University Press of Florida Ancestors of Worthy Life: Plantation Slavery and Black Heritage at Mount Clare (Cultural Heritage Studies)

Review "Show[s] how much information a historical archaeologist can supply about the lives of enslaved."--Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Product Description Despite the contributions of enslaved African Americans to our country’s economy, culture, and history, records of their existence are all but expunged from plantation sites, which are reluctant to show and interpret the homes and lives of the enslaved. One such site is Mount Clare near Baltimore, Maryland, where Teresa Moyer’s work examines the lives of the plantation’s enslaved and investigates the issues keeping these findings from being publicly presented. In this balanced discussion of racialized practice at historic site museums, Moyer presents a rich and contextualized study of the inextricably entangled lives of the enslaved, free blacks, and white landowners. She demonstrates that inclusive interpretation of plantation and other historic house museum sites can be done. Moyer argues that the inclusion of enslaved persons in the history of these sites would honor those “ancestors of worthy note,” make the social good of public history available to African Americans, and address systemic racism in America. About the Author Teresa Moyer is an archaeologist with the National Park Service and coauthor of The Making of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream.