Early North American plantations were not confined to places south of the Mason-Dixon Line. In the mid-Atlantic region, where fertile farmland and deep-water ports provided complementary economic engines, agricultural estates exploiting coerced labor grew in close proximity to urban centers where Northern and Southern interests co-mingled. This conference seeks to understand the distinctive qualities of plantation complexes in the middle colonies and new states while also comparing them to better-known Southern institutions and situating them within the larger contexts of the British Atlantic and the United States.
This conference brings academics, public historians, museum professionals, and others together to examine the phenomenon of mid-Atlantic plantations through interdisciplinary lenses. Scholars will bring their varied backgrounds and research findings to discussions of economic, familial, and religious networks; slavery, indenture, and free labor; land ownership and land development; agriculture, architecture, and spatial relationships; and the construction of gendered and racial categories on mid-Atlantic plantations.
| Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |
| 4:00 – 4:30 p.m. | Registration |
| 4:30 – 4:45 p.m. |
Welcome |
| 4:45 – 6:00 p.m. |
Roundtable: What is a Mid-Atlantic Plantation? |
| 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. | Reception |
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McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 3355 Woodland Walk (34th and Sansom Streets), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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| 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. | Registration & Coffee |
| 9:00 – 9:15 a.m. |
Welcome |
| 9:15 – 10:45 a.m. |
Four Mid-Atlantic Plantations? Chair and Comment: Leslie M. Harris, Northwestern University Joel T. Fry, Bartram’s Garden Gregory Hargreaves, University of Delaware Laura Keim, Stenton Museum and Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, University of Pennsylvania Melissa Morris, University of Wyoming |
| 10:45 – 11 a.m. | Break |
| 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. |
Trans-Plantations Chair and Comment: Matthew Mulcahy, Loyola University Maryland Jennifer Anderson, Stony Brook University Jason Daniels, Black Hills State University Max Grivno, University of Southern Mississippi |
| 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. |
Lunch (on your own) |
| 1:45 – 3:15 p.m. |
Labor and Laborers Chair and Comment: Justin Roberts, Dalhousie University Elsa Mendoza, Georgetown University Lorena Walsh, Independent Scholar |
| 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. | Presentation and Discussion: The Penn & Slavery Project |
| 4:30 – 4:45 p.m. | Break |
| 4:45 – 6:00 p.m. |
Presentation: Tales from Three Plantations Chair and Moderator: Lu Ann De Cunzo, University of Delaware Michael J. Gall, Richard Grubb & Associates Gloria Henry and Vertie Lee, John Dickinson Plantation, Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs Gregory R. Weidman, Hampton National Historic Site New Light on Hidden Lives: Recent Discoveries on Enslavement and Freedom at Maryland’s Hampton Plantation |
| 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. | Reception |
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Stenton Museum, 4601 N. 18th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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| 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. | Registration and Coffee |
| 9:30 – 9:45 a.m. |
Welcome |
| 9:45 – 11:15 a.m. |
Town and Country Anne-Claire Faucquez, University Paris VIII Craig Hollander, The College of New Jersey and Francesca Paldino, Rutgers University-Camden Catharine Dann Roeber, Winterthur and University of Delaware |
| 11:15 – 11:30 a.m. | Break |
| 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. |
Landscapes of Power Laura E. Masur, Catholic University of America Andrea Mosterman, University of New Orleans |
| 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. |
Lunch (provided) |
| 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. |
Lives of the Enslaved Sean Condon, Merrimack College Kyle Repella, University of Pennsylvania Michelle Diane Wright, Community College of Baltimore Country |
| 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. | Reception |