Bowles' Lot

Overview

Bowles’ Lot (44AB374) is an archaeological site located within “Free State,” a post-Emancipation African-American rural community in Albemarle County, Virginia. The site lies within the boundaries of a 224-acre parcel purchased in 1788 by Amy Bowles Farrow, a free woman of color, and represents the primary residential locus of multiple descendent generations of Bowles into the 20th century.

Archaeological and historical interest in Free State arose during development of the Dunlora subdivision, which began in the mid-1990s, and ultimately extended across roughly two-thirds of the area of the by then largely abandoned community. In 2000 and 2001, the Albemarle County Planning Commission was informed of the potential historical significance of the Free State area by a group of local historians and archaeologists (Preservation Piedmont 2001).  Local testimony associated the Free State community with newly emancipated slaves during the late 19th century; however, documentary research revealed that much of the area was owned and occupied by free African-Americans beginning as early as the mid-18th century (Bob Vernon, cited in ACPC 2001). Although one historic cemetery was relocated during the development of Dunlora, the subdivision was constructed without prior archaeological investigation and documentation (although portions of the area had been previously surveyed in association with planned road construction). Plans to develop the neighboring Belvedere subdivision rekindled interest in property, and newly adopted ordinances allowed County administrators to request that archaeological studies and other efforts at impact mitigation be undertaken prior to development. An initial reconnaissance survey of the Belvedere tract concluded that Bowle’s Lot (44AB374), together with four other sites (44AB510, 44AB511, 44AB513), were eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (Underwood et al. 2004:34).

In 2005, Rivanna Archaeological Services conducted an intensive Phase I archaeological survey over 30 acres that represented the area of overlap between the planned Belvedere subdivision and the remaining core area of the historic Free State community.  Phase I survey identified a series of seven sites, most of which date to the late 19th-early 20th century and are associated with the post-Emancipation community known as Free State. Eventually, clearing of undergrowth and modern trash also revealed the location of an abandoned and “lost” cemetery associated with the Bowles family suspected on the basis of oral history and documentary evidence to have been in the area (Thompson 2005, 2006a).

In 2006, Phase II survey confirmed that the Bowles’ Lot (44AB374) was a multi-component site with three residential occupations, one of which may have been the residential locus of the first free African-Americans to occupy the large property (possibly including Amy Farrow, Zachariah Bowles and/or Critta Hemings Bowles), and the Bowles Family Cemetery (Thompson 2006b). In 2007, Phase III data recovery excavations focused particularly on the site’s earliest residential component (Thompson 2010; Figure 1). While the Bowles Family Cemetery has been preserved in place, following completion of Phase III excavations the remainder of Bowles’ Lot, Site 44AB374, was developed.

Documentary Evidence

Bowles’ Lot lies within the 224-acre property that Amy Farrow, purchased in 1788 from William Johnson (ACDB 9:451). Although many details regarding her ancestry remain uncertain, documentary sources indicate that Amy Farrow was a freeborn woman of color. When precisely she arrived in the area is not known, however, various lines of evidence indicate that she was resident in Albemarle County, perhaps as much as ten years prior to her purchase of property in 1788. Among Amy Farrow’s offspring was Thomas Farrow, Jr., child of her marriage with Thomas Farrow, Sr. (died 1778; ACWB 2:365), as well as at least four children, presumably from an earlier union, with the surname Bowles (Lucy, Zachariah, Martha, Susy/Susannah). From her initial inclusion in 1782 or 1783, Amy Farrow was listed consistently in Albemarle County’s personal property tax records until 1797, the year of her death. In addition to her livestock, Amy Farrow typically was taxed on one and sometimes two (1790, 1794) free males over 16 years of age. In her will, dated October 21, 1797, Amy Farrow bequeathed her 224-acre property “…to my two sons Zacariah Bowls and Thomas Farrow [Jr.] to be equally divided between them giving Zacariah Bowls the first choice and Thomas Farrer the remainder” (ACDB 4:14). Road orders for clearing and maintenance of an early precursor to present-day Rio Road suggest strongly that between 1795 and 1809 a number of Farrow’s children and in-laws were resident on or near the property (Thompson 2005 citing Pawlett 1975).

By 1835, distribution and sale of the property over subsequent generations resulted in the reduction of Farrow’s original acreage to approximately 90 acres owned by Zachariah Bowles. His wife, Critta Hemings Bowles (1769-1850), was the daughter of Jefferson’s slave Betty Hemings and sister of Sally Hemings. She lived at Monticello from about 1775 until 1827.

