Module 16: Recovering the African American Past:
What Does Archaeology Contribute?

Reading: Wilkie, "Magic and Empowerment on the Plantation"

African American Religion: An Example of Creolization

We ended the last class with the concept of creolization. The African American religious beliefs and practices described by Wilkie provide excellent examples of creolization. As my student Dustin Hill pointed out in his reading notes, "to understand the ideological importance of these artifacts, we must recognize both the African roots and the effects of creolization on African American culture.” Hill continues:

The punched penny and silver dimes are good examples of a tradition passed down from African culture and modified in the U.S. In Africa, precious metals were seen as having magical and protective powers. In the U.S., African American used coins as a source of precious metal. Wilkie also discusses how the religion of Voodoo is derived from a combination of the African religion Vodu and Catholicism. She discusses the prevalence of Native American lithics found at African American sites. She says that these lithics, produced in America, are used in charm bags, an African tradition. She also points out that the horseshoe came to be used in African American homes as a protection against evil spirits, an idea borrowed from Europeans that, Wilkie says, would have fit into their preexisting ideology.

Hill concludes that African Americans held on to their African-rooted belief system, but they were forced to practice it in America. This change of context and their interaction with different cultures does seem to have affected the way African Americans practiced their religion.

Wilkie’s Methodology for Recognizing Religious Beliefs

How is the African American identity of these remains established? [Using historical records of the Oakley Plantation].

How is the spiritual/religious character of these artifacts established? For each artifact type, the proof is a little different:

•In the case of Christian images, because Catholic metals were being worn by Baptists. This implies an alternative interpretation of religious significance.

•In the case of Indian artifacts, because they were pervasive in African American house sites but not Anglo-American homes. Therefore, they could not be the outcome of idiosyncratic collecting; they must be related to group-wide beliefs. They were found among families engaged in domestic work, not agriculture, and there are no known Indian sites in the area; therefore, these artifacts could not be the result of local collecting. Ethnographic observations of shamans and conjurers reveal that flint tools are used to strike sparks for charms.

•In the case of coins with holes, oral traditions and ethnographies suggest that they were worn as charms. They may be related to wider concerns with the properties of metals like silver and copper, and their mint dates appear to be related to the life histories of individuals (the year of Silvia Freeman’s birth).

The meaning of ground ceramic sherds is more problematic. They are not gaming pieces or divining pieces because they are too common. Their water-rolled edges suggest that they may be charm ingredients related to water spirits (as described by Ferguson [1992]).

What Is Archaeology’s Contribution?

Wilkie’s account of African American religion relies heavily on documents, ethnography, and oral history. What, if any, contribution does archaeology make to this discussion? That is, what is or could be learned by studying the artifacts from Oakley Plantation and other such sites? The artifacts, themselves, make a significant contribution in:

1) Lending immediacy to written accounts, allowing people to actually visualize what was involved in African American religion.

2) Guiding us in knowing what to look for in the accounts, and then sometimes helping us interpret the written accounts.

3) Testing the accuracy of written accounts of African American religion, given the condescending attitudes of the recorders.

4) Supplementing the accounts, sometimes turning up new information; for example, the use of ground sherds, which are not mentioned in existing accounts.

5) Enabling us to define the applicability of the accounts. Are African-based belief systems equally common in the North and the South? In urban and rural areas? In the middle class and the upper class? In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? You could point to the variability in African American culture to dispose of any stereotypes that we might be creating—it would help to promote the acceptance of people as individuals rather than members of some stereotyped group.

Presenting African American Religion to the Public

Are there good ways and bad ways to present this material to the public?

•Avoid using terms like superstition, or referring to these items as indicators of ignorance, lack of education, naïveté, or childlike mental status. All this would resonate with slave-holders' excuses that African American adults were "childlike” and unable to care for themselves.

•How do you convey beliefs in spirits, charms, and spells as legitimate religion? You could point to the coherence and internal logic of the system. You could point to the continuity with African beliefs, adapted to new circumstances and incorporating new ideas. You could show the practical benefits (functions) of these beliefs given African American circumstances: powerlessness, slavery, and racism. You could show their influence on Anglo-American religion; for example, the Apostolic Churches. You could discuss these beliefs in relation to Christianity.