“A Cluster of Sacred Symbols”: Interpreting an Act of Animal Sacrifice at Kingsley Plantation, Fort George Island, Florida (1814–39)

Abstract

Archaeologists often attempt to link artifacts recovered from enslaved plantation contexts to African-derived spiritual belief systems. Recent excavations within the slave cabins of Kingsley Plantation have revealed many artifacts that potentially held religious significance for the first-generation enslaved Africans who lived there between 1814 and 1839, the most significant of which was an intact chicken sacrifice buried in a slave cabin floor. The types of spiritual acts that involve animal sacrifice within several historic and modern cultures of West and Central Africa are documented and critically evaluated, and an interpretation is given regarding the example from Kingsley Plantation within its New World context.

Introduction: New Directions in African Diaspora Archaeology

“…For example, the discovery of the New York African Burial Ground illuminated the hidden slave past in the northern United States and transformed archaeological practice with the demand that practitioners share intellectual power with descendant community members (LaRoche and Blakey ). In addition, the studies of enslaved quarters on plantations like Rich Neck (Virginia), Carter's Grove (Virginia), Poplar Forest (Virginia), the Hermitage (Tennessee), and Kingsley Plantation (Florida) uncovered important evidence of the nature of Black cultural resistance by highlighting the ways that enslaved Blacks transformed foodways or the natural landscape to both preserve and transmit their African roots (Battle ; Battle‐Baptiste ; Davidson ; Fairbanks ; Flewellen ; Franklin , ; Heath and Gary ; McKee ; Mrozowski, Franklin, and Hunt ; Thomas ). Scholars also highlighted the ways that material culture became entangled in processes of racialization and, hence, indicative of racism, racial formation, ethnogenesis, cultural change and retention, or unequivocal acts of resistance like marronage (Bell ; Epperson ; Ferguson ; Leone, LaRoche, and Babiarz ; Mullins ; Sayers ; Weik ).…”

Animal Biographies in the Iron Age of Wessex:

“…Although there are numerous archaeological and anthropological definitions of sacrifice (Russell 2012, 89), the killing of the animal is often an important part of a wider ritual. For example, in discussing chicken sacrifice in Africa, Davidson (2015) highlights at least 18 different reasons a person could have for the sacrifice. In many rituals, sacrificed animals are viewed as intermediaries to the gods, able to pass on messages.…”

Enslaved African conjure and ritual deposits on the Hume Plantation, South Carolina

“…Deposits where traditional shrines were typically located in the homeland context have been found in different corners of a room for each individual ancestor who was worshipped. The corner shrines were believed to be the place from which ancestral spirits could rise up, like a sacred portals when needed (Anderson, 2005; Davidson, 2015; Katz-Hyman and Rice, 2011; Pollitzer, 2005; Samford, 1996).…”

“…Comparatively and contemporaneously, an article by Davidson (2015) describes very similar deposits found at Kingsley Plantation in Fort George Island, Florida, dating to 1814–1839. Davidson describes white pearl ware or white ware ceramic sherds, blue beads, and other objects placed together at the front door sill and associated with doorways and along walls (2015: 79).…”

“…Davidson's finds at Kingsley Plantation include a number of metal or iron pieces buried in the backyard of a cabin, in particular a trade musket inscribed with an “X,” and he notes that other iron objects did not appear to be random or throw away pieces that landed in the back yard. These included a hoe, plow blade, axe, and a stove part (Davidson, 2015: 79). In the backyard of Cabin 4 on the Hume slave quarter, a face plate of an iron stove was excavated near a fence line.…”