For some period of time, Critta Hemings was an enslaved nursemaid to Thomas Jefferson’s grandchildren in Chesterfield County (Stanton 2000). One of those grandchildren, Frances Wayles Epps, purchased her freedom of $50 in 1827.  After her emancipation, she joined Zachariah at the Bowles property. A surveyor’s plat of Samuel Carr’s Dunlora estate prepared in 1844 clearly depicts a 93.5-acre “Bolls’ Lot” within the center of Carr’s 1056.25-acre property. When Critta died in 1850 (ADWB 20:144), Zachariah’s estate passed fully to his nephews Stephen and Peter Bowles.

Documents recording the division of William S. Dabney’s estate, owner of Dunlora estate in the 1850s, and the subsequent sale of small parcels by his heirs through the 1870s and 1880s contain the earliest known uses of the name Free State. By the turn of the century, this toponym seems to have come into common usage. There can be no doubt, however, that the post-bellum and early-20th-century community of Free State had its origins in the nearly 100-acre African-American freehold called Bowles’ Lot in an 1844 survey (Figure 2) and wholly encircled by the lands of the Carr/Dabney Dunlora estate. Between 1870 and 1920, the Free State community expanded both demographically and geographically and clearly was one of the focal points in Albemarle County for the late 19th-early and 20th-century rise in African-American ownership of typically small parcels of rural land. The configuration of the increasingly fragmented holdings within the Free State community and its expansion to the west and north at the end of the 19th century is illustrated in Figure 3. A total of 13 African-American households comprised of a total of 56 individuals can be identified in the Free State area in the 1910 census, indicating a roughly 50% decline in the size of the community since 1900. The process of outmigration of African-American families and their gradual replacement with white households continued through the middle of the 20th century.

Excavation history, methods, and procedures

1988 John Milner and Associates

Site 44AB374 first was identified in 1988 during a Phase I archaeological survey carried out by John Milner and Associates (JMA) for the Virginia Department of Transportation (Stevens and Siefert 1990; Thompson 2005). The site appears to have been identified primarily on the basis of standing architectural remains – in particular, a two-story frame dwelling recorded as 002-171 – in addition to extensive surface artifacts, various landscape modifications, and oral testimony of the apparently recent demolition of a log cabin within the yard area of the extant standing structure. Artifact and contextual data from these excavations is not currently available.

2001, 2003 William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research

In 2001, the William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research (WMCAR) conducted Phase I archaeological survey over an area of 2.6 acres approximately 300 ft southeast of the eastern end of Free State Road that was slated for residential development. This fieldwork identified two archaeological sites (44AB479, 44AB480) with late-19th- and 20th-century components (Higgins and Lewes 2001).  The WMCAR Phase I study determined that 44AB479 was potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places because of its probable association with the Free State African-American community.  In late 2003, Site 44AB374 was revisited and briefly investigated by WMCAR during a reconnaissance-level cultural resources survey. Neither intensive surface reconnaissance nor the opportunistically placed shovel tests excavated in this southeastern half of the site revealed any indication of a cemetery, and only a single piece of prehistoric lithic (quartz) debitage and a fragment of 20th-century ceramic were encountered.

2005 – 2007 Rivanna Archaeological Services

In January and February 2005, Rivanna Archaeological Services carried out a Phase I archaeological survey of a 30-acre study area (Figure 4), an initial step towards fulfillment of a historic resources management plan for the Belvedere development tract in negotiation with the Albemarle County Planning Department.

This Phase I survey entailed systematic shovel testing at 40-ft intervals across the 30-acre study area as well as systematic metal detector survey where feasible.  Previously recorded and newly identified sites were subjected to shovel testing at 20-ft intervals across their entire areas. Although no clear evidence of a cemetery in or near Site 44AB374 was discovered during fieldwork, informant interviews and analysis of historic aerial photographs identified two potential locations for further field testing.  The 113 shovel tests excavated across Site 44AB374 during the Phase I survey yielded more than 470 artifacts, most dating broadly to the 19th and/or 20th centuries. Because of their potential association with the earliest stages of free African-American ownership and occupation of the property and the extreme rarity of such sites, both 44AB374 and neighboring 44AB518 were recommended for Phase II testing and significance evaluation. Following this testing,  machine-assisted clearing of surface soils revealed evidence of at least 53 systematically-spaced grave shafts within a ca. 50-ft x 60-ft area located in the eastern part of Site 44AB374 (Thompson 2006a).

