Historical Archaeology

The Betsey Prince collection consists of over 8,000 artifacts recovered from the late 18th to early 19th century household of Prince Jessup and his wife Betsey in Brookhaven Long Island. Jessup was among several free African Americans who owned houses in the area during the first two decades of the 19th century. Betsey Prince remained in the house following her husband’s death in the 1810s until the 1830s. The collection includes a wide variety of household artifacts dating from 1800 to the 1830s. The Betsey Prince collection represents a rare assemblage of material culture from a free African American household in New York State.