Excavations at Southall's Quarter took place on a portion of a site that was designated 44JC969. Besides representing a small complex of eighteenth-century slave cabins, Site 44JC969 also includes a brief prehistoric occupation and remnants of a dwelling area dating as far back as the mid- to late seventeenth century. The area for intensive data recovery excavation was limited to the 1.5-acre eighteenth-century portion of the site north of Route 199, where road widening activities would occur. Site 44JC969 is situated on a broad, wooded terrace, less than a mile east of the Colonial National Historical Parkway, at an elevation of 69 feet above mean sea level. The site is bisected by Route 199 along its east-west axis and is cut by Mounts Bay Road near its western edge. The site is generally flat, with a gradual slope from northeast to southwest. More extreme slopes are present just north and south of the Mounts Bay Road/Route 199 intersection. Site soils are part of the Kempsville-Emporia complex (Hodges et al. 1985). The site was covered with mature, secondary-growth, mixed hardwood forest consisting of young and mature oak, pine, poplar, and beech trees. Numerous tree stumps indicated the area had been timbered recently.

Previous Research

Site 44JC969 was identified during an archaeological survey of the Route 199 project area. Based on the initial shovel tests, the site measured about 1,360 × 400 feet. Twenty of the 67 shovel tests excavated within the site contained artifacts, including handmade brick fragments, oyster shell, ceramic sherds (mostly various eighteenth-century types such as white saltglaze stoneware, Staffordshire slipware, Chinese porcelain, tin-enameled earthenware, and creamware), bottle glass, wrought nails, one piece of scrap lead, and prehistoric stone tool-making debris (Higgins and Gray 1997). The archaeological survey findings indicated that the site could be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Given the fact that the site could not be completely avoided by road construction, a more intensive archaeological evaluation was recommended.

During the evaluation, systematic shovel testing and excavation of five larger "test units" in the northern portion of the site that was later subjected to data recovery resulted in the recovery of 343 artifacts, including 333 historic and 10 prehistoric artifacts. The historic-period assemblage included fragmented artifacts dating from the mid- to late eighteenth century. Most abundant were ceramic sherds (106 creamware, 30 coarse earthenware, 12 tin-enameled earthenware, 10 white saltglaze stoneware, seven Chinese porcelain, five pearlware, four English brown stoneware, three Colonoware, three Rhenish blue and gray stoneware, two English porcelain, two miscellaneous refined earthenware, and one Black basalt stoneware) and glass (102 dark green bottle glass, three unidentified colorless glass, two colorless pharmaceutical glass, one blue-green pharmaceutical glass, one green-blue flask glass, one green flask glass, one blue-green bottle glass). Wrought nails, handmade brick, oyster shell, white clay tobacco pipe fragments, door/window hardware, and other miscellaneous items indicated domestic occupation of the northern portion of site during the eighteenth century (Underwood 1999).

One feature, a possible pit or posthole (Feature 1), was identified in test units near the center of the eighteenth-century occupation area north of Route 199. Located approximately 0.8 feet below the surface, Feature 1 measured 1.4 feet east-west × 1.2 feet north-south and was almost circular in shape. Two artifacts, a creamware sherd and a piece of dark green bottle glass, were removed from the loose feature fill after documentation.

Following the evaluation, Site 44JC969 was recommended eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places because of its high research potential, especially for learning about the lives of slaves in this region during the eighteenth century. Because the northern portion of the site could not be avoided by the road widening project, data recovery excavations were conducted.

Data Recovery Excavation Methods

An unusual archaeological aspect of Site 44JC969 was the apparent lack of postoccupational plowing, unlike most relatively level areas throughout the Tidewater region. While the absence of a deep plowzone implies that shallow cultural deposits may retain more archaeological integrity than on a plowed site, it also makes it difficult to distinguish the uppermost deposits of feature fill from the overlying topsoil layers. In the area of Structures 2 and 4, for example, excavation uncovered a large amorphous area with an uneven, gradual transition to the subsoil below. At first this soil deposit was interpreted as a single, broad, shallow depression that had filled with trash during occupation of the site. Later, though, this artifact-rich deposit was found to seal multiple subfloor pit features of various ages as well as other primary structural remains such as hearth and chimney support features. The blanketing cultural deposits likely represent both the debris of daily living (primary occupational deposits) and the decayed remnants of structures.

Once the original grid from the evaluation was reestablished, three block excavations of 6.6 × 6.6 meter (2 × 2 meters) test units were begun. To ensure adequate recovery of artifacts, most soil from test units was screened through 1/4-inch wire mesh. The top two layers, Strata I and II defined during the evaluation, were removed from each unit as a single context. Strata I and II were screened in more than half of the test units; in the remaining units the two upper strata were not screened except for six quarter sections (3.3 × 3.3 feet [1 × 1 meter]). A trench measuring 36 × 6.6 feet (11 × 2 meters) was hand-excavated without screening in an attempt to identify additional features associated with one of the structures at the site (Structure 1). The soil was removed with shovels and the surface troweled to expose any features that might be present.

Features revealed during test unit excavation were investigated following a standardized procedure. Each was first recorded in plan with scale drawings and photographs. In the case of nonlinear features, one half of the feature was excavated, with soil samples retained as warranted. After the cross-section profile was recorded, the other half of the feature was excavated and screened as well. Black-and-white photographs and color slides were taken of all test units, profiles, and excavated features. Natural soil layers were designated with Roman numerals; arbitrary levels within natural strata were designated with lowercase letters (IIa, IVc, etc.).