The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites the public’s input on an NEH-funded study of three sites in Virginia where former slave quarters are thought to have stood.
Barbara Heath, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is conducting the study, which will identify and excavate the Wingos site on the historic Poplar Forest property in Bedford County and Indian Camp in Powhatan County.
Excavation has been completed at North Hill, a nearby site at the Poplar Forest National Historic Landmark, which is on the National Register for Historic Properties.
The study is intended to characterize and compare the households of the 18th-century slave community that existed at the three sites.
The NEH and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources have found that the study may have an adverse effect on the historic properties, and the university has proposed measures to mitigate or minimize the adverse effects.
The public may submit comments or questions to the NEH at gencounsel@neh.gov by Monday, April 18.
For the full text of the public disclosure, click here (pdf).