In 2006, Rivanna Archaeology conducted Phase II testing of the residential component of Site 44AB374 (Thompson 2006b; Figure 5). The results of Phase II testing at both 44AB374 and 44AB518 (the only Phase I sites yielding late 18th-early 19th century artifacts) lead to the consolidation of 44AB374, 44AB518 and the cemetery within a single, multi-component site containing at least three house sites, likely associated with different generations of Bowles, and the cemetery.  Occupation of this large, multi-component site (known under a single site number 44AB374) stretched from the late-18th century through the late-20th century, although the site passed out of the Bowles family in the early 20th.

Phase II testing relied upon the manual excavation of 2.5 ft x 2.5 ft units spaced at 20-ft intervals across the areas of both sites.  Phase II testing relied upon the manual excavation of 2.5 ft x 2.5 ft units spaced at 20-ft intervals across the areas of both sites. The Bowles cemetery was discovered during the initial stage of Phase II fieldwork. At 44AB374, Phase II testing also entailed the manual clearing of dense vegetation from around the cabin’s chimney base and of thin surface soils covering the building’s extant stone underpinning. Two larger, opportunistically placed test units were also excavated against the western (outside) base of the chimney and spanning the foundations of the cabin’s southeastern corner in an effort to recover material potentially indicative of a construction date.

In 2007, Rivanna Archaeology conducted Phase III testing of the potential earliest residential component of the site. Following the clearing of this area, the site grid used during Phase II testing was reestablished and a series of 22 systematically spaced, 5 ft x 5 ft excavation units were laid out at 20-ft intervals. An additional 18 opportunistically placed 5 ft x 5 ft units and one 2.5 ft x 7.5 ft unit were also excavated. To more conclusively define the northern extent of the earliest occupation and to evaluate its spatial relationship to the ca. 1830-1965 residential locus north of the cemetery, fifteen 2.5 ft x 2.5 ft units placed at 20-ft intervals were excavated to the north and northeast. Surface soils were mechanically removed under archaeological supervision by an experienced operator using a mini-excavator with a 2-ft-wide smooth bucket on a pivoting arm. Following mechanical stripping, the exposed clay subsoil was manually cleaned with shovel and trowel and carefully examined for the presence of subsurface cultural features.

Note: Only the artifacts and contexts excavated by Rivanna Archaeological Services are available on daacs.org.

Links to Rivanna Archaeological Services final reports: Phase I Report; Phase II Report; Phase III Report; Bowles Cemetery Report.

Research and analysis

Rivanna Archaeological Services identified three distinct residential components at Bowles’ Lot.  Component 1 consisted of a clearly defined concentration of late-18th and early-19th century material culture surrounding a large cairn of fieldstones (Figure 6). The presence of mid- to later-19th-century artifacts from within the Component 1 artifact concentration at 44AB0518 suggested that occupation of this location probably continued for some time after a second residential locus was established approximately 180 ft upslope at or near the site of the now demolished one-room cabin within 44AB374. The second site component was associated with the cabin foundation and dates between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries.

The third component recorded at 44AB374 during Phase II testing consisted of a concentration of later-19th- and 20th-century artifacts in the northernmost portion of the site that appeared to be either sheet midden, intentional dumping, or an outbuilding or activity area associated with the later domestic occupation to the north. Documentary research strongly suggests that the three occupational loci defined within Site 44AB374 may be broadly indicative of generational changes in the ownership and occupation of the property.

Phase III testing confirmed the impression gained from early 20th-century aerial photography that the Component 1 area had been plowed subsequent to its occupation. In-filled erosional gullies cutting into clay subsoil and dating to either the period of occupation or subsequent plowing were also documented within Component 1. Despite an abundance of late-18th to early-19th century material culture recovered from overlying plow zone soils, excavation identified very few architectural or other subsurface features clearly associated with the earliest occupation of the site. One subfloor storage pit (Feature 003) was identified and is the primary physical indication of the house that once stood within Component 1 (Figure 7). Plowing, which appears to have begun across Component 1 perhaps as early as the 1870s likely completely removed all evidence of the relatively surficial construction of the Component 1 house. The orientation of Feature 003 fairly closely corresponds to the orientations of other, mostly later architectural and landscape features documented across the larger site.

The much smaller rectangular pit feature (Feature 017) located just east of the concrete drive near the northeastern limits of this artifact concentration possibly marks the location of another Component 1 structure, perhaps an outbuilding or shed, that served to define the eastern and northern sides of this yard area.

Overall, Phase III data along with the results of earlier phases of fieldwork carried out over the larger site and associated documentary research provide an important contribution to the understanding of a small, often overlooked segment of the 18th and early 19th century population of Virginia. Wholly surrounded by a locally-prominent plantation, Dunlora, the boundaries of the Bowles’ Lot site define not only the physical space, but also symbolically the conceptual place occupied by free persons of color in the slave-owning South.