A Crinoline in the Attic: Ritual Concealment at a Historic Plantation in New Jersey.

The William Green Plantation near Trenton, New Jersey, was built circa 1720 and continuously occupied until the 1960s. The plantation served as a billet for Washington's Light Cavalry during the Revolutionary War. Archival research has demonstrated the presence of indentured servants and at least one enslaved person on the plantation during the early nineteenth century. Because the archaeological signature of marginalized groups is often difficult to distinguish, an investigation of the attic space was conducted in 2019. At least seven occurrences of intentionally concealed material including a cage crinoline, worn beneath a woman's skirt, were discovered under the attic floorboards. The concealed items fall in the mid-late nineteenth century time range. However, the items are not likely attributed to indentured or enslaved persons at the plantation. Instead, they resemble the long tradition of ritual concealment in historical homesteads usually associated with folk magic arriving with immigrants from England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]