Dying Impoverished: The Funerary Rites, Gravestones, and Cemeteries of the Poor

Abstract: Because most deaths in America are commemorated with physical memorials, gravestone and graveyard studies reveal information about a wide swath of social and economic classes, from the wealthiest to the poorest. This article reviews mortuary remains for the latter: paupers. Using sites in Virginia as case studies, I examine the material remnants of thousands of indigent burials to add a regional perspective to a national pattern of attitudes towards the poor and the management of their deaths. This analysis includes a sample of paupers’ gravestones from “potter’s fields” within public cemeteries and entire graveyards associated with rural poorhouses, urban almshouses, and historic institutions providing support for impoverished citizens. While there is not always a direct correlation between socio-economic status and funerary rituals and memorials, paupers usually receive minimal care and attention. The paucity of documentary and archaeological records on specific locations for burials of the poor mirrors their marginalization in life. As a result, it is difficult to locate the graves of paupers. This study uses one state, Virginia, as a case example for the variety of locations and memorials that house and demarcate the graves of impoverished citizens. For purposes of this article, “paupers” are defined as citizens receiving some form of economic assistance from state or federal entities; “potter’s fields” are burying grounds set aside for their mortuary remains; and “poor farms” or “poorhouses,” often referred to as “almshouses” in urban areas, are institutions supported by local or state government to house paupers.