Wow! Very interesting story... Thanks for sharing!
On 8/3/10, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/02/AR2010080205217.html?hpid=topnews > > Excavation of sites such as Timbuctoo, N.J., is helping to rewrite > African American history > By DeNeen Brown > Washington Post Staff Writer > Tuesday, August 3, 2010; A01 > > TIMBUCTOO, N.J. -- In Timbuctoo lies a hill. Underneath that hill lies > a house, or what archaeologists think might have been a house once > upon a time. The silver clasp of a woman's handbag, piles of Mason > jars, chips of dinner plates and an empty jar of Dixie Peach Pomade > lie among the bricks that have broken away from the foundation. > > These are crushed fragments of a past life when free black people > lived in this New Jersey community almost 200 years ago -- free even > then, 45 years before Emancipation. "Most of the history of this > country is in that house," says David Orr, a classical archaeologist > and professor of anthropology at Temple University. Orr is standing at > the site down a gray road in Timbuctoo. A hot wind is blowing. > > Orr said that the buried community has the potential to be a very > important find in African American history. "Timbuctoo is great in a > larger context because it lasted, some of it, into the 20th century," > he said. "It also has a very large descendant community, so > ethnographically it is important." > > Timbuctoo was founded by freed blacks and escaped slaves in the 1820s. > It was probably named after Timbuktu, the town in Mali near the Niger > River, although researchers are still trying to find out how and why > it got its name. The neighborhood still exists in the township of > Westampton, N.J., about a 45-minute drive northeast of Philadelphia, > an enclave of many acres, so tiny and tucked away that when you ask > someone at the store two miles away, he tells you he has no idea where > it is. > > Timbuctoo has always been a secret kind of a place. Had to be, because > it was part of the Underground Railroad. There are newer houses here > now where some descendants of original settlers still live. But much > of the physical history of Timbuctoo is buried underground. Based on a > geophysical survey, archaeologists believe that foundations of a whole > village of perhaps 18 houses and a church dating back to the 1820s > lies beneath layers of dirt. > > In June, those archaeologists from Temple University in Philadelphia > began unraveling Timbuctoo's secrets, excavating the hill next to a > Civil War cemetery where African American troops are buried. The > discoveries are fragile and ordinary artifacts of everyday life -- > jars for medicines and cosmetics, pieces of shoes, dinner plates -- > but to the people unearthing them, they are invaluable. > > 'Story of the oppressed' > Archaeological excavation of African American communities such as > Timbuctoo is booming across the country, spurred by an increasing > number of prominent black academics and politicians and a > proliferation of museums dedicated to African American history, whose > curators are eager to display the artifacts. (Archaeologists had known > about the hill in Timbuctoo for years, but it wasn't until a recently > appointed black mayor of the township of Westampton, Sidney Camp, > pursued a geophysical survey did the excavation begin.) > > "It is very important that these excavations take place," said Rex > Ellis, associate director of curatorial affairs at the Smithsonian's > National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is > scheduled to open on the Mall in 2015. "The tradition has been to > overlook these things in the past. There have not been archaeologists > specifically searching for these kinds of treasures. For us, this > activity will contribute appreciably to our understanding of African > Americans as builders and contributors to this nation." > > Archaeologists involved in the excavations say they are helping to > rewrite an incomplete history -- adding evidence of resistance, not > just physical oppression; evidence of integration, not just > segregation. They are, they say, unearthing evidence not only of lives > endured in slavery, but also of whole communities of escaped slaves > hiding in small, self-sufficient communities. > > "Historical records are biased and written from a certain perspective. > People we are working with haven't had control over the narrative of > the past," said Paul Shackel, professor of anthropology at the > University of Maryland. "People wrote about them, but wrote from their > perspective. If you read the diary of what people thought of African > Americans, it is atrocious. It's racist. . . . We are . . . helping to > provide the story of the oppressed and helping to make it public." > > Aside from researching their own questions, some of the archaeologists > are asking descendents and communities what they want to know. This > practice spread after the 1990 passage of the Native American Graves > Protection and Repatriation, which required archaeologists to > repatriate human burial and funerary objects, prompting consultation > with descendents, Shackel said. A Temple student working with Orr is > conducting interviews with Timbuctoo descendents to help guide the > dig. > > Christopher Fennell, assistant professor of anthropology at the > University of Illinois, says communities connected to old black towns > are saying: " 'Don't tell us about brutality in the past. Tell us > about how African Americans overcame racism.' There is much more focus > on free African Americans like Timbuctoo." Researchers are focusing, > for example, on how blacks participated in the Underground Railroad. > "The untold story," Fennell says, "is that it was really run by free > and enslaved African Americans helping slaves to escape." > > A key development came in the early 1990s as archaeologists began > working on what has become known as the African Burial Ground in New > York. During excavation for a new federal office building, > construction workers discovered remains of 419 men, women and children > buried during the 17th and 18th centuries in a six-acre burial ground > in Lower Manhattan, records show. The cemetery