History is Lunch: The Archaeology of Enslavement at Prospect Hill

Join the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for their History is Lunch program this Wednesday, April 3 at 12:00 PM CDT. They will be Livestreaming on Facebook and YouTube as well as having an in person program in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Shawn Lambert will present “Around the Big House: Archaeology of Enslavement at Prospect Hill.” Prospect Hill Plantation is an Archaeological Conservancy preserve in Mississippi.

About the presentation:

Traditionally, archaeological investigations of plantations in the southeast concentrated on the big house and paid scant attention to the lives of the sites’ enslaved people. Contemporary efforts have shifted to a broader focus to develop a more holistic framework in historic archaeology. One such project is underway at Prospect Hill Plantation in Jefferson County. The mansion was built for Isaac Ross, who would go on to enslave some 300 people to farm his cotton plantation.

“We are working with diverse communities to better understand the material culture and histories of the ways in which people survived, adapted, and actively resisted displacement and forced labor,” said Shawn Lambert, an assistant professor of archaeology at Mississippi State University. “Objects in contexts of enslaved spaces help us build more complete narratives of the past but are also highly interconnected to the present.”

Lambert led the Prospect Hill public archaeology excavation in the summer of 2023, which centered on a structure that may have served as an enslaved dwelling, kitchen house, or both. Artifacts that were uncovered show the enslaved families used and transformed European-made objects and local animals to continue traditional African practices.

Shawn Lambert is assistant professor of archaeology at Mississippi State University. He earned his BA in anthropology from the University of Alabama and his MA and PhD in anthropology from the University of Oklahoma. Lambert is editor of the Mississippi Archaeology journal.

History Is Lunch is a weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that explores all aspects of the state’s past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson and livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.