BE A PART OF HISTORY!
SUMMER 2009
COME JOIN US AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SCHOOL
FOURTH SEASON OF INVESTIGATIONS ON FT GEORGE ISLAND
KINGSLEY PLANTATION
(1792-CIRCA 1950)
Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve National Park (Jacksonville, Florida)
(Summer Session A: May 11-June 19)
Director: Dr. James M. Davidson, Professor of Anthropology
Graduate Teaching Assistants: Karen McIlvoy, Clete Rooney, Jason Wenzel
Kingsley Plantation
Occupied by circa 1792, this plantation derives its name from Zephaniah Kingsley, who occupied the site between 1814 and 1839. Kingsley was a slave trader and ship’s captain. Defying convention, he took as a wife Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, an enslaved girl from Senegal.
Objecting to the harsh laws regarding interracial marriage and biracial children when Florida became American territory, Kingsley and his family moved to Haiti in 1839. The plantation was subsequently owned by a number of individuals into the early 20th century.
The entire field of African-American archaeology can actually trace its origin back to Kingsley Plantation, where in 1968 Dr. Charles Fairbanks (former professor at UF) conducted the first-ever scientific excavation of a slave cabin.
(Ruins of one of the 32 slave cabins remaining at Kingsley Plantation)
Summary of 2006, 2007, and 2008 Work:
Excavations have been conducted in slave Cabins W-12, W-13, andW-15. Through archival and archaeological data, it was established that these specific cabins were occupied between 1814 and 1839, or only during Zephaniah Kingsley’s occupation of the island. Amazing finds include French gun flints (from flintlock pistols and muskets) and lead shot in the cabins, and a chicken sacrifice and deliberate burial of the remains beneath the floor of Cabin W-15, presumably as part of an African religious ritual. We have also uncovered previously unknown or "lost structures," including cottages along Cedar Avenue destroyed in the 1850s or 1860s, and the Sugar Mill, an octagonal, tabby-walled industrial complex not seen since the 1880s.
Read an on-line article on the 2006 Field School and Discovery of the Chicken Sacrifice/Burial.
2009 Research goals:
Building on our prior field seasons, we will finish excavations within Cabin W-15, continue our exploration of the Sugar Mill, begin excavations withion one of the standing East Arc slave cabins, and begin the search for the long lost slave cemetery.
Student Expectations:
Students will receive training in controlled excavation, field survey, instrument mapping, geophysical prospecting, artifact identification, and artifact analysis. There will also be a series of afternoon/evening lectures and assigned readings on Historical and African-American Archaeology. We will work Monday through Friday, with weekends off. You will have the option of staying on the island during the weekends, or returning to Gainesville (or elsewhere).
Number of Students: enrollment will be capped at 16 students.
Tuition:
All students will be enrolled for nine credit hours (ANT 4823/4824). Priority for acceptance into the field school goes to Junior and Senior Anthropology majors from UF, then non-majors at UF and at other Florida institutions.
Undergraduate Students (as of Spring 2009):
Florida Residents - $118.95 to $125.91 per credit hour (plus fees)
Student Fees:
In addition to the standard tuition and fees payable to the Registrar's, there will be an additional fee of $500 assessed per student, to cover the cost of all meals, ice, gasoline, film and film processing, and miscellaneous supplies, as well as a cleaning fee for the residence.
Lodging:
Our field headquarters will be on the National Park grounds, at the historic Fort George Clubhouse, a restored elite residence built in 1927.
Students will be living in two houses on the island provided by the National Park Service. The Clubhouse (pictured) will serve as our dining hall and space for artifact processing and lectures. Meals will be provided.
Although we will only work weekdays, you have the option to stay on the island on weekends. Kayaking is available (equipment supplied) on the Fort George River, after hours (Parks personnel will instruct interested parties in safety protocols).
(The Fort George Club House, built in 1927)
Download Copy of the Application: HERE
Send application, cover letter and letter of recommendation (from a Professor or Graduate Student/Instructor) to:
Dr. James M. Davidson
Department of Anthropology
1112 Turlington Hall
P.O. Box 117305
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7305
or drop it by my office:
Turlington Hall B128
Phone: 352-392-2253 ext. 256 Fax: 352-392-6929 Email: davidson@anthro.ufl.edu
Sunset on Kingsley Plantation and the Fort George River