The Archaeology of African American Mobility in Slavery and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century St. Mary’s City

Abstract

Following the abandonment of the first capital of Maryland, St. Mary’s City became home to multiple plantations throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By 1840, almost the entire original city was owned by Dr. James Mackall Brome, as were upward of 60 enslaved African Americans. Examining archaeological survey, excavations, and historical documents demonstrates that both Brome and the African Americans who lived at St. Mary’s City negotiated mobility and access throughout enslavement, the Civil War, and Emancipation across and beyond the plantation landscapes.