The Archaeology of Diet

The have been numerous archaeological investigations at Gunston Hall and Mount Vernon. This research helps better pinpoint how enslaved people fed themselves and supplemented their meager diet. The enslaved communities supplemented their rations of fish, cornmeal, pork, and beef by hunting deer, various other small animals, birds, raising chickens, and by fishing. These similarities were the same between Gunston Hall and Mount Vernon. The evidence from Gunston Hall was found in sub-floor pits inside the slave dwellings where archaeologists found an abundance of bones and teeth from the various game animals and small mammals. The pits are common in slave dwellings were used to store food, personal items, and ritual items. Sometimes the pits served as shrines. A few pieces of egg shell were also found there.1[]

At Mount Vernon cow and pig bones were found, as well as the bones of wild fowl and animals like deer, squirrels, rabbits, and opossums. A few pieces of eggshells were found at Mount Vernon as well with the bones of young chickens also being discovered. One difference between the plantations is that cow bones weren’t found at the sub-floor pits where slaves were living and the proportion of beef at Mount Vernon being unusually high.[2]

The fish enslaved people ate were far less desirable than the fish the landowners ate and both plantations operated fisheries that they used a portion of to feed their slaves. Fishbones, scales, and spines were the most abundant artifacts found at the Gunston Hall sub-floor pits with the appearance of gar scales being particularly significant. These are very rare at the Gunston mansion kitchen yard deposits but were frequently at the slave sub-floor pits.[3] Gar was found at Mount Vernon as well.[4]

Another interesting discovery at Gunston and Mount Vernon was the presence of lead shot. Many pieces of birdshot and a few pieces of buckshot were found at Gunston Hall and this is consistent with archaeological findings at Mount Vernon. Gun flints were also recovered from the Mount Vernon cellar and gun parts have also been found at other sites occupied by slaves, so it is reasonable to assert that slaves were using the firearms to hunt. It is well documented that slaves at Mount Vernon hunted for Washington, however, the prevalence of bones from wild animals suggests that slaves had more access to guns than previously thought. Although slaves hunting is less documented at Gunston the presence of these artifacts suggests that some of Mason’s slaves were allowed to use guns for hunting. Of course, there are other options slaves had and could have set up traps for animals which wouldn’t have left much archaeological evidence due to the materials they are made out of.[5][6]

1. David Shonyo, “Archaeological Investigations at Gunston Hall Plantation: Report on 2013 Activities,” (Gunston Hall Plantation 2014), 23-25.

2. Dennis J. Pogue, “Slave Lifeways at Mount Vernon: An Archeological Perspective,” (Mount Vernon Ladies Association 1995), 10-11.

3. Shonyo, “Archaeological Investigations at Gunston Hall Plantation: Report on 2013 Activities.” 25.

4. Pogue, “Slave Lifeways at Mount Vernon: An Archeological Perspective,” 10.

5. Shonyo, “Archaeological Investigations at Gunston Hall Plantation: Report on 2013 Activities.” 25.

6. Pogue, “Slave Lifeways at Mount Vernon: An Archeological Perspective,” 11-12.