Personal Items

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Mirror glass

Metal purse top

Pocket knife

Harmonica parts

Eyeglass lens

Doll heads

Redware pipe

Pens and pencils

Think about the items you own that are not related to housing, feeding, or clothing yourself. What might those be? How about your eye glasses, the keys to your car, a favorite toy or game, your favorite pen, a piece of jewelry, a watch, a pocket knife, your purse, and of course your money? Archaeologists call all of these kinds of objects personal artifacts. Personal objects are a window into the more intimate aspects of people's lives. Jewelry can express people's individual tastes and desires. Toys and musical instruments can give researchers a glimpse into moments of leisure time when people relaxed and enjoyed family. Archaeologists recovered 145 personal artifacts including beads, rings, combs, pieces of mirror, a pocket watch back, a purse handle, parts of an umbrella, harmonica fragments, a pen nib, and the lens from a pair of glasses.

Education at Mitchelville

“It is a fine place for teaching and other missionary efforts. A colored man named Lymas Anders has succeeded in raising a church and school-house in one…if an addition of twentry feet square could be made at the end or side for the accommodation of teachers, it would be an excellent position for a school…"
A. F. Pillsbury, The Freedmen's Journal 1864

Some of the most striking personal items found at Mitchelville are ink bottles, slate tablet and pencil fragments, and a pen nib. These objects remind us of the importance the people of Mitchelville placed on learning. Soon after the Union Army captured Hilton Head, missionaries from Northern states began to arrive on the island to set up schools. Even before missionaries arrived, former slaves who knew how to read began teaching others. Mitchelville was the first community in South Carolina to make school attendance compulsory for all children.

Excavation Finds

Here are some of the clothing-related artifacts archaeologists found at two houses during the 2013 excavations at 38BU2301.