Posted on 07/12/2004 3:34:19 PM PDT by blam
Remains of Colonial teen pose a 'history mystery'
Basement burial find near Annapolis may give new New World clues
Originally published July 12, 2004
Archaeologists digging in one of their favorite kinds of pits -- a trash cellar -- figured its mix of coins, pottery shards and pipestems would tell them about one of the earliest European settlements along the Chesapeake Bay.
But a unique and mysterious discovery along a cellar wall promises to be the most telling of all, offering insights into the difficulty of forging a new life in the New World settlement of Providence in the 1600s.
"We did not expect to find this dead guy," said Anne Arundel County archaeologist Al Luckenbach.
Beneath a few feet of rubbish, along a basement wall of a house from the 1660s near modern-day Annapolis, was a human skeleton stuffed into a small grave. This is the region's first discovery of an apparent 17th-century basement burial, experts say.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
I have a lot of respect for this guy. It was his voice and the weight and prestige of the Smithsonian Institute that kept the Indians from Re-burying the bones of Kennewick Man before they could be studied.
This poor kid was worked to death.
My son played the part of Oliver in his HS play of the same title.
All the more reason why people should be well pleased about living in ths country today..
Fascinating story. Poor kid had a hard life.
It's amazing any indentured servants survived. What rough lives they led.
That's a lot of dental decay.
For those who came here in the early 1600's and after, life was indeed hard. Not just on indentured servants. The majority of the settlers died in their first year here. This boy whoever he was, had TB he was not going to live! Everybody had a hard life at that time, and how can that time be equated to just indentured servants that had a hard time and were mistreated.
Often there were no options for these souls, indentured or not! He was most certainly an orhan for whom no one cared. He needed medicine that was not available. He undoubtedly, like many of his contemporaries, had a poor diet. He never would have gotten any taller. He was one of lifes tragedies but in history there are many, as now in South Africa. Where their lives are a living hell. How many years after this boys sad life?
I am the descendant of an indentured servant (read SLAVE) sent to the "new world" (Barbados) as a prisoner after participating in one of the Scottish "jacobite" rebellions against English tyranny.
he somehow (mysteriously) got away from Barbados and worked his way up to the mid-Atlintic colonies. He became a surveyor and surveyed what is now Maryland, West Virginia and many other areas. He bacame the right hand to Lord Baltimore and was granted much land of his own (including all of what is now Washington, D.C.).
The life of an indentured servant (or slave) was harsh, but not all of them died in this manner. There are plenty of stories like my ancestors. There are plenty of stories of freed slaves (living well in the South, of all places) that put the lie to the propoganda being pushed by the intelligentsia. Life was harsh and hard for "free men" at the time as well, let alone their wives and children. Yet they survived, thrived and built a new nation, based on new ideas of liberty that the world had NEVER seen before.
This poor child was grist for that mill. His pain did not go in vain, however small his contribution to the conciousness that led to the founding of our nation. Who knows what minds were affected by his tragedy? Who knows but God? Honor him, do not mourn him. He has gone to a better place.
We all die. It only matters how we act between now and then.
I would think they ALL had a hard life in the 1600's.
Having just had a root canal for a busted tooth, I really feel that kids dental pain.
Poor kid.
Prayers.
Bet he'd laugh himself to death if he heard me complain about my back.
My Daddy claims we are one of the first families of Georgia. Our ancestor came across on the prison ship.
If only Kerry had been President back then, none of this would have happened.
There's some evidence that we may have too. George Oglethorpe's(sp) mission to settle Georgia, I think.
I think he was only kidding but I really do think "Butler" is an old Georgia name and not just because of Rhett.
If you can make the argument that he was an indentured servant, you can tell that he had a hard life, what kind of diet he had, and that he may be representative of certain people of that time," Luckenbach said.
If, but that might not fit the reality of the event.
Convienient but not proven.
Wow. And I can't even get my teenager to clean her own room.
Thanks for pointing that out.
