Archaeological and Archival Investigations at the Deepstep A.M.E. Church Cemetery

This is the final report concerning the excavation of an abandoned cemetery south of Deepstep, Georgia. The study was sponsored by Engelhard Corporation prior to mining kaolin beneath the cemetery. Initial field observations conducted over a year ago concluded that a minimum of 67 graves were present (Gresham 1991), and archival research (Wood 1992) determined that at least some of the people buried there were members of the Deepstep A.M.E. Church, established around the turn of the century and abandoned in the 1920s. Archival research also suggested that the property was part of the Daniel H. Tucker plantation during the mid nineteenth century, and subsequently was owned by Tucker's son, Mack Tucker, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During the current phase we located and excavated 79 burials which were reinterred on a small hilltop adjacent to Mack Tucker Road, about a half mile west of the original location. About half of the burials were indeed the former members of Deepstep A.M.E. Church, but the remainder were older, presumably dating from about 1860 to the turn of the century. The main findings are presented below. Figure 1 is a map showing the location of the 79 burials within the cemetery. The majority of the graves were evident from surface inspection: although no grave markers survived (wooden markers formerly were present) linear depressions could be seen. The other graves were discovered by archeological techniques. Basically, this entailed the removal of trees, stripping about 40 - 50 cm of topsoil with a bulldozer, then using a motor grader to leave a clean surface. The remaining graves were easily seen as rectangular patches of mottled soil intruding into yellowish gray subsoil. A backhoe removed most of the overburden at each grave, then hand excavation exposed the coffin outlines and skeletal remains. The archeologists closely monitored the backhoe cuts and used probes to establish the depth of the grave shafts. The bottoms of the graves were very compact, and it was easy to determine their depths. Hand excavation entailed the use of shovels, trowels, and whisk brooms. In many cases no skeletal material survived the acidic soil conditions. Following excavation, notes about each burial were jotted down, selected graves were photographed, then the skeletal material, clothing related artifacts, coffin nails and other items were carefully removed and placed in small (2 x 1.5 x 3 ft) plywood boxes with lids. If no bone survived, the soil at the bottom of the grave was scooped out and placed in the new boxes. At the end of each day these were taken to the new site and reburied.