Race and Practice in Archaeological Interpretation by Charles E. Orser Jr

Author:Charles E. Orser, Jr. [Charles E. Orser, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Archaeology, Anthropology, Physical
ISBN: 9780812203257
Google: HYcbzZM-KMMC
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2013-04-19T04:24:38+00:00

This purposeful image of the white plantation mansion has become integral to the modern-day concept of the southern plantation, appearing regularly in fiction (see, e.g., McNeill 1975: 43), with the loss of whiteness serving as a metaphor for the decline of the planter’s fortunes (see, e.g., Horner 1973: 12).

Figure 4.3. Social structure of the antebellum agricultural South.

In her analysis of Oakley Plantation in Louisiana, Laurie Wilkie (2000: 226, 228) notes that the site of the habitus, at least early in life, is the household. It is in this initial environment that children learn the deep-structuring potentials, possibilities, and limitations of life that describe their social space. Education within the slave community, however, was diverse and multifaceted. In fact, the education of the bondsman or bondswoman had a unique double character, such that one set of habitus dispositions could actually be diametrically opposed to a second set of dispositions. The education of this bifurcated habitus was homologous with a similarly structured field of power. On the one hand, the large slave owner—a possessor of high economic capital (embodied in property, slaves, and realizable funds in the form of cash crops) and equally high cultural capital (legally white, educated, and well-connected) sought to instill a habitus on the slaves that inculcated two propositions: job training and a willingness to use job skills efficiently (Webber 1978: 26). As ancillary skills, many slaveowners also desired that their slaves be well-versed in obedience and, for house servants, in housekeeping skills as well.

Slaveowning plantation masters valued their slaves for their work abilities and classified them accordingly. Fanny Kemble, an astute observer of plantation social space, made these observations:

Our servants—those who have been selected to wait upon us in the house—consist of a man, who is quite a tolerable cook (I believe this is a natural gift with them, as with Frenchmen); a dairy-woman, who churns for us; a laundry-woman; her daughter, our housemaid, the aftersaid Mary; and two young lads of from fifteen to twenty, who wait upon us in the capacity of footmen. (1863: 22–23)

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