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fliii by 9mm Mit-TW PM ^ ^Oi/WP^ 9/6 9^90/ tUm. Academics take a look at legacy of Columbus | THE Af KXTATEP Ttm FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - When it was made a federal holiday 30 year* ago, Columbus Day was meant to celebrate the merging of two culture*. Recently, however, it has come to represent the divisions among American people. Native Americans, for exam ple, protest celebrating an event that led to the demise of many tribes. But the discovery of the New World also resulted in tome remarkable alliances - particularly between American Indians and African slaves, say researchers at the University of Arkansas. While slaves suffered brutal treatment, many Indian tribes teetered on the brink of extinc tion because of European borne disease. The result was a peculiar interplay of flight and capture that bonded the two groups. Michael Hoffman, professor of anthropology at the Univer sity of Arkansas, said native tribes such as the Lumbee of North Carolina, the Mashpee of Cape Cod and the Narra gansett in Rhode Island har bored escaped slaves, offering them freedom from both perse cution and prejudice. "African-Americans escaped slavery in the South, one of the ?* area* where they could find rel ative freedom and egalitarian acceptance waa is the Native American remnant communi ties scattered along the East Coast," be said. "They often ended up living with and mar rying into these tribes." Similar alliance* were formed through tribal raid*. "A* their population* dropped, one way Native Amer ican* tried to replenish their numbers was through kidnap ing," said Elliott West, profes sor of history and author of "The Contested Plains." "Raiding neighbors and ene mies for captive* to integrate into their societies bad been going on for a long time before the Europeans arrived, but it took on a new urgency after wards," he said. Though captives were forced to perform labor and initiallv had limited freedom, they grad ually assimilated to become full and equal members of the tribe, according to West. "Unlike slavery among the Europeans, Native Americans did not have this sort of racial categorization where Africans must remain slaves forever because they were different and inferior," West said. "They were' all potential members of the society." One of the most extensive integrations occurred between Macks and the Seminole tribe of northern Florida. Hoffman has been helping one of his students, Norman Whitfield - a black man with Seminole ancestry - study the ethnic legacy of the alliance. Whitfield ha* found a last ing cultural and biological exchange between the two group*, from the widespread use of cornmeal in African American cuisine to common themes in folklore and dance. He has traced the alliance from its origin in Spanish Florida through relocations to Okla homa. Mexico and, finally, Texas. When the U.S. government demanded that the tribe relin quish slaves to their Mrightful masters." the Seminole* resist ed. "By that time, tome of the family alliances were to inter twined that the Seminolct felt blacks were part of their soci ety," said Whitfield, who credits this tension with starting the Seminole Wart in 1835. "You can tee the problem," We?t taid. "Firtt of all, who't African American? Who't tlave? This rich, complex mix of blood and heritage confuted the ittue. Thete people were family, part of their household, their neighbor!. The govern ment was insisting that they rip that society apart, and they said, 'No, we're not going to do Htff # The result was a series of the most Moody and expensive wars of American history, spanning 10 years. But there is another side. The alliance also resulted in a unique union of the American people, according to Hoffman. It developed a number of groups that people scratch their heads over because they're not black or white or Indian," Hoff man said. "They're cultural and biological mixtures of them all. It helps us think less simplisti cally when we see how compli cated the world population became after Columbus. I think it's been a real creative force." Weft agrees. "If there's a les son here that's really interest ing, it's that, (in) our relations among racial and ethnic groups, this mishmash of cul tures has been far more flexible and diverse than we give it cred it for," he said. "Every one of these peoples considered them selves superior in some way. And yet, out of that common human trait, you find this won derful kaleidoscopic mosaic of . cultural interchange." Archaeological dig uncovers self-sufficiency of slave families , V ' By LINDA WHEELER THE W^Hff?9TPN K?T An archaeological team excavating an old James River plantation in Virginia ha* found evidence that tome enslaved African* partially supported their families with their own gardens and livestock and that they hunted for game and fished the river. They became part of entrepreneurial America, bartering or buying dishes, brads and chil dren's toys The work of the College of William and Mary archaeologist