If I remember correctly, one of the reasons the 'Native Americans' wanted to bury the K. man in such a hurry was that they were afraid the forensic investigators would discover what the 'Native Americans' feared they would discover: that the K. man was of Asian heritage, thus disproving that the 'Native Americans' were, in fact, native, and providing greater evidence that 'Native Americans' would be better termed 'Previous Settlers.'
But I'm writing this based upon a couple of articles I read quite a while ago.
If you're really, really desperate to get her to clean up her room, you might try the expedient to which I have sometimes been driven. Yes, it's cruel--nay, abusive!--and it's important not to let the Child Protective Services authorities hear you have resorted to this. Still, it works, if you have the strength to withstand her screams of agony until she breaks:
Take away her modem cable.
Maybe it was the first known evidence of an American youth moving back into his parent's basement after college. Corn diet=Doritos.
And: They were lving in the most modern" of times, in those days.
All hunger and disease and suffering, in EVERY century, are the result of Oppression. Didn't you go to government schools and learn any history?
Kennewick Man is related to the ancient Ainu/Joman Caucasoid people of Japan. There are many KM type skeletons all over the Americas. 9,400 year old Spirit Cave Man is the oldest mummy ever found in the Americas and looks similar to KM. The oldest Jomon skeleton found in Japan is 13,000 year old.
Uh huh, William Neale, AKA Hannibal Lecter The First.
It's more than likely that the kid died at a time of year when grave digging was impossible. And quite possible the remaining household died or moved before a proper burial could be performed. Its also possible that the family COULD have taken the kid in out of pity (maybe an orphan). And that he was already in poor health and not a victim of domestic torture.
I agree with your "not proven" statement and of course, people love a good story. It reminds me of a similar discovery showcased in a national magazine where the archeologists automatically assumed the skeleton of a female with a wide hip span was "probably a prostitute"!(just some BS tossed out for drama)
I was just going to post this and ping you -- and lookee what the search engine turned up! Interesting story.
Yup. Happens to me all the time.
Ewww!
ROTFLOL!
Oh, the cruelty.
I can recall a couple of times being doused by my dad with cold water when I refused to get up in the morning. I have now described "The Method" in chilling detail to my six year old. Haven't had to use it; the mere word is enough ....
Hello, cousin. My earliest ancestor in the America's arrived from Scotland in 1653 as an indentured servant in Virginia. Nothing is known of the circumstances of his coming, however.
351 years in the New World, and none of us has ever made any money. I think I'm owed reparations or something.
Might we, literally be Cousins? Here's one of the better histories of my ancestor, Ninian Beall
http://www.pastracks.com/beall/beall.htm
The only criticism is that the author didn't do a lot of checking for typos, such as setting dates in the 1950s instead of 1650s. She even has him marrying his second wife at the age of between 3 and 8, and he had a child from his first marriage! We Scots are manly men, but come on!
He improved his lot very rapidly after his freedom. At one point he owned all of the area that is now Washington DC and he was instrumental in the founding of the city of Georgetown. After President Kennedy was killed Mrs Kennedy and the children moved from the White House into his historic town house until they left Washington.
Some family stories are that the land for Washington was siezed illegally. We've always maintained that the government owed us for this land (plus interest) and a relative from the branch of the family that stayed in Maryland, when he was elected to Congress in the 70s, actually looked into this. The word that got around the family was that, yes, we were owed billions of dollars in compensation. However, whatever that compensation turned out to be, the taxes on it would always be one dollar more. We never formally pursued our claim.
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"We did not expect to find this dead guy," said Anne Arundel County archaeologist Al Luckenbach.I love the vernacular.
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Oglethorpe, you spelled correctly. James Edward, you spelled incorrectly. Usually called "General" today, in 1733, when Georgia was settled, he held a reserve commission as a Colonel. Interestingly, though he served as Governor/Commander of the new colony, he was not authorized by either the Crown or the Trustees to hold any official position. He paid his own way over and just started giving orders. Interesting character. Unabashed Jabobite who nonetheless plotted intrigues with the Honoverians.
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