“Weik’s comprehensive survey of the archaeology of freedom represents a critical contribution to African Diaspora studies, and serves as an admirable standard to which future research in this area should strive to achieve.”—Maria Franklin, University of Texas at Austin “Offers a fresh approach to understanding the varied ways in which enslaved people sought freedom.”—Theresa Singleton, Syracuse University In the days of slavery, people of African descent sought to protect their human rights, escape from bondage, and combat exploitation. Their actions varied across different settings and times, and included accommodation, collaboration, autonomy, and militancy. This volume focuses on the evolution of antislavery resistance by examining material culture, documents, oral traditions, and other evidence that illustrate how enslaved people fought for their freedom.Terrance Weik presents readers with case studies accumulated from the material record left by Maroons in the Americas, Black Seminoles, and the Underground Railroad. He specifically highlights the way archaeologists’ contributions have added to our understanding of struggles for freedom from slavery that were pursued by people of the African Diaspora in the Americas and their allies.Weik encourages readers to consider the global dimensions of antislavery resistance as well as issues that continue to spark debate today, including racism, cultural survival, self-determination, and inequality. 

"Matthews has offered a bold new interpretation of the archaeology of capitalism. This book will take historical archaeology in exciting new directions of inquiry."--Charles E. Orser Jr., author of The Archaeology of Race and Racialization in Historic America "Does a very good job making sense of an exceptionally complex scholarship on capitalism that is routinely invoked in historical archaeology. As an introduction to the basic theoretical points in Marxian perspectives on capitalism and the archaeological scholarship that either intentionally or unwittingly borrows from such concepts, this book is a sound primer for undergraduate and graduate students alike."--Paul R. Mullins, author of Race and Affluence Christopher Matthews offers a fresh look at the historic material culture and social meaning of capitalism in this wide-ranging and compelling study. Drawing on archaeological evidence from the colonial period to the modern era and covering sites from New England to California, The Archaeology of American Capitalismis the first comparative treatment in historical archaeology to comprehensively illustrate the development and evolution of capitalism in the United States.Accessible to even the beginning student and organized chronologically, this volume focuses on the material construction of individuals as commodities, the orientation of social life to the market, and grassroots resistance to capitalist culture. Perhaps most intriguing, Matthews identifies the discipline of archaeology as an artifact of capitalism and offers a thoughtful investigation into the ways in which the transformative effects of capitalism determine not only much of the archaeological record, but the pursuit of archaeology itself.

Book Description: "Highly readable but also innovative in its approach to a broad array of material from diverse colonial contexts."--Carolyn White, University of Nevada, Reno   "Loren brings together a sampling of the extensive literature on the archaeology of clothing and adornment to argue that artifacts of the body acquire their meaning through cultural practice...read more