Uncommon Ground Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800

Winner of the Southern Anthropological Society's prestigious James Mooney Award,Uncommon Groundtakes a unique archaeological approach to examining early African American life. Ferguson shows how black pioneers worked within the bars of bondage to shape their distinct identity and lay a rich foundation for the multicultural adjustments that became colonial America.Through pre-Revolutionary period artifacts gathered from plantations and urban slave communities, Ferguson integrates folklore, history, and research to reveal how these enslaved people actually lived. Impeccably researched and beautifully written.

Leland Ferguson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.