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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 88
expected socioeconomic structure evident. At any rate, these were poor black farmers in a rural setting enduring many hardships and encountering many obstacles. (Shogren et al. 1989:50)
Information about the cemetery excavation on the Redstone Arsenal website suggests that the burials may have been moved from elsewhere. In reading the OAR report, that does not appear to have been asserted. The remains photographed appear as one would expect in an undisturbed burial, i.e., the faunal remains were not “mixed around” as they might be if they had been excavated, moved, and reinterred.
THE HISTORY OF LAND OWNERSHIP
Perroni's findings (Shogren et al. 1989) suggest that during the history of the land, few of the owners actually lived on it; however, it was assumed that the property was under cultivation and renters or tenants lived and worked on the land. Perroni found that (1) from 1850 to 1900 the majority of the people living in southwestern Madison County were Black, (2) the land in this part of the county was purchased by slaveholders, and (3) they bought large tracts of land. The ethnographic interviews and records research conducted by the researcher (Curry) concur with the findings of Perroni.
Jody C. Perroni's research on the history of the land, of which Parcel A-17 was a part, was comprehensive. The document containing it is entitled Elko Switch Cemetery: An Archaeological Perspective, Alabama State Museum of Natural History, Division of Archaeology Report of Investigations 58 (Shogren, Turner and Perroni 1989). Perroni's research begins with the early land grants for the area in 1808.
Early grants in Section 7, Township 4, Range 1 West were purchased by: David Maxwell, northeast quarter section, September 19, 1808; William Thompson, northwest and southwest quarter sections, September 8, 1809; and William Gray, southeast quarter section, August 26, 1808 (U.S. Government Tract Book, Madison County 1835:39).
William Thompson, and his wife, Henrietta owned the northwest and southwest quarters of Section 7, Township 4 South, Range 1 West for eleven years, until they sold both quarters to James Manning, Sr. in 1820 for $8000 (Deed Record F:402). It is not known whether the Thompsons resided on this property during their ownership. It is likely that they did not. William Thompson purchased additional property north of the project area during the early land sales, and may have resided there (Cowart n.d.:76).
James Manning acquired approximately 2200 acres near the project area [Elko Switch Cemetery] between 1809 and 1836. He owned portions of Sections 7, 8, 17, and 18 in Township 4 South, Range 1 West and parts of
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