Utopia Quarter (44JC32)
Site History
The Utopia Quarter site (44JC32) is an 18th- century quarter for enslaved laborers associated with the Bray and Burwell family ownerships of the property. The site is located about eight miles southeast of Williamsburg, on a high bluff overlooking the James River. The site contained three groups of buildings, with a twenty-to-thirty-year occupation span, with the entire site spanning a period from the turn of the 18th century to about 1775. Each component seemed to correspond with changes in plantation ownership. For each of the three periods, the buildings were part of the plantation's outlying quarters located adjacent to agricultural fields.
Archaeological Investigations
The site was excavated in the mid-1990s by the James River Institute for Archaeology, Inc., under the direction of Garrett Fesler.
Utopia Quarter Period II (c. 1700-1730) – During the initial quarter period, the property was owned by James Bray. Three timber framed earthfast dwellings and a small service building were revealed by archaeology at the site. The buildings were arranged in a U-shape around a central courtyard where many of the daily activities like cooking, socializing and crafting took place. A small, fenced enclosure ran between two of the buildings and may have enclosed a garden or poultry pen. Nineteen subfloor pits had been cut into the floors of two of the three dwellings.
Utopia Quarter Period III (c. 1730-1750) – After the death of James Bray in 1725, the property passed into the hands of his grandson James Bray III. He owned the land and the enslaved people associated with it until his death in 1744. Archaeological investigations revealed two earthfast houses and a small, square service building, constructed about 200 feet north of the Period II quarter. A ditched enclosure, possibly serving as a livestock pen, extended from the south end of one of the dwellings, and several large trash middens were associated with each house. One house contained three subfloor pits and the other dwelling contained 18 subfloor pits.
Utopia Quarter Period IV (c. 1750-1775) – The widow of James Bray III married Lewis Burwell IV. Burwell consolidated tracts of land along the James River east of Williamsburg into a 2,800-acre estate known as Kingsmill Plantation. The property remained in Burwell’s ownership for the next three decades. The final quarter at 44JC32 was built 600 feet north of the Period III structures. Excavation revealed the presence of three ground sill or pier supported structures at the site during the third quarter of the 18th century. While the exact dimensions of these buildings were not able to be determined, estimated dimensions could be discerned from the placement of subfloor pits. In total, the three dwellings contained 24 subfloor pits. The site also had several clay extraction pits (probably for daub for chimneys and caulking), as well as a number of trash pits.
References
1998 Back to Utopia: An Interim Report on Renewed Archaeological Excavations at the Utopia Quarter, Field Seasons 1993-1996. Manuscript on file, James River Institute for Archaeology, Williamsburg, Virginia.
2004 From Houses to Homes: An Archaeological Case Study of Household Formation at the Utopia Slave Quarter, ca. 1675-1775. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
