Date of Award
5-31-2026
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Historical Archaeology
First Advisor
Dr. Nedra Lee
Second Advisor
Dr. David Landon
Third Advisor
Dr. Stephen Mrozowski
Abstract
Sylvester Manor, a provisioning plantation in Long Island, New York, was established in 1652 and sent foodstuffs to two Barbadian sugar plantations until 1693. After provisioning ceased, Sylvester Manor’s agricultural production declined but continued to produce commodities for subsistence and for the market into the mid-18th century. Excavations in the formal garden area revealed rich deposits from the late 17th century, when it was a large-scale corporate provisioning plantation, and its transition to a medium-scale colonial plantation in the early to mid-18th century, an understudied period in the Manor's history. Zooarchaeological remains comprise one of the largest artifact classes at Sylvester Manor and have provided abundant archaeological information on food production in both domestic and agricultural contexts. This thesis examines the faunal assemblage from the formal garden area to understand how animal husbandry evolved over time. The garden excavations included the discovery of a pit feature, which was compared with significant faunal features from various previously excavated site areas at Sylvester Manor. Although the productive scale declined over time, Sylvester Manor continued to depend on enslaved Africans and local Indigenous people for domestic and agricultural labor. Amongst changes in household and commercial agricultural production, the use of enslaved people provides insight into the evolving racialization of chattel slavery in New York and globalized merchant capitalism. This research demonstrates how analyzing animal husbandry provides a means to assess domestic and commercial production that informed daily plantation life from the 17th through 18th centuries at Sylvester Manor.
Recommended Citation
Dealtour, Kristen M., "Slaughter and Slavery: Animal Husbandry and Plantation Production at Sylvester Manor, Long Island, NY" (2026). Graduate Masters Theses. 949.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/masters_theses/949
Comments
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