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African earthen structures in colonial Louisiana: architecture from the Coincoin plantation (1787–1816)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Kevin C. MacDonald  and
David W. Morgan
Kevin C. MacDonald
Affiliation:
1UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK (Email: kevin.macdonald@ucl.ac.uk)
David W. Morgan
Affiliation:
2Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service, 2035 E. Paul Dirac Drive, Johnson Building, Suite 120, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA (Email: David_Morgan@nps.gov)
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Coincoin, probably of Kongo parentage, was born a slave, became the concubine of a French planter, Pierre Metoyer, bore him ten children, and in 1787 was settled by him on a plantation of her own. Locating and excavating her house, the authors discovered it to be a type of clay-wall building known from West Africa. The house, together with an adjacent clay boundary wall, was probably built by slaves of Bight of Biafra origin loaned from the neighbouring plantation of her ex-partner. These structures are witness to emerging initiatives and interactions among people of African descent—but different African origins—in eighteenth-century Louisiana.

Keywords

USALouisianaeighteenth centuryearthen architectureplantationsslavery
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 331 , March 2012 , pp. 161 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2012

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