Date of Award

Spring 5-2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Historical Archaeology

First Advisor

Daniela Balanzátegui

Second Advisor

Dennis M. Piechota

Third Advisor

Nedra K. Lee

Abstract

Tabby is a building material made from lime, sand, oyster shell, and water that is geographically associated with the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. This material was used from the early 18th century to end of the American Civil War to construct all-manner of buildings in the Sea Islands region. Enslaved African descendant communities constructed wattle and tabby daub dwellings within plantation landscapes, and these settlements are interpreted as spaces where enslaved people exercised greater spatial autonomy.

This thesis analyzes the remains of a wattle and tabby daub structure located on what was once Old Fort Plantation in Port Royal, South Carolina. The chaîne opératoire of wattle and tabby daub is investigated to examine the procurement of raw materials and the investment of time and labor into the structure’s construction. Visual analysis, petrographic thin sections, binder-aggregate separation, and sieve testing were used to explore the composition and physical properties of the tabby daub, offering insight into how the wattle and tabby daub structure was created by Old Fort Plantation’s enslaved community. The interpretation of these results indicates the plantation’s enslaved community utilized their knowledge of tabby-making, despite limitations over time and labor, to create of a sense of place within the plantation’s landscape as part of a broader strategy of resistance to planter hegemony. Such strategies were integral to the formation of the Gullah Geechee, the modern descendants of enslaved African Americans that lived and labored on the plantations of the South Carolina and Georgia coast.

Comments

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