Parting Ways was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

settlement of

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...

adjacent to present-day Route 80 in

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth (; historically known as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as ...

, near the Plymouth/ Kingston town line. Other names for Parting Ways include the Parting Ways Archeological District and the Parting Ways New Guinea Settlement. It was founded on by four former enslaved people who fought in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

: Cato Howe, Prince Goodwin, Plato Turner, and Quamony Quash and their families. They were granted their freedom by the Massachusetts courts due to their service in the war. The land was granted in 1792 as part of a agreement with the town of Plymouth, that whosoever could clear the land could claim ownership of it. Part of this land was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on April 19, 1979. The site consists of a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

, trash

middens A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofac ...

, and the

foundations Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

of the families' houses. This site was excavated in the middle 1970s by an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

team headed by Dr.

James Deetz James Deetz (February 8, 1930 – November 25, 2000) was an American anthropologist, often known as one of the fathers of historical archaeology. His work focused on culture change and the cultural aspects inherent in the historic and archae ...

, a professor of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and assistant director at

Plimoth Plantation Plimoth Patuxet is a complex of living history museums in Plymouth, Massachusetts, founded in 1947. Formerly Plimoth Plantation, it replicates the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by the English coloni ...

. In the chapter entitled, "Parting Ways," in his 1977 book, ''In Small Things Forgotten'', Deetz demonstrates that 18th and early 19th century African Americans retained certain ethnically-distinctive folkways of African origin. Their houses were arranged in the distinctive

shotgun house A shotgun house is a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than about wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from t ...

style, and their meat was butchered by chopping, whereas their white neighbors butchered by sawing across the bones. Deetz' shotgun house interpretation of the extremely limited evidence - two rooms that "may or may not have been unified" - has been challenged as "premature".

References

External links

See Plymouth page on Parting WaysParting Ways Plymouth - Tribute to Old MuseumFind a Grave site on Parting Ways Cemetery
Historic districts in Plymouth County, Massachusetts African-American history of Massachusetts Archaeological sites in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Plymouth, Massachusetts Populated places in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Populated places established by African Americans Cemeteries in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts {{PlymouthCountyMA-NRHP-stub

See also

References

External links