Forgotten Souls of the Dawn Settlement: A Multicomponent Geophysical Survey of Unmarked Graves at the British American Institute Cemetery

The Dawn Settlement near Dresden in southwestern Ontario was a mid-19th-century community of escaped slaves, or “freedom seekers,” from the United States. In this study, a multicomponent geophysical survey (ground-penetrating radar, magnetic gradiometry, and electrical resistivity) was conducted on...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Historical archaeology 2020-09, Vol.54 (3), p.624-646
Main Authors: Wadsworth, William T. D., Bank, Carl-Georg, Patton, Katherine, Doroszenko, Dena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Archaeology
Burials
Cemeteries
Cultural heritage
Freedoms
Graves
Original Article
Polls & surveys
Social Sciences
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Dawn Settlement near Dresden in southwestern Ontario was a mid-19th-century community of escaped slaves, or “freedom seekers,” from the United States. In this study, a multicomponent geophysical survey (ground-penetrating radar, magnetic gradiometry, and electrical resistivity) was conducted on the British American Institute Cemetery, one of the two cemeteries directly associated with the settlement, to document the location of freedom-seeker graves whose markers had been damaged, knocked over, or removed during the 1960s due to the neglect and forgotten history of these burials. All the techniques provided useful information contributing to site interpretations, although GPR was found to be the most useful in identifying possible graves. We discuss the significance of incorporating archaeogeophysics techniques into heritage-management strategies and our responsibility to protect historical black cemeteries. Our survey also represents one of the first cemetery investigations related to the Underground Railroad in Canada.
ISSN:0440-9213
2328-1103
DOI:10.1007/s41636-020-00251-7