Tiffiny A. Tung

This project examined how the institution of slavery shaped health, diet, foodways, forced relocations, and communal-making among enslaved individuals in 19th century Tennessee. The research involved the integrated analysis of documents, archaeological data, stable isotope and strontium and lead data, and oral histories from descendants of the last known free Black family at Grassmere. The burials were accidentally uncovered during construction. In consultation with the presumed descendant families, the research was conducted, and all individuals were reinterred during a ceremony at the site. Results show that 20 coffin burials included ten infants/children, one adolescent, and nine adults (four males; five females, one of whom was pregnant), but archival documents state there were 33 enslaved individuals there in the 1830s. Six AMS dates suggest two temporal groupings: 17th-18th century and early 19th century, but documents and artifacts undergird only the 19th century chronology. Isotope studies show that the infants/children were born and raised at Grassmere, and high stable nitrogen isotope values from infants suggest that they were still breastfeeding at the time of their deaths. At least three adult females and two males were non-local, indicating that they were forcibly brought to Grassmere later in life, further revealing the practice of separating enslaved families. Lead isotope data hint at the possibility that there were two groups who engaged in different activities on the plantation, and dietary isotope data suggest that the majority of each subgroup also had distinct plant-based diets. The spatial layout of the cemetery shows that they buried these groups with shared experiences together, but all were interred in a communal cemetery, creating kin and community in the face of an inhumane institution that routinely ripped families apart. Funerary traditions in which some infants were buried with blue glass beads and a mold for producing the beads, reveals the way mourners enacted the developing traditions of the African diaspora and expressed cultural ties to Ghana.