Archaeological and Historical Investigations of the Robert Newsom Farmstead (23CY497), Callaway County, Missouri

<p>Scholarly research on slavery in the U.S. has focused on large commercial plantations in the Old South. Yet a majority of slaveholders and nearly half of the enslaved lived in smaller slaveholding houses and family farms (Burke 2010:4). This study helps redress the dearth of research on small slaveholdings through study of the Robert Newsom Farmstead, or "Celia" Site (23CY497), located in Callaway County, Missouri. The research goal is to model the antebellum spatial organization of the landholding, thereby increasing our understanding of slavery at the Newsom site and on non-plantation slaveholdings generally. This was accomplished through collection and analysis of historical and archaeological data. Documentary research has yielded new information about the histories and relationships of Newsom Farmstead occupants. The results of archaeological pedestrian survey and shovel testing, together with the historical findings, clarifies the chronology, construction, design, locations, and functions of site structures and features, including Robert Newsom’s dwelling, possible slave quarters, the still house, and the Newsom family burying ground. In the context of a more detailed model of farmstead spatial organization, these findings underscore the relatively intimate nature of the domestic arrangement between slave and slaveholder on the Newsom Farmstead, and thereby contribute to our knowledge of small slaveholdings more broadly.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Applied Anthropology

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology and Anthropology

Year

2015

Author dc:creator

• Halpern, James Adam

Contributors dc:contributor

• Elizabeth Sobel

• Robert Newsom
• Celia Missouri
• slavery
• slave
• farmstead
• archaeological
• archaeology
• historical
• history
• trial
• Anthropology

Statement dc:rights

• © James Adam Halpern

Repository record dc:identifier

https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/979

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:bearworks.missouristate.edu:theses-1978