Theresan A. Singleton

Professor, Department of Anthropology

Syracuse University

Abstract:

Designating heritage sites related to slavery, as well as African American sites generally, frequently entails conflicts even when these sites are very-well documented, highly significant regionally, or nationally.  While this situation is not unique to African Diaspora, it is a longstanding concern because many properties important to African American communities have not always fit within the select buildings, landscapes, or other cultural materials traditional definitions of heritage considered significant.  Consequently, many potential African American heritage resources have been lost, while many others are endangered due to ongoing processes of displacement, gentrification, and redevelopment.

The Gullah-Geechee are African American communities who live on the coastal areas along a 400-mile (644 km) area from Wilmington, North Carolina, to just south of Jacksonville.  These communities are descendants of the enslaved people who labored primarily on rice plantations. In 2006, the US Congress declared the Gullah-Geechee a Cultural Heritage Corridor “to recognize, sustain and celebrate. . . Gullah Geechee contributions to American Life.”  Despite this goal, some archaeological sites and places of memory important to the Gullah Geechee are vulnerable to loss as heritage resources.  In this lecture, I look at two related sites, the Butler Island Plantation and the” Weeping Time” both which were threatened with redevelopment during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Through community activism, the future protection of both sites as heritage resources of slavery seems promising.