Archaeology and the invisible man: the role of slavery in the production of wealth and social class in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, 1820 to 1870

Abstract

In this paper we report the analysis of the economic and social strategies employed by an illiterate farmer in early nineteenth-century Kentucky to increase his wealth and social position using wealth gained from slave labor and possibly from slave breeding. Our analysis demonstrates that the slavery system was completely integrated into the regional capitalist enterprise, and that the same kinds of economic and social factors that motivated other types of entrepreneurs also influenced Enos Hardin to participate in and promulgate slavery. The excavation of the material remains of his farmstead in central Kentucky demonstrates his involvement with the capitalist market, and shows the strategies he used to buy his way into a higher social standing in his community.