African American Archaeology in Philadelphia

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This is an evolving list of resources related to African American Archaeology in Philadelphia found elsewhere on the PAF website that is reproduced here, altogether, in one list. Please check back for new information.

The Archaeological Journey Researching James Oronoco Dexter

James Oronoco Dexter was a free African American coachman who lived in colonial Philadelphia. He was one of the founding members of the first, autonomous, free black churches in the United States. In 2003, archaeologists excavated the site of the home Dexter lived in, with his family, in the 1790’s. The site of the home is now located under the bus depot at the National Constitution Center, near 5th and Arch streets, within the boundaries of Independence National Historical Park. Learn about the excavation and the interpretation research related to James Dexter here and here…

President’s House Site: Uncovering the Past Through Archaeology

From 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia, served as the capital of the United States of America. During this period, a property in the center of the city was rented to serve as the executive residence and office—the equivalent of today’s White House. Most of President George Washington’s first term of office, and all of his second term, was spent at this property. Washington brought nine enslaved persons from his private plantation home in the Commonwealth of Virginia to the new Executive Mansion (‘the people’s house’.) In 2007, an archaeological excavation explored the site and  the findings helped elucidate what life was like for both the enslaved and the free members of the household. Read the final archaeological report here…

Queen Village Weccacoe Park and the Bethel Burying Ground Project

Archaeologists from URS Corporation conducted exploratory excavations designed to determine the depth and location of any burials without distributing or removing any burial remains. Archaeological reports, a video, and a list of news coverage of the Bethel Burial Ground can be found here: 

Finding Reverend Stephen Gloucester

Presbyterian minister Stephen Gloucester spent his childhood as a slave and the rest of his life fighting for civil rights for African Americans. He founded Lombard Street Central Presbyterian at 834 Lombard Street in 1844. When he died in 1850, he was buried adjacent to the Church and the congregation erected a tall, marble monument to honor his memory. After the congregation moved to Powelton Avenue in1939, the Gloucester’s sanctuary and his resting place with its monument became lost to memory. His grave was rediscovered in 2008 during work to turn the church building into a private residence. The articles below tell the history of the husband-and-wife team of developers and the two archaeologists and an anthropologist who found Gloucester’s remains in front of the white, Greek Revival church he long ago founded  (WHYY at http://Finding Reverend Gloucester), Final resting place for Rev. Gloucester (PlanPhilly at https://whyy.org/articles/4769/)

Archaeology Supports African American History As American History

This on-line illustrated essay discusses two African American artifacts excavated from the city of Philadelphia that are now prominently featured in  permanent exhibit at the National Constitution Center (NCC). Read the essay here…

Digging Up the Past: An Exhibit Review

This review presents an archaeological perspective on the First African Baptist Church Burial Grounds exhibit at the African American Museum of Philadelphia. Read here...

“Resilient Lives”: The President’s House Site and Cheyney University 

Cheyney alumni played a central role in the civic actions that forced Independence National Historical Park  to include a more complete and truthful narrative in their public interpretations about the birth of the American nation at the site of the President’s House. This small, temporary, display mounted in 2018 in the CU Leslie Pickney Hill Library  shined a light on the role of Cheyney alumni who fought for a commemoration of the enslaved who once lived at the site, and it presents recent and current student activities educating the public about this site, demonstrating how Cheyney educated citizens are ‘making history’. See the display elements here…

Cheyney University Students present African American Archaeology at the 2010 Black History Showcase

A report on the first (of 9) times that students and faculty from Cheyney University teamed with a National Park Service archeologist to present information about cutting edge, Philadelphia-area, African American archaeology. Read the report here…

First African Baptist Church Burial Ground Excavations

In 1990, an archeological project took place at Tenth and Vine Streets in Philadelphia at the site of a former cemetery used by the First African Baptist Church between 1810 and 1822. The excavation of the cemetery and subsequent laboratory analysis was performed as part of the Vine Expressway (I-676) Construction Project, undertaken by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. Learn about the project in this report summary.

Colonoware in Philadelphia

In early 2001, archaeologists working at the site where the National Constitution Center [NCC] now stands, between Arch and Race Streets and Fifth and Sixth Streets in Independence National Historical Park, made an unusual find. At the bottom of a privy pit (outhouse), amid a layer of other household trash deposited during the mid to late 18th Century, were fragments of a simple, nondescript, cooking pot. colonware was produced primarily by Africans and African Americans. The colonware pot fragments identified in 2001, and other fragments recovered nearby from the NCC Site excavations, form an extraordinary find because they are the first examples of colonoware found in Philadelphia. Learn more here…

Award Winning, 3D Model of the James Dexter House Archaeological Site

Learn about a digital 3D model created to help  interpret the James Dexter House archaeological site in Independence National Historical Park. James Dexter was a resident of early Philadelphia. Born into slavery, Dexter ultimately bought his freedom, as well as the freedom of his wife. In the 1790’s, Dexter was working as a coachman and living with his family near the corner of today’s 6th and Arch Streets. He was also active in Philadelphia’s free African community.

  • Heritage West: The West Philadelphia Community Archaeology Project Learn about  multi-year community archaeology and heritage program developed in partnership with the People’s Emergency Center CDC, the Black Bottom Tribe Association, and University City Arts League here and here   

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