ABSTRACT
The study of slavery has, in recent years, gained valuable new data from anthropologically oriented archeological studies of plantation sites (see Drucker and Anthony 1979; McFarlane 1975; Otto 1975; Singleton 1980). Research on the plantation system of the American South has been subject to the biases inherent in primary source material. Contemporary accounts of the plantation system often suffered from falsification and from the fact that they were told from the perspective of the educated white observer. The later slave narratives suffered from the passage of time and the inability of the informants to recall details of their day-to-day lives. By combining the evidence from the historical accounts and contemporary documentation with that from archaeology, it is hoped that perhaps a more accurate and complete picture of the plantation system is possible.
