The Politics of Rustication

This article explores George Washington’s Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, as a workshop. Contrary to the common perception that plantations functioned solely as agricultural centers, they were also hubs of skilled craft carried out primarily by enslaved people of African origin and descent. The article delves into the politics of material reuse by investigating the repurposing of Aquia sandstone. Quarried by enslaved individuals, the stone was then crushed into a powder by other enslaved workers and finally cast onto wet paint in a process called rustication. Asking how material recirculation intersected with the politics of unfreedom in the early United States highlights complex dynamics of waste, reclamation, and coercion. This study aligns with ecocritical scholarship, drawing attention to anti-Black racism and forced labor within the Plantationocene. It also contributes to the resurgence of research into enslaved makers, shedding light on their skills, resistance, and pursuit of freedom through control over tools and resources

Business · Political science · Politics · Reuse · Sociology · Waste management · Waste material · Engineering · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Law