International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 9, No. 4, December 2005 ( C  2005) DOI: 10.1007/s10761-005-9302-5 The Archaeology of Slavery at the Van Cortlandt Plantation in the Bronx, New York H. Arthur Bankoff 1 and Frederick A. Winter 2 Excavations at the Van Cortlandt Mansion, the central structure of an eighteenth- century plantation located in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York, highlight the difficulty of using archaeological evidence to document the story of enslavement in early America. While the documents indicate the extent of the Van Cortlandts’ involvement in the slave trade and in the reliance on enslaved labor to build and run their enterprise, the excavations carried out over several years have not yielded concomitant evidence. KEY WORDS: plantations; slavery; documentary history; New York. INTRODUCTION On the second of October, 1749, Frederick Van Cortlandt was settling his estate. Obviously thinking of the future, he signed his will. In that document, he refers to his holdings in what is now Van Cortlandt Park in the borough of the Bronx in New York City as a “plantation” and he notes that the “large stone dwelling house” on the plantation is “about” finished (Fig. 1). When the construction of Frederick’s “large stone dwelling house” com- menced in the mid-eigthteenth century, its size and character set it apart from other structures in the vicinity. The mansion was sited so as to dominate the surround- ings, drawing all eyes towards it, impressing the locals, and evincing appreciative (and perhaps envious) glances from the Van Cortlandts’ visiting relatives and social peers. It was the nerve center of a bustling and profitable agribusiness, and an important node in a social and kinship network that extended from the manor 1 Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York 11210; e-mail: ABankoff@brooklyn.cuny.edu. 2 2828 North Van Buren Street, Arlington, Virginia 2221; e-mail: fredwint@aol.com. 291 1092-7697/05/1200-0291/0 C  2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.