MATERIAL CULTURE AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY AT THE HERMITAGE

in this article, artifacts excavated from 19th-century African-America n contexts at the Hermitage plantation near Nashville, Tennessee, are examined in light of their possible use in religious ritual, tradition al healing, and other behaviors related to spirituality. While specifi c spiritual behaviors cannot be determined from the Hermitage archaeol ogical and documentary record, the presence of a distinct African-Amer ican belief system at the Hermitage is suggested through comparison of selected artifacts from the Hermitage assemblage with various histori cal, folkloric, and archaeological sources. This belief system and its associated behaviors may have aided African Americans in achieving li mited social and economic autonomy within the system of plantation sla very.