Family names analyzed in the paper, such as the Terhunes, Zabriskies, and Hoppers, maintained close intragroup business and family connections. One theory proposed by Williams suggests that enslaved individuals’ labor contributed to the families’ social and economic position by providing seasonal or temporary forced labor when community members required it. The white families’ mutual familiarity with the enslaved persons produced a surveillance network whose power model has similarities to the panopticon carceral system devised by Jeremy Bentham. The affective response to this power structure is possibly one factor limiting where emancipated African Americans established their homes.

Will Wiliams at the Dunkerhook site

The timing of the construction of two Jersey Dutch buildings along Dunkerhook Road – – and the building of a new Dutch community church in Paramus coincides with a temporary influx of enslaved labor exploited by the Zabriskie family, which is recorded in church documents. The article further speculates that the enslaved were not unskilled, and there is the possibility that some labor was used in community building projects. This perspective provides an alternate view of how enslaved persons were perceived and their roles in the early days of the American republic.

The article was published in the peer-reviewed journal, New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal and can be downloaded .

Williams is currently an Archaeology Ph.D. student (2029) at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Congratulations to Christopher Snyder, an anthropology major in the Class of 2017. The Paterson Alliance gave him an  at a luncheon on May 11, 2017. Snyder was recognized for his outstanding contributions during a  internship that he completed in the summer of 2016.

During his internship, Synder worked closely with ¾«Æ·³ÉÈ˸£ÀûÔÚÏß alumna Claudia Urdanivia and the experience was supported by a Bigel Grant. At City Green, Snyder acted as a docent and conducted research on best practices for establishing community gardens. This summer, he will put that research into practice working with community partners in Orange to build a new community garden along with a fellow anthropology student, Warren Bristol.

This fall, Snyder will return to ¾«Æ·³ÉÈ˸£ÀûÔÚÏß to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health.

More on:
Department of Anthropology
Grants from the Antoinette C. Bigel Endowment Fund

For the 2016 graduate, the internship was a natural extension of her work as an anthropology major and archaeology minor. She was able to work with artifacts from St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia dating from the Spanish Mission period (roughly 1600 to 1700). Her main tasks were digitizing parts of the collection and rehousing artifacts.

Taking Advantage: Faculty-student research opportunities

Alemy’s studies at ¾«Æ·³ÉÈ˸£ÀûÔÚÏß and her collaboration with faculty prepared her well for the internship. Arriving as a transfer student from Sussex County Community College, Alemy took full advantage of the research institution.

She worked in the Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies lab and honed technical skills working with . She served a research assistant conducting interviews to assist Prof. Julian Brash with his New York City High Line research, funded by the National Science Foundation.

She also received a Bigel grant and helped with an . This work included physical excavation as well as the processing and analysis of recovered artifacts.

Later, Alemy presented findings from the excavation in digital form by working on the  with Matthews and another student.

In addition to the American Museum of Natural History internship, Alemy completed an internship working in the repository of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Why study anthropology?

“I’ve always been interested in studying people so I took an Anthropology class at Sussex County Community College and was hooked!”

“So what are you going to do with that?” is the reaction she says that she gets from many people when she tells them of her major. And Alemy says she has trouble answering, but that’s because she feels there are so many opportunities and she’s only just started on her career path.

Alemy is also a model of determination. When she first applied to the American Museum of Natural History program, she was not accepted. Instead of moving on, she pursued more outside experience to beef her resume up. On her second attempt she was accepted. “Don’t give up” is the moral of the story, she says.

Next, Alemy is pursuing work in cultural resource management. She’s also exploring different techniques in digital archaeology that will be useful in her career. She plans to pursue a certification in geographic information systems.

Learn more:
Anthropology at ¾«Æ·³ÉÈ˸£ÀûÔÚÏß

Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies
Anthropology Research

Her Master’s thesis is entitled, “A Comparative Study of African American Identity Creation in Antebellum New Jersey,” in which she analyzed the structuralized racism and community progression of the 19th-century African American community of Fair Haven, N.J.

Now at 24 years old, she is working as a field and lab technician for Hunter Research, Inc., a historical consulting company that is based in Trenton, New Jersey.