Archaeology at Woodland Plantation
Do you recognize this object?
It’s a cylinder about an inch long, made out of fired clay, with a hole running through the center.
On any historic site in Louisiana, you may find bits of pottery, glass, animal bone from food waste, nails and corroded iron, brick and construction and material. You may even find other items that speak to the everyday lives of people who once lived at the site, things like buttons and beads. This particular object is an example of another common type of artifact: it is a fragment from the stem of a tobacco pipe, probably manufactured in England in the mid-nineteenth century.
PIpe Smoking as Resistance
To an archaeologist, an artifact like this is about much more than simply the leisure activity of smoking. For laborers in the Atlantic world, whether enslaved or free, tobacco smoking was both social and practical. In the earlier part of the Colonial era, it structured interactions between the worlds of Indigenous peoples, the enslaved, and European colonizers. As the plantation system developed, pipe smoking provided a moment of respite from violence, a connection to fellow laborers, and a boost to get through strenuous –often brutal—conditions.
Archaeological work at woodland
This particular one was found during an archaeological survey of the grounds of Woodland Plantation. Students and volunteers from the University of New Orleans worked with Kenetha Harrington from LSU, who recently completed a dissertation on landscapes of the 1811 revolt, to begin a survey for the 1811 Kid Ory House Museum. On plantation sites, the archaeological record is a valuable testament both to what is known about the site, but also to what didn’t get written down.
Work with us
When it comes to the 1811 uprising of enslaved peoples that began at Woodland, and to the lives of those who labored on the plantation both before and after, the archaeological record has barely been touched. As new plans develop for Woodland, archaeology will be a valuable way to engage with the local community and to connect past and present. We look forward to seeing what comes next!