White columns and black hands: Class and classification in the plantation ideology of the Georgia and South Carolina Lowcountry

Abstract

Social relations on the plantations of the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry were structured by a series of classifications which in turn expressed and codified plantation ideology. Racism, paternalism, and emergent capitalism have all been demonstrated through archaeological investigations as major constellations within this ideological universe. The expression of these social and ideological relations occurred symbolically within the plantations, as evidenced by settlement systems, architecture, and material remains. This ideology was also expressed in the documentary record in the ways in which planters classified their slaves and other social groups. This article considers the archaeology of ideology among the plantations of the Georgia and South Carolina Lowcountry as expressed through symbolization and classification and examines the evolution of plantation ideology from the 17th century to the end of the Antebellum era. It suggests that the social and ideological structure shifted from one based on racial classification to one dependent on labor specialization and social stratification, in response to changes in the Lowcountry’s plantation economy.