Outreach

Regional Perspectives on the Archaeology of Moonshining: Insights from the FMNF Still Sites Project

Blue Ridge Archaeology Guild Lecture Series | March 8th, 2023 @ 7:30 EST

I will be presenting on my dissertation research concerning the FMNF Still Sites Project for the monthly meeting of the Blue Ridge Archaeology Guild (BRAG) in Dahlonega, GA. The talk will discuss the importance of studying moonshine, how we identify it in the archaeological record, and provide an overview on the recent findings from the FMNF Still Sites Project (including work from our January 2023 field school!).

For more information on BRAG, future lectures, and to become a member, check out their website and their Facebook page.

Society for American Conference Paper (remote)

88th Annual SAA Meeting, Portland OR | March 31st, 2023 @ 9:30 am PST

This paper is presented in the three-part session entitled, “Using Space, Making Place: Landscape Archaeologies,” chaired by Justine Shaw.

Abstract | Following the end of the Civil War, plantation landscapes in the South Carolina Lowcountry underwent dramatic changes that broke up massive, generational landholdings and upended centuries of exploitative economic systems. Moonshining provided a means for some former plantation owners to maintain possession of core properties, while providing a narrative of hardscrabble resilience that effaced the legacy of racial exploitation of their immediate pasts. Vacated plantation landscapes were likewise reimagined as historically vacant spaces, which aided in the creation of material and symbolic distance from racially charged pasts—a pattern that is broadly evident in revisionist Southern histories. This paper will consider the political economy of privilege that plantation owners-turned-moonshiners had while navigating these clandestine pursuits. Archival, spatial, and archaeological evidence will be used to explore the role of moonshining as means of mediating the rapidly changing Lowcountry landscape from a plantation economy to industrial timbering and railroad construction in the twentieth century.

Drowning in the Drink: Climate Change and the Threat to Coastal Moonshine Still Sites

North American Heritage at Risk (NAHAR) | June 9th, 2023 @ 9 am EST (Zoom)

Join me Friday morning as we talk about the adverse impacts of climate threats to moonshine still sites in the South Carolina Lowcountry. We’ll explore why archaeological sites associated with moonshining are at even greater risk for harm than other coastal cultural resources and what work has been undertaken by the FMNF Still Sites Project to help mitigate these threats. For a preview on the content we’ll be covering in the talk (and to see other great content from the Heritage at Risk Committee folks!), check out my recent blogpost on the SHA website here.

Zoom link to join (no registration required): https://flaglercollege.zoom.us/j/88304354870<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__flaglercollege.zoom.us_j_88304354870&d=DwMFaQ&c=IYmLxukO8P_T_7wP7d_dOg&r=QrCHF3J8cQHRIAmNFmwjkHC6EHDxdy264-OnDk_PwlY&m=MJatcI5Qcbp9Q1BJIkxC3RpDsRRko7AKzIqDb4VgTgM5ArVRN1MW8AE0u1Httgfx&s=C0e39zLyxEigQrCBj3eInBWW62lzZLc_sQ_j2QF2FMo&e=>