Does the Case of Mcneill v. Masterson Support the Abandonment Hypothesis of the Former Slave Quarters at the Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site in Brazoria County, Texas?

This thesis compares data from the records of court cases involving descendants of Levi Jordan along with supporting documents to the narrative of abandonment in the interpretation of the archaeology of the former slave quarters at the Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site in Brazoria County, Texas. Originally outlined in 1989, the abandonment narrative in the interpretation of the archaeology of the former slave quarters at the Levi Jordan plantation has connected the proposed postbellum, sudden departure of the formerly enslaved people from their residence in the former slave quarters with legal actions between the descendants of Levi Jordan. This thesis has revisited the many (but probably not all) legal records of the Jordan descendants to look for direct evidence of the abandonment in them, but it has not found it. Instead, the records show that the Jordan descendants’ interaction with a third-party, Harris Masterson, seems to have had a greater impact on the lands and descendants of Levi Jordan than previously understood.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Ericson, Cynthia D.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Brown, Kenneth L.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Storey, Rebecca
• Picard, Trey D.

• Historical archaeology
• Archaeology

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/5348

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/5348