On an Unshakeable Foundation: An Archaeological Investigation of the Postemancipation Black Community of Bass Street, the Church They Built, and the Lasting Identity They Formed in Nashville, Tennessee

<p>The Bass Street Community lived along the northern base of St. Cloud Hill in Nashville, just below the Civil War-era Union fortification, Fort Negley. The fort was built and defended by conscripted free, enslaved, and self-emancipated Black/African Americans and soldiers from the U.S. Colored Troops; some of whom stayed, built residences, founded a church, and established a shared community identity. The objects they left behind reflect a time of transition in the postemancipation urban South.</p> <p>The former Bass Street Community enclave is a subset of the Fort Negley archaeological site (40DV189). My thesis examines artifacts from the Bass Street Baptist Church. It focuses on three research questions; How was the community (identity) established?, What characteristics did it display and how did those change over time?, and How is the community identity reflected archaeologically? Through the creation of a novel community-focused functional artifact typology and subsequent artifact analyses, my project shows that the establishment of the community identity is intrinsically tied to the founding of the church and that it became more complex over time. Utilizing the Community Typology and comparing the Bass Street Baptist assemblage to similar sites, I developed a methodological framework to identify community-use sites through material culture. My conclusions highlight the complexity of Bass Street’s history and community identity, while underscoring their social heterogeneity and the similarities and differences between it and other Black communities and churches. The research presented is a step toward complicating the historical narrative of Nashville and the postemancipation South overall.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Peacock, Clélie Elizabeth Cottle

Contributors dc:contributor

• Daniel LaDu
• Marie Danforth
• Allison Formanack

• Postemancipation Archaeology
• Black/African American
• Communities
• Black Church
• Black Archaeology
• Community Archaeology
• African American Studies
• Anthropology
• Archaeological Anthropology
• Community-Based Research
• Public History
• Social History
• United States History

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1045

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-2145