Montgomery College Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology Tara Tetrault was given quite the assignment. Go reconstruct the home of a Sugarland family from the late 1870’s. There are no pictures of the home that once belonged to Basil and Nancy Dorsey.
Thanks to the support of multiple agencies, and the efforts of Tara her team in the Dorsey Archaeology Project are producing amazing results. From the four cornerstones that lay the bedrock of this excavating project, and the help of an interview from a neighbor in 1970, piece by piece, room by room Tara is piecing back together parts of history that were tragically slipping away.
At our Thursday, Feb. 10 Basil Dorsey Site Archaeology presentation, Tara appeared together with Sugarland Ethno-History Project Director, Suzanne Johnson. They provided us with an overview and updates on the ongoing efforts to keep the memory of this once thriving historic black community alive. A part of their presentation was a video narrated by 5th generation Sugarland descendent Gwen Reese showing some of the over 1,000 artifacts she collected for 20 years. We hope you enjoy revisiting this presentation on our Facebook and Youtube channels.