Hello Fellow Histarchers:
I think a sense of scale is also in order when
investigating these features.
It would be simply amazing to find a 5x8x3 foot,
wood-lined sub-floor pit under a small slave cabin,
and the presence of smaller, unlined, and less
formalized "grabbling holes" under a plantation home
would raise some interesting questions.
Also, check Dane Mouer's 1993 article ("Chesapeake
Creoles") for an interesting discussion of
creolization and root cellars (In "The Archaeology of
17th-Century Virginia," Dietz Press).
"Creolized" foodways would perhaps lead to a need for
similar forms of storage, regardless of obvious
differences in socioeconomic status, race, etc.
Best wishes,
Dane Magoon
--- John McCarthy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dan-
>
> Thanks for your note. I am begining to think that
> these may represent a Creolized practice with
> perhaps different functions by different groups.
> Figuring out the function then is the "nut to
> crack." These do not often have primary use-related
> deposits that would help in that regard.
>
> Take care,
> John
>
> "Daniel H. Weiskotten" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Has anyone ever heard these sub-floor pits called
> "grabbling holes"? Twice in recent months I've
> heard reference to these pits as "grabbling holes"
> but am unable to find any reference to them called
> such.
>
> I know, and the 'net confirms this, a grabbling hole
> as a eddy in a creek where you can find large
> catfish and either grab them with a hook or if they
> are big enough to get them with your hands.
>
> As for sub-floor pits or root cellars, I envision
> the diet and the economic status of the inhabitants
> being important in whether a site has these or not.
> Lower class marginal subsistence people more likely
> to have things they have grown themselves or foraged
> and being suitably stored under ground needing pits,
> while higher class (and yet not really very high)
> having a diet that consisted of foods that were
> better stored in other ways such as salting meats,
> barrels of flour, ...
>
> So, not necessarily enslaved or only African
> Americans, but economic. I think a lot of these
> sites we have called slave houses are simply very
> low class, including whites, blacks, Indians ...
>
> Catselwood, an 1817 plantation house in Chesterfield
> Co., VA, has (had) a relatively large (5 x 8 x 3 ft)
> wood-lined storage pit under the ball room, but we
> sure wouldn't liken it to the ones found at the
> sites of the outbuildings behind neighboring
> Magnolia Grange.
>
> Dan W.
>
> ---------------------------------
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