Date: Apr 30, 2008

Hofstra Team Returns to Lloyd Manor in June to Continue Slave Quarters Dig

Excavation, part of "Captivity and Community in Early African American New York" course, uncovered foundation last summer

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY – For the second summer, a team headed by Hofstra Anthropology Professors Chris Matthews, Ph.D. and Jenna Coplin, will excavate a Lloyd Harbor site believed to contain the remains of an 18th century slave quarter.

In 2007 students from Hofstra and other colleges uncovered foundations of the slave quarter as well as many 18th century artifacts such as dishes, bottles, and animal bones that were left behind. The excavation will resume on June 2. The dig is part of a summer course, "Captivity and Community in Early African American New York," which runs through July 18. The site and Joseph Lloyd Manor, a historic house museum house built in 1767, are both owned by the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, which invited Profs. Matthews and Coplin and their team to conduct the dig.

Dr. Matthews believes that the slave quarter may have housed as many as 10 enslaved persons. This is one of the first archeological studies of a slave quarter in New York State, according to Dr. Matthews. Research this summer seeks to uncover large sections of the house foundation to reconstruct the lives of those who occupied the quarter. This allows for an examination of the site for signs of African heritage, information about community and family formation as well as communication with the larger enslaved African community on Long Island.

Lloyd Manor is already well known as the residence of Jupiter Hammon, one of the first published African American poets, who was born a Lloyd family slave in 1711 and died about 1800. Hammond’s writings addressed other African Americans and drew on Christian theology to challenge the injustices of slavery.

For more information or to sign up for the June 2-July 18, 2008 course, contact Dr. Matthews at (516) 463-4093 or anthlab@hofstra.edu.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from about 145 undergraduate and 155 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law.

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