The Archaeology of Texas Freedmen Descendants, Antioch Colony (41HY491)

This thesis presents the results of a ceramic analysis on the ceramic artifacts recovered from the Anderson House site within the larger Antioch Colony Site, a freedmen community established in Buda, Texas shortly after emancipation. Two main research questions were explored. First, I address the depositional history of the site and the formation processes that acted on it. To do this, I conducted a crossmend analysis and ascertained the minimum number of vessel count, and analyzed this evidence within the context of Schiffer’s cultural and environmental formation processes. Second, I discuss the consumer behaviors of the Anderson family and how they relate to the larger consumer culture of the twentieth century. I also discuss how these behaviors are related to their identities as both black and rural consumers. To do this, I analyzed the abundance and variety of artifact types and decorations represented in the ceramic assemblage based off of the MNV analysis, and within the context of the larger consumer culture that characterized American society at large during the first half of the twentieth century.