Dear Mark Walker:
     While I was at the University of Delaware Center for Archaeological
Research (UDCAR), we worked on a variety of late 17th to early 20th
century tenant farm sites in Delaware.  Most of the sites were in northern
and central Delaware and we took about a dozen of them to full Phase III data
recovery.  We did dozens of sites at the Phase II level.  While these sites
aren't in the Chesapeake, we have seen an great deal of similarity with
your area.  Here's a list of the sites and the published reports that
describe them.
     Wade Catts, George Miller, and I have also published seperately a couple
of dozen conference papers, etc. of various aspects of tenant life (faunal
remains, African-American tenants, agricultural reform, transportation
change, ceramic assemblages, farmstead layout, consumer behavior).  Most of
these publications have been comparing tenant farms to owner-occupied farms.
I explored the social and ecological history of land-owner and tenant
relations between 1780-1840 in my unpublished dissertation, THE LANDSCAPE OF
REFORM: SOCIETY, ENVIRONMENT, AND AGRICULTURAL REFORM IN CENTRAL DELAWARE,
1790-1840 (1990, Univ. of Delaware).
 
                    EXCAVATED TENANT FARMS IN DELAWARE
 
 
17TH CENTURY:
     1. Richard Whitehart Plantation (7K-C-203C), 1681-1701
     2. John Powell Plantation (7K-C-203H), 1691-1720
Both are described in:
     1. Dave Grettler, "'Owned, but Not Necessarily Conveyed,' Landowner
and Tenant Opportunity in 17th Century Delaware."  Paper delivered at the
1993 Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference, Reheboth, DE.
     2. Dave Grettler, George Miller, et al. "Sold But Not Necessarily
Conveyed": Final Archaeological Investigations at the Richard Whitehart and
John Powell Plantations, Two Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century
Farmsteads in Central Delaware."  Delaware Department of Transportation
(DELDOT) Archaeological Series, 1995.
 
18TH CENTURY
      1. Benjamim Wynn Tenancy and Blacksmith Shop
     2. Whitten Road Site
These sites are described in:
     1. Mark Schaffer, et. al. "Final Phase III Investigations of the Whitten
Road Site, 7NC-D-100, Whitten or Walther Road, County Road #346, New Castle
County, Delaware."  DELDOT Archaeological Series No. 68, 1988.
     2. Dave Grettler, et al. "Marginal Farms on the Edge of Town: Data
Recovery Investigations of the Moore-Taylor, Benjamin Wynn Tenancy
(Lewis-E), and H. Wilson-Lewis Farmsteads, Kent County, Delaware."  DELDOT
Archaeological Series No. 124, 1994.
 
 
19th CENTURY
     1. Moore-Taylor Farmstead
     2. H. Wilson-Lewis Farmstead
     3. C. Kimmey Tenant Farm Site
     4. Thomas Williams Site
     5. Jacob Cazier Tenancy Site
These sites are described in:
     1. Dave Grettler, et al. "Marginal Farms on the Edge of Town: Data
Recovery Investigations of the Moore-Taylor, Benjamin Wynn Tenancy
(Lewis-E), and H. Wilson-Lewis Farmsteads, Kent County, Delaware.  DELDOT
Archaeological Series No. 124, 1994.
     2. George Miller, Dave Grettler, and Wade Catts, "The Tenets of
Tableware: Ceramic Consumption Patterns from Some Delaware Tenants."
Presented at the 1992 Meeting of the Council for Northeast Historical
Archaeology at Watertown, New York.
     3. JoAnn Jamison, et. al. "The Archaeology of Nineteenth Century
Agricultural Change: Final Excavations at the C. Kimmey Tenant Farm
Site, State Route 1 Corridor, Kent County, Delaware."  DELDOT Archaeological
Series No. 125, 1993.
     4. Dave Grettler, "Farmer Snug and Farmer Slack: The Archaeology of
Agricultural Reform in Central Delaware, 1780-1860."  Presented at the 1992
Meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology at Kingston, Jamaica.
     5. Dave Grettler, "Milking History for All It's Worth: The Archaeology
of Dairy Farms in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Delaware." Presented at
the 1992 Meeting of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology at
Watertown, New York.
     6. Wade Catts and jay Custer, "Tenant Farmers, Stone Masons, and Black
Laborers: Final Archaeological Investigations of the Thomas Williams Site,
Glasgow, DE."  DELDOT Archaeology Series, No. 82, 1990.
     7. Angela Hoseth, et. al. "Status, Landscape, and Tenancy at Mount
Vernon Place: Final Archaeological Investigations of the Jacob Cazier Tenant
Site, New Castle County, Delaware."  DELDOT Archaeology Series, 1992.
 
 
     This is just a preliminary list of sites that Is am working on now and
include only Phase IIIs.  The Phase II bibliography is truly massive.  You
can get copies of almost all of the Delaware Department of Transportation
reports from:
                    Kevin Cunningham
                    Planning Section
                    Delaware Department of Transportation
                    Dover, DE  19903
 
     I am also begining to complile a bibliography of excavated late 18th and
19th century farms in the Middle Atlantic and Chesapeake.  I'd appreciate any
citations you have.
 
                              Dave Grettler
                               Northern State University
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