The Free Cabim Site (9RI1036): Archaeological Examination of a Postbellum Tenant Occupation Near Hephzibah

This report presents the results of data recovery excavations at 9Ri 1036 in Richmond County, Georgia. The site consists of a standing single pen cabin, a ruined burned structure, and a privy. The site appears to have been occupied between the 1870s and the 1960s by African-American tenant farmers. The excavations recovered evidence of a root pit/cellar, fence lines, shallow circular pits, and a work station where cooking, preserving, hog scalding, laundering, and other activities occurred. The artifacts and architecture indicate that the occupants were poor and relied heavily on home grown produce and livestock for food. They also grew fruits and collected berries and herbs from the wild. It appears that the landscape changed through time. Early on the yards were most likely bare dirt which were swept of garbage. By the early half of the twentieth century the front yard of the standing cabin was planted in an ornamental ground cover. By mid century a nearby plowed field was abandoned, perhaps due to greater access to markets at this time. An outhouse was then constructed in this location. Disassembly of the standing cabin revealed that the structure was framed with salvaged timbers from a much older building. Notching and peg holes were evident as well as adze marks. The flooring and siding is relatively modern. Examination of areas behind walls, adjacent to doorways, and under the floor yielded no evidence of ritualistic activities such as has been recognized at several sites in Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina. The work at 9Ri1036 also experimented with the use of Oxidized Carbon Ratio (OCR) dating methods on late historic sites. The results were quite positive and indicates that they may be worth collecting, particularly when the other temporal indicators are not very sensitive or are absent. OCR may also be useful in successfully identifying early contexts that are swamped by later materials. Although the method is somewhat controversial, it is relatively inexpensive, and can be used with other lines of evidence to date contexts within a site.