In this innovative work, Julia King explores how historical narratives shape and often distort the archaeological and historical record. Focusing on Maryland’s beautiful Chesapeake Bay region, King explores St. Mary’s City, the colony’s first capital, Point Lookout, a Civil War prison camp for Confederate soldiers, and Maryland’s vanishing tobacco farms. She employs a multidiscipline approach that capitalizes on archaeological, historical, architectural, literary, and art history sources.
King is a historical archaeologist at St. Mary’s College who has conducted extensive field research around the bay, where she is well aware of the influence of old narratives on current research. Drawing on this body of work, she makes a compelling case for using the discipline of historical archaeology to challenge established narratives that often distort reality to paint a romantic image of the past.