Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600-1850

6. The Archaeology of Food in Colonial Pennsylvania: Historical Zooarchaeological Exploration of Foodways on the Stenton Plantation

6 The Archaeology of food in Colonial Pennsylvania: Historical Zooarchaeological Exploration of foodways on the stenton Plantation Teagan Schweitzer Introduction This chapter relies on zooarchaeological and documentary research to investigate the foodways of the households living on the stenton plantation, located five miles outside of Philadelphia, in the mid-eighteenth century. Discussions of food center around the meat, fowl, fish, shellfish, and even reptiles that made up the food landscape for the logan families who lived at stenton during this period. information derived from the analysis of animal bones discarded in a cistern on the property provides the zooarchaeological data, and several documentary sources from this period relating to the logans provides historical data. importantly these two types of sources about past foodways offer slightly differing pictures of the food landscape of the farmstead and thus, when combined, facilitate a more nuanced and well-rounded view of foodways at stenton. Stenton: The House and Plantation stenton is the name of the plantation originally owned by James logan, secretary to William Penn and one of the wealthiest and most influential individuals in early Philadelphia. located to the north of the colonial city, the Georgian-style home once stood on approximately 500 acres of land. Today the house operates as a museum in which the eighteenth century is evocatively interpreted to visitors (figure 6.1). As was the case with many wealthy gentlemen in the eighteenth century, James logan owned both a city and a country home. stenton served as a place of respite from the hubbub of city life. it was also an important place of escape, especially during the sweltering summer months in Philadelphia and particularly towards the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when yellow fever epidemics occurred almost annually and killed up to as much as 10 percent of the population. stenton was named after James logan’s father Patrick’s birthplace in scotland : “i have proposed to call ye place stenton after the Village in E. lothian where our father was born . . .” (logan 1730). Construction of the house at stenton began in 1728, and the logans took up residence there in november 1730 (shepherd 152 Archaeology of food in Colonial Pennsylvania 1968:16). The finished abode was indeed worthy of logan’s lofty status within the colony with descriptions such as “the first monumental colonial country house in Pennsylvania” (Engle 1982) and “one of the first large country estates created by wealthy Philadelphians intent on living the life of the landed English gentry” (Cotter et al. 1992:332). At first, stenton was occupied mainly as a summer residence, but it did eventually become the logans’ permanent residence. in 1732 James began signing his letters “James logan of stenton” (logan 1899:28–9). Once the family was living permanently on the plantation, John steers was hired as a plantation manager, and a series of tenant farmers worked on the land (Engle 1982). There were also roughly ten indentured or hired servants and enslaved Africans working at stenton at any given time (Tolles 1957:188). As the transition to the countryside occurred, state business, of necessity, took place in the house as well. if logan was not in the city to take care of his affairs, they would have to travel to his doorsteps at stenton (logan 1899:28–9). Thus the house had a nearly continual stream of social and political visitors throughout the time that the logans were in residence. As James approached the end of his life, the running of the plantation was passed down to his eldest son, William, who officially took up this responsibility upon the death of his father in 1751. The house remained in the logan family until figure 6.1. south-facing façade of the stenton main house. Photograph by Teagan schweitzer. Teagan schweitzer 153 the early twentieth century. in 1899, The national society of Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, through a lease with the logan family, agreed to manage the property. This group continues to play an essential role in the preservation of the property to this day. James and William Logan James logan, a Quaker, was born in lurgan, County Armagh, ireland on October 20, 1674. At the age of 23, he decided to pursue a career as a merchant in london; it was at this time that he made the acquaintance of William Penn, who eventually hired James as...