Embodied Poverty: Bioarchaeology of the Brentwood Poor Farm, Brentwood, New Hampshire (1841–1868)

Abstract

Through a commingled, fragmentary assemblage of skeletal remains (MNI = 9) recovered from a 1999 salvage excavation, this article explores the lives and deaths of individuals interred at the Brentwood Poor Farm, Brentwood, New Hampshire (1841–1868). This work demonstrates that bioarchaeological analyses of smaller samples can provide nuanced accounts of marginalization and institutionalization even with scant historical records. The skeletal analysis presented here is contextualized within the larger history of the American poor farm system and compared to similar skeletal samples across the United States. The hardships these individuals faced—poverty, otherness, demanding labor—were embodied in their skeletal remains, manifesting as osteoarthritis, dental disease, and other signs of physiological stress. These individuals’ postmortem fates were also impacted by status; they were interred in unmarked graves, disturbed by construction, and once recovered, were again forgotten for more than 20 years.