Rubble Along the Road: Determining the Function and Date of Occupation for a Structure on Orton Plantation

Abstract

There is little known about the daily lives of the enslaved and tenant farming African Americans who lived in the Lower Cape Fear region of North Carolina during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Even on the larger plantations in the region, the locations of their communities are often unknown. A combination of historical research and archaeological investigation was used to gain more insight into the use and dates of occupation of a structure on Orton Plantation, focusing on an area previously identified as a 19th century African American community. The structure excavated during the 2018 University of North Carolina Wilmington archaeological field school was occupied between the late antebellum period and the early 20th century, and was a cabin occupied by enslaved/tenant farming African Americans. Following the structure's identification, an effort was made to reconnect the names of African American individuals who once lived on or near Orton Plantation with three historic communities in the area. These communities were historically known as Dark Branch, Marsh Branch, and Orton. Now that physical evidence of the community at Orton, which was suggested to exist in the historical record, has been found archaeologically, further research questions can be explored surrounding aspects of the African American experience in this region during and directly after the end of slavery.