Tom Higgins, supported by similar finds at other Virginia plantations, shatters the long-held belief that all slaves were helpless, dependent people who could do little to care for themselves. "We know now that the people who lived here took the initiative to make their condition better," Higgins said as he walked, along a soybean field where 100 or more slaves had lived on the 2,000-acre Wilton plantation east of Richmond. "They were creative. They found ways to take care of themselves under a brutal and oppressive system." Higgins bases his conclusions on several discoveries made by a team of archaeologists that has been exploring an acre of the farm land since April. The Virginia Department of Transportation hired them to document the area, as required by law, before construction begins on a nine-mile, four-lane state road through the former plan tation. Today, Virginia officials will stand on the site of the slave quarters to announce the start of the road project, Higgins said. Sunday, Higgins spread out a drawn-to-scale map of the area as he sat cross-legged on a new gravel road laid for the ceremony. He pointed to the location of barracks-style housing and adjoining fenced areas, appropriate for penned animals or garden crops. Some slaves were given guns to hunt wildlife, and although Hig gins found no state government permits issued to the African work ers of Wilton, he did find pieces of 18th-century guns buried in the heavy clay along with animal and fish bones. Within the boundaries of what had been lar^e, single-room build ings dating from the 1700s, Higgins found multiple rectangular holes * that had been lined with brick or wood. Similar spaces had been found at the restored Carter Grove plantation near Williamsburg and at Monticello near Charlottesville, he said. A . M rM> I * ? !? ? * ? ? ? A ai wmon, ne iouna live sucn spaces under wnat nad been a slave house that burned to the ground about 1790. So sudden was the destruction that the log walls caved in, the twig and mud chimneys collapsed and the five rectangular holes were buried by the debris. In these spaces, which some historians call root cellars or hidy holes, Higgins found an impressive collection of things that would have been considered special to occupants of the house. On the gravel, he spread out some of his favorite items: the metal part of an oversized hoe, two heavy clothes irons, earth-tone beads, stone marbles, a dozen common pins and a metal thimble. He held up a reconstructed, china chamber pot with graceful blue flowers, blackened at the top by the fire. "It this had been trash, it would have been broken into small pieces," he said. "It would have been trampled and crushed." Higgins's theory about the use of the underground storage areas as places to keep important, personal possessions is supported by the director of archaeology at Monticello, Fraser Neiman. "I like to call them safe-deposit boxes," he said. Neiman said that the "boxes" were first documented about 20 years ago and that historians have had several theories about their use. One theory holds that they were used in the practice of an African custom; another says they were places to hide items stolen from the plantation owner. He discounts both. The "boxes" have been found only in Virginia and not in other slaveholding states. They have been found in con nection with large, single-room slave quarters, but not at excavations of smaller, family-size houses. He said people living communally needed secure places to put their possessions, such as extra food, cash or purchased items. They disappeared from use about 1800 when Virginia plantation owners built individual houses that offered a little more security for personal possessions, he said. The opulent Wilton mansion had eight rooms paneled entirely in elaborately cut pine. The furnishings were from France and England. The Marquis de Lafayette made Wilton his headquarters during the Revolutionary War, and George Washington was a frequent visi tor. Built between 1750 and 1753, the Georgian house was home to William Randolph III, his wife Anne Carter Harrison and their eight children. Eventually, high debts forced the sale of the plantation in 18S9 to buyers outside the family. By 1932, it was used to store hay. Then the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America purchased Wilton and had it dismantled, moved and reconstructed in west Rich mond as its headquarters. It is open to the public for tours. Wilton House Museum administrator Sylvia Evans said the group would like to exhibit the artifacts found by the Higgins team as a way to acknowledge the role played by the slaves at the plantation. "These are the silent voices of history," she said. The Chronicle's e-mail address is: wschron@netunlimited.net Don't Read this Ad. "Because If you take Time Warner Cable up on their special limited time offer, I could soon be serving time that's J not so Knitted." / And what's our offer that Muggs/s so worried about? 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