Spatial Organization as Management Practice at L’Hermitage Plantation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Excavations at the site of a former plantation, L’Hermitage, on the grounds of the Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland, revealed substantial evidence of domestic structures inhabited by enslaved people in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. An archaeological investigation undertaken by the National Park Service in 2010–2012 additionally indicated that these dwellings were spaced and oriented in a way that reveals careful planning and a focus on order and symmetry. The spatial layout of these quarters in relation to other buildings may reflect the way that slave owners regarded their enslaved workers and strove to exercise control over them. A strict spatial organization ensured that enslaved workers were less likely to gain power and participate in any kind of insurrection. The arrangement of structures at L’Hermitage can be interpreted as a conscious effort on the part of the slaveholders to maintain control and hierarchy on the plantation.