Memory, Race, and Place

Historical archaeologists are increasingly studying the formation, operation, and maintenance of racial groups in the past and the ways in which individual memories are transformed into shared social memories through the acts of remembering, forgetting, and imagining. Drawing on historical and archaeological data and oral history, this paper considers the intersection of race, landscape, and memory at archaeological sites throughout the American South, including Poplar Forest, a plantation located in Virginia’s western piedmont. These studies illustrate how memory and race intersected throughout physical and social landscapes. The discussion is grounded in the belief that changing physical landscapes structure and reflect negotiations of race and inform historical memory.