Thanks to both Carl and Larry for their responses and observations.

We did recover a privy in the middle of the slave settlement at Ferry
(Roupelmound) Plantation in Beaufort County. About 4-feet square and
about 4-feet deep, it was wood (heart pine) lined, with bottom wood
having largely rotted out and replaced with brick, which in turn was
disturbed (I suspect) by later cleaning. There was a wall trench
structure on two (probably 3) sides. The surrounding slave settlement
also consisted of wall trench structures and began around 1730-1750. The
privy was abandoned and filled about 1800, when there, coincidentally,
was a major change in slave settlement architecture and we see massive
post holes supporting probable frame construction.

I, too, found this unexpected and initially interpreted the feature
(before excavation) as some kind of large fire box. During excavation
when it clearly wasn't a fire box, I tried a well. When it wasn't deep
enough for a well (it doesn't get even to the modern water table, which
is higher (albeit saltier) than 200 years ago), and the fill was
convincing privy soil, I finally had to admit that it was, in fact, a
privy.

As mentioned, it is in the midst of the slave settlement and about 600
feet inland from the main settlement (on the edge of the water).

Best,

Michael Trinkley, Ph.D.
Director
Chicora Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 8664
Columbia, SC  29202
803/787-6910
www.chicora.org