ABSTRACT
Perhaps the most perplexing problem confronting investigators of plantation archaeology, particularly of slave sites, is the difficulty in the identification of an antebellum versus a postbellum deposition. This problem has been mentioned in several studies within this volume, and it is also an important research consideration in the study of other aspects of Afro-American material culture (McDaniel 1982:135–137; Vlach 1978:4–5). Yet the fact that slaves and freedmen contexts are almost indistinguishable has been a significant finding of plantation archaeology as it points to a continuity of Afro-American material life, a consequence conditioned by poverty.
