Tara Skipton

This project explores how Black communities in New Orleans’ Plantation Country (aka “Cancer Alley”) have created meaningful relationships with the environment in the wake of slavery and its afterlife. By analyzing antebellum and postbellum archaeological contexts and contemporary oral histories with descendants, this research uses subsistence and building practices as a lens to deeper connections with natural resources and ecosystems. This study relies on Black feminist theory to challenge traditional plantation archaeology as it expands the scale of analysis, emphasizes Black persistence beyond mere resistance, and necessarily incorporates descendant voices. This research situates cultural environments as resources at stake amidst increasing industrialization and environmental pollution.