A Chesapeake Family and their Slaves

Analysing the material remains left by Maryland’s colonists in the eighteenth century in conjunction with historical records and works of art, archaeologists have reconstructed the daily life of the aristocratic British family of the governor of Maryland. In this large household people from different cultures interacted, and English and West African lifestyles merged. Using this fascinating case-study, Anne Yentsch illustrates the way in which historical archaeology draws on different disciplines to interpret the past.