had been covered over > for years by buildings and landfill. > > Researchers discovered that the burial grounds included slaves as well > as free blacks. Scientific studies of the remains at the burial ground > brought home the physical atrocities of slavery -- tooth defects > caused by malnutrition, anemia, high infant mortality and evidence of > "impact trauma." Studies found "abnormal outgrowths of bone tissue in > response to stress," Fennell says. "The analysts identified this > malady as the result of the individuals having been forced to lift and > carry very heavy loads." > > But they also found other details: a belt of blue beads around the > waist of a man buried in a coffin with inlaid tin matching the burial > customs in Ghana. These findings suggested that the connection to > Africa had not been severed as cleanly as tales told in some history > books. > > At the Hermitage in Tennessee, which was the home of President Andrew > Jackson, archaeologists are excavating the slave quarters to find out > more about how the slave population survived oppression. In New > Mexico, archaeologists are unearthing a town called Blackdom, which > was founded in 1901, by Frank Boyer, a black man who was said to have > walked thousands of miles from Georgia to New Mexico to establish a > town for black people. > > "He wanted to create a place he could be free and he got other > families to come join him," says Juanita Moore, president and CEO of > the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, > the largest museum dedicated to African American history in the > country. "The town existed for about eight years until the artesian > spring vanished. They ran out of water, then they dispersed and went > to other cities. Now there are foundations of some of the houses." > > Some sites offer evidence of the business acumen of freed black men. > In Illinois, archaeologists are unearthing New Philadelphia, one of > the earliest towns in the country founded by a black man. In 1836, > Frank McWorter, who was born into slavery, purchased his wife's > freedom for $800 with money he earned from extra work in a mine. He > then purchased his own freedom at $800 and went on to buy 42 acres of > land in Pike County, Ill. McWorter subdivided the land, sold lots and > used the proceeds to buy the freedom of 16 more family members. > > New Philadelphia, which had an integrated school, faded after 1869 > when a new railroad bypassed the town, an act some researchers > attribute to racism. In 2004, Shackel and archaeological students > began digging to investigate issues of race and class in New > Philadelphia, which was recently listed in the National Register of > Historic Places. > > Even the most ordinary items, such as the early-20th-century jars that > once contained Vicks VapoRub and Dixie Peach Pomade now being > unearthed in Timbuctoo, are significant to archaeologists. They tell > "a lot about how people lived," Moore says. "They are not gold or > jewels, but they say how important lives of everyday people are. That > will tell the story of the majority of people as opposed to the few." > > The lives of free blacks > Timbuctoo was founded in the 1820s when Quaker abolitionists sold land > to black men. In 1860, according to the census, Timbuctoo had 150 > residents and 37 dwellings. The excavation "documents an unappreciated > and poorly represented aspect of American history because we are > talking about lives of free black people when the current narrative is > [that] we didn't exist," said Guy Weston, whose ancestor was one of > the original settlers in Timbuctoo. "There were black people who > hadn't been slaves in a lifetime, like my great-grandmother." > > The community thrived until about 1930 when people began moving away > to find jobs during the Great Depression, researchers say. The houses > deteriorated over many years and were eventually razed, leaving behind > underground foundations. Archaeologists are unclear about how some > structures ended up covered by the hill at the end of the road. > > "No other structures, apart from the cemetery, still stand" that date > to Timbuctoo's founding, says Christopher Barton, a doctoral student > in archaeology who is the site manager at Timbuctoo. The last original > structure "was the church AME Zion. That was torn down about 10 years > ago," he says. > > The artifacts found indicate how people survived despite racism and > discrimination. Archaeologists have found flatware and other items > that were not purchased in local shops but likely through catalogues. > "If they bought something national," Barton said, "they didn't have to > deal with racism on local levels." > > Donald Nixon grew up in Timbuctoo, and never knew something more was > beneath it, buried within. "We used to hunt rabbits here," he says. > > Sophronia Boyd Demby, 82, whose parents bought land here in 1936, is > standing outside the excavation site. Shaded by a white straw hat, she > points to a round object sticking out of a layer of dirt. "You think > that is a piece of leather?" > > Patricia Markert, 21, a field assistant, reaches for it. "I think it's > a ceramic bowl," she says. > > Mary Weston, 74, lives in a house down the road from the site. Her > great-great-great-grandfather bought a lot in Timbuctoo in 1829 for > $38. "What they find there helps me understand who we were then," she > says, sitting in her living room. She has seen the recovered > artifacts, and they remind her of her childhood and stories her > grandmother told about living in Timbuctoo. > > Weston opens her family Bible on her lap and gingerly turns its > fragile pages. The Bible is held together by a brown leather belt. > Within its pages are recorded the births, the marriages, the deaths of > her ancestors in Timbuctoo. > > "How can you know who you really are if you don't know from whence you > came?" > > -- > Larry C. Lyons > web: http://www.lyonsmorris.com/lyons > LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/larryclyons > -- > The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. > - B. F. Skinner > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:324291 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
