Reflections on Archaeology and Northern Slavery

The archaeological evidence for slavery exists in some of the most unexpected spaces. Despite many attempts to focus elsewhere, the author has inevitably encountered this evidence throughout his career as an archaeologist in the U.S. Northeast. In this essay, he reflects on the origins of his entanglement with the material evidence of northern slavery, from his very first field school up through his experience as a tenured senior archaeologist. The insidious institution of slavery was ubiquitous in what would become the northeastern United States; the author challenges the reader to open their eyes to see how slavery was embedded in the everyday of many places that have long been considered to have been free of this terrible institution.