Archaeology is more than simply studying the past from long ago, that of ancient Greece or  medieval Europe, it can be applied to a number of geographic locations, time periods, and peoples. An emerging sub discipline, rising within the past few decades, is the Archaeology of African diaspora which studies the “social and material worlds of the transatlantic slave trade, slavery, and post-emancipation societies” (Slavery and Remembrance), including black resistance against slavery. 

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Archaeology of African diaspora is also closely tied to historical archaeology, which uses textual evidence in addition to archaeological work, however, historic documents can also “represent a single and often biased perspective” and thus “through the careful excavation of the material traces of past people’s activities archaeologists provide interpretations and perspectives of the past that may be absent or marginalized in historic documentation” (UC Berkeley). With this in mind, the archaeology of African diaspora is significant as it goes beyond plantation sites and traditional textual evidence, looking at “military forts, missions, and urban areas,” (Singleton) to study “enslavement as it was lived” (Grant), health, food and burial practices, and resistance, not just the institution of slavery itself within a diverse range of settings. 

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Sites that are being more readily studied in the US are those of resistance, referred to as “maroons,” which are place of secluded or difficult terrain areas where runaway slaves escaped to and formed their own community, a place where they developed “their own way as living as free people” (Slavery and Remembrance). In the article “Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom: The Great Dismal Swamp was once a thriving refuge for runaways” Richard Grant interviews Daniel Sayers, professor at American University, and talks about his work in studying such places of resistance, particularly a nameless site known only by its surrounding area, the Great Dismal Swamp, at this site only few objects have been uncovered, so few that they could “fit in a shoe box” as Sayers states. However,  what did remain “speaks for themselves” (Grant) according to the curator of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Nancy Bercaw, as it illustrated an active building of a way of life, a life rejecting slavery, the “reworking pebbles,” use of ceramic fragments to “shore up cabins” and utilizing tools “left behind by indigenous'' peoples (Grant). 

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The Archaeology of African diaspora is still a growing field with a great focus in providing different perspectives to “traditional” histories and documents. Additionally, many sites of resistance and “maroons” are continuously being found in the US, however, these sites are quite common in other parts of the world such as in Brazil, Jamaica, Cuba, and Suriname to name a few. Much work in this field lies ahead still and so if you are interested in learning more the types of artifacts and types of sites being studied here are some websites/articles I recommend in addition to the sources used.

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Further Readings:

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National Museum of African American History and Culture | https://nmaahc.si.edu/

The Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery | https://www.daacs.org/

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Singleton, Theresa A. “The Archaeology of Slavery in North America.” Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 24, 1995, pp. 119–140. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2155932. Accessed 19 Feb. 2021.
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References

Grant, Richard. “Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom: The Great Dismal Swamp was once a thriving refuge for runaways.” Smithsonian Magazine, September 2016, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deep-swamps-archaeologists-fugitive-slaves-kept-freedom-180960122/.

Singleton, Theresa. “Archaeology and Slavery.” The Oxford Handbook of Slavery, Oxford University Press, 2012. Oxford Handbooks Online, https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199227990.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199227990-e-33.

Slavery and Remembrance. “The Archaeology of African Diaspora.” Slavery and Remembrance: A Guide to Sites, Museums, and Memory, http://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0143#:~:text=The%20archaeology%20of%20the%20African%20diaspora%2C%20or%20African%20diaspora%20archaeology,%2C%20and%20post%2Demancipation%20societies.

Slavery and Remembrance. “Maroon Communities in the Americas.” Slavery and Remembrance: A Guide to Sites, Museums, and Memory, http://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/index.cfm?id=A0060.

UC Berkeley, Fort Davis Archaeological Project. “What is Historical Archaeology.” UC Berkeley, Fort Davis Archaeological Project: Archaeological Research of 19th and 20th Century Fort Davis, TX, https://ucbfodaap.wordpress.com/what-is-historical-archaeology/.