertain School Year http://abcnews.go.com/US/flooding-louisiana-students-face-uncertain-school-year/story?id=41589657 This article speaks of the massive damage sustained to a school after a flood, displacing many students and families and providing uncertain futures. These students were unable to go to school, and some even bounced from house to house after their own was destroyed. Since so many cars were damaged as well, more buses would have to be in operation in order to pick up the same students, some of which are now out of the school district in the effort to find a place to live. This can relate to the text in that this reminds me of how these men were displaced after the war, and received just enough to start over and try to make their own lives. They were also displaced from their homes on a much larger scale, as their homeland was Africa, and they were unable to go back to where they grew up or at least where their families grew up.
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The Burr house had been built in two stages, separated by perhaps as much as thirty years. The initial construction had taken place long before Burr moved to the site, and in view of the relationship between the two men, it may have been done by Burr's grandfather, Plato Turner. This first, small structure was twelve feet square, as evidenced by perfectly preserved stone footings. These footings stood on an intentionally mounded earth platform. Artifacts in the fill of this feature and in the trenches that held the footings all point to a construction date at the turn of the nineteenth century, with creamware and pearlware fragments providing the most precise dating evidence. These footings immediately abutted the cellar, and the cellar was beneath a second room, producing an overall ground plan of two contiguous
The foundations of the Burr house have never been touched, so the condition of them makes it very easy to see how the house was made and what it looked like.
“James Deetz, Parting Ways Site, Illustrations.” Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/partingillust4.html. This is a picture of the foundations.
“James Deetz, Parting Ways Site, Illustrations.” Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/partingillust2.html. This is the Burr hosue before it burnt down.
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ny simple vernacular house of the nineteenth century (see Figure 13)
A "simple vernacular house", this relates back to the other article we read. A vernacular house shows how people were living at the time, so buildings with small central chimneys, shingled exteriors, and six-over-six windows were typical of a house at this time.
Evans, Walker. “Nineteenth-Century House. Beaufort, South Carolina.” Still image, 1936. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998020874/PP/. This is a picture of a nineteenth century home.
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The town authorized the sale of the property in that year, referring to it as land "recently held by Cato Howe, deceased" and "formerly occupied by Prince, man of color
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The land was not sold -- small wonder, in view of its poor quality -- and remains to this day the property of the town
Has anyone else noticed how the tone of the narrator of this article is subtly judgmental of certain aspects? For the most part, the author is informative and reflective on the meaning of what was found at the Parting Ways site, but at some points the authors personal opinion comes out, giving the reader another way to view a situation.
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When the site was first visited, the area later shown to have been the main center of occupation was grassy, with an occasional locust tree, in contrast to the scrub pine and oak that covered the remaining original ninety-four acres.
I wonder why there was such a difference in the vegetation that grew in the middle of the plot of land and what grew around it. Could there have been a natural spring or something, thus influencing where the men decided to build their homes?
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terminus post quem
Terminus post quem means the earliest possible date for something. So the jar was made after the cellar was have supposed to have been filled, making it harder to pinpoint the exact time of these occurrings. In history it is very hard to make pinpoint exactly when events happened, unless there are artifacts with written dates on them. I guess most of history is just an approximation.
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What degree of African cultural survival can be detected and described when dealing with the material remains of African Americans at an earlier time in the country's history?
It appears a large degree of African culture has survived the transition from Africa to America. This is displayed in the building structure of the houses these men built, where they built them, the presence of a certain kind of pottery unique to Africa and the West Indies, and how the men disposed of trash in underground cellars.
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But the negative evidence is strong, so there had to be some accommodation for one within the building.
Negative evidence is "evidence for a theory provided by the nonoccurrence or absence of something". So even though there is no physical evidence that a fireplace or chimney was built into the house, that somehow proves that one did exist? I'm a bit confused by what this paragraph is trying to say.
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