If perhaps you are thinking of someone who was at Clemson, not USC, it would
have been Carrel Cowan-Ricks (who was active in the late 1980's/early
1990's). She did a terrific amount of data collection on this topic (she
surveyed a huge number of African American cemeteries in South Carolina).
Unfortunately she passed away quite a few years ago (complications from
lupus, as I recall), before her doctoral dissertation was published. Her
papers (or at least a large portion of them) are available at:
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
2008 June 04
315 East Warren Avenue
Detroit, Michigan, 48201
313-494-5800
Here is the link to a PDF which has a collection inventory of the items that
are in the collection:
http://chwmaah-archive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/MSS114.pdf
Actually I have been trying to locate her papers for years -- and today I
just googled "Cowan-Ricks" and there this was. Our Friend The Internet!
Carol
******************************************
Carol McDavid, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Community Archaeology Research Institute, Inc. (CARI)
Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Houston
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Rice University
1638 Branard
Houston, TX 77006
www.publicarchaeology.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "David W Babson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: Ritual deposits on African-American graves
>I remember a student at USC working on this topic in 1987--do not remember
>the name, or the title of her (it was a woman, as I recall) of her thesis.
>Does anyone from USC have any further information?
>
> D. Babson.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lyle
> E. Browning
> Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 5:14 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Ritual deposits on African-American graves
>
> I am working on a burial permit for a somewhat problematical graveyard
> containing 60-100 people in Southside VA. The earliest land ownership is
> in the 1770's with the last of the family out of the area by 1828. The
> marked graves have fieldstone headers and some footers. The presumption is
> that they are African-American slaves and descendants who were buried from
> the 1770's up to a totally unknown date, presumably well after the Civil
> War based upon the number of counted burials and the possibility of more
> that were not discernible as surface depressions.
>
> Some African-American graveyards have produced what can for once be
> correctly termed "ritual" deposits consisting of items placed in memory of
> the departed, glassware and other objects.
>
> My question is when this started? The earliest I have seen is solarized
> glass on a SC graveyard with objects up to the 1940's when the area became
> off-limits due to ownership.
>
> Some of the very much later objects were in trees and some were also
> obviously surface deposits which has implications for the top 6 inches of
> soil in the graveyard in question.
>
> Any information would be gratefully received.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Lyle Browning, RPA
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