State archaeology workshops will focus on free Black communities in Pennsylvania

The State Museum of Pennsylvania will hold its annual archaeology workshops virtually on Saturday, focusing on stories of Black history told through the lens of archaeology.

University of Maryland professor Cheryl LaRoche will present “Free Black Communities and Archaeology” as the day’s keynote presentation. LaRoche is a founding member of the Society of Black Archaeologists and recently consulted with the National Park Service on archaeological sites found on federal park land.

Pennsylvania, LaRoche said, is home to a number of free Black communities, in large part because legal slavery ended much earlier in Northern states. One of the best places to begin looking at the Keystone State’s free Black community history is through cemeteries.

“A lot of times, that’s what’s left,” LaRoche said. “Lately, archaeology has really involved itself in abandoned and slave cemetery preservation, because they are typically associated with a church, and if a site is from an era prior to the Civil War or during early Reconstruction, a lot of times the church is also symbolic of a school that likely existed at one point.”

LaRoche has largely studied these communities through their relationship to the Underground Railroad network that helped escaped slaves flee to Northern areas. She hopes to discuss them in more of a collective way than she has seen done before.

“Black communities are often connected either by the founder or by an extended family, the church or some other web of associations within the community,” she said. “Counties across Pennsylvania have extensive free Black communities. It’s where a lot of people found sanctuary and places to settle.”

LaRoche’s work in trying to preserve historical data, artifacts and physical aspects of those communities often involves working at the sometimes-contentious intersection of the public, scholars, professionals and local government officials.

“One of the things I’ve seen repeatedly at site after site is a lack of understanding of the significance,” she said. “And if someone doesn’t make that case, and prepare a statement of significance, the site isn’t going to be saved, or it’s going to have a rocky road to preservation.”

In Pittsburgh, the Lower Hill neighborhood was home to more than 110 Black families by 1830, according to “The Hill District Community Collaborative: An Oral History,” created by students in Carnegie Mellon University’s History and Policy Project course. At that time, the areas were referred to as Hayti and Arthursville, and both were home to multiple stops and safe houses along the Underground Railroad.

Pennsylvania’s legislature by that time had already passed laws meant to gradually abolish slavery, but both neighborhoods’ populations were decimated as many residents fled following passage of the federal Fugitive Slave Act in 1850.

LaRoche said she will call for an expanded understanding of the connectivity of free Black communities in Pennsylvania, and the interrelated ways in which the sites can speak to one another.

The lives of 20th-century Black Americans are poorly documented in the historic record, and the contributions of enslaved, indentured and free members of those communities are mostly missing from history books and museum exhibits. This year’s daylong series of workshops will explore how archaeology can be used to help fill this gap in understanding past cultural behavior in Pennsylvania. “Hidden Stories: Uncovering African American History Through Archaeology and Community Engagement” will take place with nine presentations and a panel discussion, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

For more, see StateMuseumPA.org, click on the “Events” link and find “2021 Workshops in Archaeology” on Oct. 30 in the calendar. There is a $25 suggested donation.