Archaeological Investigations of an Early American Farmstead: The Wiley Smith Site (31MG2098)

While farmsteads are relatively abundant in the historic and archaeological record , there are many issues with the current practices used to identify , evaluate , record , and study them. However , farmsteads represent a way of life that was once customary to much of the American population , and therefore deserve adequate archaeological attention. This thesis studied a late colonial/early federal period farmstead located in the Uwharrie National Forest in Montgomery County , North Carolina , that was once owned by the sheriff of Montgomery County , Wiley Smith. This project utilized artifact analyses , historical documentation , and comparative analyses to test whether or not this farmstead operated as a truly subsistence-based unit , or whether the Smith household was instead a part of the ever-growing consumerist population of the early nineteenth century. High frequencies of decorated , mass-produced historic ceramics serve as indication that the Smith household had moved well-beyond a colloquial , subsistence lifestyle and was actively participating in the emerging consumerist and commercialist American that had begun to dominate American society. Finally , a comparative analysis of multiple historical homesteads/farmsteads within the Uwharrie National Forest identify five patterned traits. These traits relate to the landscape , geography and topography , and artifacts from farmsteads in this region , and provide the groundwork for additional , broader comparative research to establish a North Carolina Piedmont farmstead pattern