ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how black Californians resisted and coped with the difficulties of everyday life, and worked together for common goals in the context of pervasive racism. Not surprisingly, most archaeological work has concentrated on the lives of people under slavery. The relatively small number of archaeological investigations of black urban sites in the West is a function more of the lack of opportunity than of interest. The archaeological study of African Americans began in the context of the civil rights movement, the New Social History, and the call for ethnic inclusiveness that accompanied the United States bicentennial. African-American dressmakers commonly reproduced stylish European fashions for their mistresses with only a picture to guide them. This chapter presents the case study of Thomas Cook who travelled to Canada just prior to the Civil War. Barbers and dressmakers were the elite among those enslaved in the South.
