Sylvester Manor spawned two books following a seven-year archaeological dig there, conducted under the direction of Stephen Mrozowski, director of the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts.
In addition to “The Manor” by Mac Griswold, reviewed here, Katherine Howlett Hayes’s “Slavery Before Race: Europeans, Africans, and Indians at Long Island’s Sylvester Manor Plantation, 1651-1884” was published in April by New York University Press. Ms. Hayes, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, approaches the story as someone who took part in the dig, using the artifacts discovered as well as archival material in what is called historical archaeology to assess the relationship of the Sylvester family with their slaves, and Native Americans.
Artifacts from the dig were exhibited at N.Y.U. in the spring. Although the dig itself concluded in 2006, a technological exploration of what is estimated to be 200 gravesites at the manor was undertaken recently.
A clothbound copy of Ms. Hayes’s book is $30. It is also available as an e-book.