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HistoryContinued from Page 6ness and protecting against illness.“Each time you cast a charm or try to cure someone, you drive a nail into the wooden , figure to get its attention,” Brown says. “The magician has created a cure, and part of the ritual is to get this representation of a deity to make sure the cure does what it is supposed to.”In this ritual, the curer traces a cross on a cast-iron pot with chalk. Then he draws symbols in the squares, depicting the illness and defining the cure.The location of the artifacts helps determine which activities took place in which cabins - tailors or seamstresses; a hunter; a craftsman who made various items from shell and bone; and a curer or magician who practiced traditional African rituals using animal paws, as well as chalk, kettle bases, and other items.Next to the carer’s room is one where sheet lead and remnants of munitions were found. In Africa, Brown says, metal working is done by one individual — and thisperson is often associated with the major religious practitioner.In some cases, continuity is a problem, because it is difficult to determine whether the people who lived there as slaves are the sameones who lived there after emancipation. At least some indication has been found, however, that the curer and at least one of the tailors did occupy their cabins during both periods.“We look back on slavery as an extremely depressing, degrading episode of our history, and rightly so,” Brown says. Some of the findings show that life for the slaves was far from idyllic. One cabin had a chain with shackles, fitting historical accounts of the ways in which owners punished their slaves.The location, however, indicates that trusted slaves may have■been in charge of locking up captured runaways.“A true picture of the past can be obtained by utilizing the legitimate information of both history and archaeology,” Brown says. “History can provide clues to look for archaeology, and archaeology can physically test some of the claims of histoiy.”But in the case of the Jordan plantation, the physical evidence is showing some things that are very different from what history states. Among these are findings that quality of pottery used by both blacks and whites was poorer after emancipation. This indicatesa reduction in material wealth for many of those who occupied the property.Bones from wild animals during the slave period lead the archaeologists to conclude that the slaves had the use of guns at that time. However, no gun parts and few wild animal bones have been found in the post-slavery digs, suggesting a change in the lifestyle and work regime of the tenants.The purpose of archaeological projects such as that at the plantation is simple, Brown says: “We want to know how a plantation was run.“We want to know how in real life the slaves lived, how the ‘free blacks’ lived, and how the planters’ families lived.”We’re PRO UD To Call♦Raintree Home,,.
Newspaper Details
Brazosport Facts
Clute, Texas, US
Sun, Jul 21, 1996
Page 111
Full Page
Clipped by
Houston P.
TX, USA 14 Sep 2019
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