Slavery in the Age of Reason: Archaeology at a New England Farm

Isaac Royall (1677-1739) was the largest slave owner in Massachusetts in the mid-eighteenth century, and in this book the Royal family and their slaves become the central characters in a compelling cultural-historical narrative. Alexandra A. Chan explores landscapes and artifacts discovered at the site not just as inanimate objects or "cultural leftovers," but rather as physical embodiments of the assumptions, attitudes, and values of the people who built, shaped, and used them. This book puts to rest any lingering myth that the peculiar institution was nay less harsh or complex when found in the North.