Conference Agenda

The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a keystone project of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority's (CRPAs's) Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, is sited approximately thirty miles downriver of New Orleans, on the right descending bank of the Mississippi River. The Army Corps of Engineers proposed this project in the 1960s as a concept to reconnect the river to the Barataria Basin to sustain and nourish wetlands and the fauna dependent on wetland vegetation. Federal studies over decades reviewed several locations; CPRA's selected location is a sediment-rich bend in the river. The diversion channel will cross the St. Rosalie Plantation Site (16PL107), an abandoned sugar plantation with ante- and post-bellum components. The land encompassing the former plantation had been proposed for industrial development prior to CPRA's project. This paper will present a brief history of the diversion project, previous investigations at 16PL107, and the Section 106 consultation for the Project.

The antebellum history of St. Rosalie plantation presents an intricate socioeconomic tapestry woven with threads of race and class relationships. In many ways, St. Rosalie is typical of Plaquemines Parish settlements before the Civil War, one of several sugar-producing plantations downriver from New Orleans worked by large, enslaved populations. Aspects of its history set St. Rosalie apart from its contemporaries, however, with perhaps the most prominent being its establishment by a free man of color and his bi-racial family.

This paper traces the early history of the St. Rosalie property, from the initial French colonial land purchases, through the early nineteenth century founding of the sugar plantation by Andrew Durnford, to the passing of the land from the Durnford family’s hands during Reconstruction. Recent excavations by Goodwin & Associates provide a small material dataset to examine aspects of life at St. Rosalie during these complex historical periods.

Between 2022 and 2023 Goodwin & Associates completed Phase II and III archaeological investigations at the St. Rosalie Plantation (Site 16PL107) in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Much of these efforts were focused on uncovering the remains of a complex of cabins that were built ca. 1870 to replace earlier cabins abandoned or destroyed during the Civil War, and remained occupied into the 1930s. Portions of eight cabins and a possible multi-use community center were exposed during the field excavations. Residents of the St. Rosalie cabin complex included both formerly enslaved African Americans from St. Rosalie and nearby plantations, as well as a population of recent Italian immigrants. These residents worked for area plantations and for the local railroad.

The combined Phase II and III archaeological investigations of the St. Rosalie Plantation produced upwards of 31,000 historic artifacts reflecting the material culture of the site's inhabitants over a span of roughly 200 years, and most notably from the period spanning Reconstruction until the end of the Great Depression (ca. 1870 to 1940). Artifacts relating to local subsistence practices, military operations, commercial trading, extracurricular activities, and inter-regional connections were recovered and identified during these investigations. This paper highlights some of the more interesting artifacts recovered from the site and discusses their importance for interpreting local history.

“Conjure bottles” are artifacts that relay aspects of a ritual practice born from the overlay of African and Indigenous cultures in North America. While some of these practices may be well understood anthropologically they rarely are reflected clearly in the archaeological record. In 2022-2023, Goodwin & Associates completed Phase II and III archaeological investigations of the St. Rosalie Plantation. During those investigations three bottles were recovered that are believed to represent conjure bottles. This paper will provide an introduction to conjure bottles as an African-American folk practice while providing context from St. Rosalie Plantation and other archaeological sites in North America.

Data recovery investigations by Goodwin & Associates at St. Rosalie sugar plantation uncovered evidence for multiple postbellum cabins, ca. 1870-1940. Historic evidence indicates these cabins were initially occupied by former slaves, though by the early 20th century consisted of a mix of African American and Italian workers. Associated middens, hearths, and pits produced a moderate faunal assemblage that is analyzed here. This paper explores the dietary choices families made with their available wages, particularly within the context of a rural market economy. While the majority of animals recovered were domestic species, families supplemented their meals with shellfish, fish, turtle, alligator, duck, and wild mammals, whether by choice or by necessity. We consider what the combined faunal assemblage indicates for the dietary choices of the community as a whole, as well as whether there is important inter-cabin variation potentially as a result of function, economic variation, and/or culinary preference.

In the search for unmarked historic cemeteries, search and rescue dogs have become an important non-invasive method of investigation. Prior to the Phase III Data Recovery at St. Rosalie Plantation (Site 16PL107), the Louisiana Search and Rescue Dog Team (LaSAR) examined the site and part of the surrounding area for the presence of undocumented human remains at the behest of Goodwin & Associates. This paper will discuss the LaSAR Dog Team’s investigation of St. Rosalie Plantation and provide insight into the training and practical application of search and rescue dogs in the realm of historic archaeology.