“The field of material culture flourishes because it enables academic historians and historians at museums and historic sites to expand our knowledge about people of all social levels. Artifacts from archaeological excavations provide evidence of tools that poor men and women used each day as they labored to feed their families. Pieces of broken dishes, kitchen utensils, seeds, and bones yield clues about the food that people ate and the way in which they ate their meals. Stains in the soil indicate the small size of the wooden structures that were home to men, women, and children at the bottom of the social ladder. Recovered artifacts also shed light on the lives of slaves who labored for masters throughout Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies. Slaves used a combination of items brought from Africa and objects they acquired, such as clothing and food, to create a material culture that preserved elements of their African backgrounds…”

Richter, Julie. "Material Culture and Daily Life" Daily Life Online. Greenwood Publishing Group. <http://dailylife.greenwood.com/dle.aspx?k=3&x=GR3233&bc=DBDL1311&p=GR3233-876>.